Mackenzie Cooley is assistant professor of history and director of the Latin American Studies program at Hamilton College in New York.

“In Mackenzie Cooley’s erudite new history, The Perfection of Nature, the story of animal breeding provides the basis for a . . . reconsideration of human-animal relations in sixteenth-century Europe and America.”

• List of IllustrationsA Note on Terms and OrthographyIntroductionPart IKnowing and Controlling Animal GenerationChapter 1Breeders as PhilosophersChapter 2Razza-Making and BrandingPart IIA Divergence in BreedingChapter 3Razza-Making at a European CourtChapter 4Corn, Seed, Blood in MesoamericaPart IIIA Brave New Natural WorldChapter 5Canine MestizajeChapter 6Camelids and Christian NaturePart IVDifference in European ThoughtChapter 7Thinking Through Conversion, Lineage, and Population: José de AcostaChapter 8Seeing Inside from the Outside: Giovanni Battista della PortaEpilogueAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

Mackenzie Cooley is assistant professor of history and director of the Latin American Studies program at Hamilton College in New York.

“In Mackenzie Cooley’s erudite new history, The Perfection of Nature, the story of animal breeding provides the basis for a . . . reconsideration of human-animal relations in sixteenth-century Europe and America.”

• List of IllustrationsA Note on Terms and OrthographyIntroductionPart IKnowing and Controlling Animal GenerationChapter 1Breeders as PhilosophersChapter 2Razza-Making and BrandingPart IIA Divergence in BreedingChapter 3Razza-Making at a European CourtChapter 4Corn, Seed, Blood in MesoamericaPart IIIA Brave New Natural WorldChapter 5Canine MestizajeChapter 6Camelids and Christian NaturePart IVDifference in European ThoughtChapter 7Thinking Through Conversion, Lineage, and Population: José de AcostaChapter 8Seeing Inside from the Outside: Giovanni Battista della PortaEpilogueAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

Mackenzie Cooley is assistant professor of history and director of the Latin American Studies program at Hamilton College in New York.

“In Mackenzie Cooley’s erudite new history, The Perfection of Nature, the story of animal breeding provides the basis for a . . . reconsideration of human-animal relations in sixteenth-century Europe and America.”

• List of IllustrationsA Note on Terms and OrthographyIntroductionPart IKnowing and Controlling Animal GenerationChapter 1Breeders as PhilosophersChapter 2Razza-Making and BrandingPart IIA Divergence in BreedingChapter 3Razza-Making at a European CourtChapter 4Corn, Seed, Blood in MesoamericaPart IIIA Brave New Natural WorldChapter 5Canine MestizajeChapter 6Camelids and Christian NaturePart IVDifference in European ThoughtChapter 7Thinking Through Conversion, Lineage, and Population: José de AcostaChapter 8Seeing Inside from the Outside: Giovanni Battista della PortaEpilogueAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex