Gondwanaland: Modern Histories of an Ancient Supercontinent

The ancient landmass of Gondwanaland began to break up two hundred million years ago into what would become present-day Africa, Antarctica, Australasia, South America, and South Asia—a prehuman “Global South” connected territorially across the southern hemisphere. The ancient landmass of Gondwanaland began to break up two hundred million years ago into what would become present-day Africa, Antarctica, Australasia, South America, and South Asia—a prehuman “Global South” connected territorially across the southern hemisphere. Named by European geologists in the nineteenth century after the Gondwana region in central India, Gondwanaland has spawned rich and unexpected histories in which the supercontinent has been mythologized and reinvented in response to contemporary geopolitical circumstances. Bridging history, geography, and the geosciences, this volume analyzes the multidimensional interpretations of Gondwanaland in the modern world, tracing its diverse resonances and legacies in politics, science, culture, and the environment across five continents. By reassembling Gondwanaland into a hemispheric history of the southern Earth, this collection considers how deep geological pasts continue to inform geographical and political imaginaries into the present.