[Sci-tech-public] Spring 2024 Colloquium sponsored by Anthropology, History and STS April 29, 2024 : Professor Christopher Heaney , Penn State

[Kathleen Lopes]

The final talk of the Spring 2024 Colloquium sponsored by Anthropology, History and STS will feature Professor Christopher Heaney <https://history.la.psu.edu/directory/christopher-heaney/> on Monday, April 29th 

Monday, April 29, 2024
4-5:30pm
MIT Building E51-095

Trepanning Incas: Ancient PeruvianSurgery and AmericanAnthropology's Monroe Doctrine

In 1863 an American archaeologist acquired a skull from aPeruvian antiquarian in Cuzco, inciting a debate over thecomplexity of "ancient" surgery worldwide. The skull hadbeen found in the Inca estate of Yucay, and thequadrilateral hole in its frontal bone suggested that it hadbeen trepanned—a medical operation to relieve pressureupon the brain. This lecture reconstructs the process bywhich "Inca trepanation" became an accepted scientificfact, and the looting and trade in "Inca" and Andeanancestors and crania it relied upon to provide furthermuseum "specimens" to prove or disprove Indigenous skillat this high-risk maneuver. Central to this process was thework of Andean collectors and Peruvian surgeons like theanthropologist Julio C. Tello, whose authority was soughtbut effaced by Americanist anthropologists in the UnitedStates. The comparison of their surviving museums anddisplays in Lima and Washington, DC reveals how we canre-collect the more radical and anti-racist knowledges inthe collections these Andean actors helped build, toimagine their re-encounter as "scientific ancestors" today.






Kathleen Lopes 
Administrative Assistant III
MIT History Section 

 
Schedule
On-site: Tuesday, and Thursday 
Remote: Monday, Wednesday and Friday


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