Christopher Heaney
@chrheaney.bsky.social
Historian of science in Americas @ Penn State, writer, and editor. Wrote CRADLE OF GOLD on Machu Picchu. New book EMPIRES OF THE DEAD on Inca mummies and American anthropology. Words in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, NYT. Dreams in comics.
I'll be back in Cambridge, MA next Monday to talk at MIT. I'll get into how "ancient trepanation" or cranial surgery was given an existence via 19th and 20th century "ancient Peruvian" and "Inca" examples, and the political stakes of it becoming "Andean." history.mit.edu/.../trepanni...
April 22, 2024 at 12:47 PM
I'll be back in Cambridge, MA next Monday to talk at MIT. I'll get into how "ancient trepanation" or cranial surgery was given an existence via 19th and 20th century "ancient Peruvian" and "Inca" examples, and the political stakes of it becoming "Andean." history.mit.edu/.../trepanni...
I'll be in Boston/Cambridge Tuesday to talk at Harvard (CGIS South, S-050, at 5:15 on Tuesday) about how to remember the entangled history of American and Peruvian anthropology, and accounting for its remains. Looking forward to the conversation.
February 4, 2024 at 9:22 PM
I'll be in Boston/Cambridge Tuesday to talk at Harvard (CGIS South, S-050, at 5:15 on Tuesday) about how to remember the entangled history of American and Peruvian anthropology, and accounting for its remains. Looking forward to the conversation.
I'm sitting with the contrast between this great stat on NAGPRA's acceleration and the incredible news that Penn "repatriated" 19 Black Philadelphians collected by Samuel George Morton by secretly burying them. 1/ propublica.org/article/sena...
February 4, 2024 at 3:03 PM
I'm sitting with the contrast between this great stat on NAGPRA's acceleration and the incredible news that Penn "repatriated" 19 Black Philadelphians collected by Samuel George Morton by secretly burying them. 1/ propublica.org/article/sena...
Thrilled to be giving the public lecture tonight on the 3 burials of Julio César Tello at the annual meeting of the Institute of Andean Studies. In the Bay Area? Dwinelle 145, on Cal’s campus in Berkeley at 7!
January 13, 2024 at 6:05 PM
Thrilled to be giving the public lecture tonight on the 3 burials of Julio César Tello at the annual meeting of the Institute of Andean Studies. In the Bay Area? Dwinelle 145, on Cal’s campus in Berkeley at 7!
If you're at #aha24 check out Empires of the Dead at Oxford University Press's table! Charmed to see it on the banner. @ahahistorians.bsky.social
January 6, 2024 at 6:11 PM
If you're at #aha24 check out Empires of the Dead at Oxford University Press's table! Charmed to see it on the banner. @ahahistorians.bsky.social
Calling all historians of science -- Lego is releasing what's basically a orrery: www.lego.com/en-us/produc...
December 21, 2023 at 6:53 PM
Calling all historians of science -- Lego is releasing what's basically a orrery: www.lego.com/en-us/produc...
And here’s a flip through. Thanks go to PSU’s Office of Gen Ed, the History Dept, and my amazing TAs Asaf Levy and Patricia Lillo. Can’t wait to do it again!
December 21, 2023 at 3:58 PM
And here’s a flip through. Thanks go to PSU’s Office of Gen Ed, the History Dept, and my amazing TAs Asaf Levy and Patricia Lillo. Can’t wait to do it again!
In World History since 1500 this Fall I had students do a graphic history project in place of a final! One-page comics, based on primary and secondary sources. We even printed a compilation! Here's my fave on the Haitian Revolution, by Nicholas Bobinski (who gave me permission to share it).
December 21, 2023 at 3:56 PM
In World History since 1500 this Fall I had students do a graphic history project in place of a final! One-page comics, based on primary and secondary sources. We even printed a compilation! Here's my fave on the Haitian Revolution, by Nicholas Bobinski (who gave me permission to share it).
The CHSTM community of historians of science has been so important for my work. I'm excited to be talking online today (Thursday, Dec.7, 12pm EST) about the writing of Empires of the Dead, and Peruvian mummies and museums, with its wonderful working group on Latin America: chstm.org/latin-america
December 7, 2023 at 2:57 PM
The CHSTM community of historians of science has been so important for my work. I'm excited to be talking online today (Thursday, Dec.7, 12pm EST) about the writing of Empires of the Dead, and Peruvian mummies and museums, with its wonderful working group on Latin America: chstm.org/latin-america
Next Monday in Philadelphia, I'll be talking on the history of Andean medicine, anthropology and the collection of Inca and Peruvian ancestors at the Mütter Museum. See you there?
December 4, 2023 at 9:42 PM
Next Monday in Philadelphia, I'll be talking on the history of Andean medicine, anthropology and the collection of Inca and Peruvian ancestors at the Mütter Museum. See you there?
The essay ends with an “Inca trepanation” mural beautifully painted by Alton S. Tobey (Tobey's cartoon for it is below). It’s been off display at SI since the 1980s. I think it should go back up while we (and not just SI) listen for next steps. It was inspired by the manikins at Tello’s last museum.
September 3, 2023 at 2:21 PM
The essay ends with an “Inca trepanation” mural beautifully painted by Alton S. Tobey (Tobey's cartoon for it is below). It’s been off display at SI since the 1980s. I think it should go back up while we (and not just SI) listen for next steps. It was inspired by the manikins at Tello’s last museum.
But we also can’t overlook how Peruvian scholars—some of Andean descent, like Harvard-trained anthropologist Julio César Tello (here with Alfred Kroeber)—collected their own “scientific ancestors” to show that they were world-class surgeons, healers, and embalmers.
September 3, 2023 at 2:18 PM
But we also can’t overlook how Peruvian scholars—some of Andean descent, like Harvard-trained anthropologist Julio César Tello (here with Alfred Kroeber)—collected their own “scientific ancestors” to show that they were world-class surgeons, healers, and embalmers.