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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 22/04/2024

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...

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 19/03/2024

"While engrossed in Heaney’s book, my mind kept wandering back to that ancient huaca [a sacred monument or tomb]. As I shut my eyes ... I imagined those craters filling up again. The earth and its departed souls reunited, embarking on a journey of healing together — the ancestors and us." 2/2

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 19/03/2024

So honored by this review by Marco Avilés of Empires of the Dead in El País: "Through Inca mummies, Heaney unravels colonization, capitalism and the birth of anthropology, revealing the impacts of pre-Hispanic ancestors on the living." english.elpais.com/culture/2024...

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

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.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

Last, I'm not sorry for cross-posting from the hellsite. I'm happy for a non-hellsite space. But unless I've missed it, there isn't as much the conversation on the Penn story, ¿and museum issues?, happening over here that's happening over there. The silo-ing is real ... 6/6

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

Again, this isn't to take away with museums' recent progress on NAGPRA. But it warns against singular definitions of reparative justice, which when pushed through can do extraordinary harm, and can even be an effort to liberate _the museum_ from its past. Which is what Penn is attempting. 5/

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

As @intersectionist.bsky.social and #FindingCeremony have insisted for the Penn case, _restitution_ can be more needed in some cases than repatriation. It means not going quickly, and engaging communities with what _they are asking for_. 4/

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

Museums need to keep looking at their failures at NAGPRA (or its misuse), to attend to Native North American's protests and pain. (Something this post can't possibly encompass.) But the contrast drives home to me how, absent legal frameworks, repatriation can become a performance—even a cover-up. 3/

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

This, in spite of Finding Ceremony's call for their reconnection to specific descendants, whose research showed that at least one was also Indigenous (triggering NAGPRA, and preventing their surreptitious burial). 2/ www.phillyvoice.com/penn-museum-...

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/02/2024

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...

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 20/01/2024

Of course, problem is that ‘in Quechua’ here means Quechua as written in letters, which Chas been subject to a lot of debate. So you also see malki or malqui

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 20/01/2024

I’m so glad you’re enjoying it. Can’t wait to talk more about it. My understanding is that in Quechua before a vowel LL is y, and before a consonant LL is L. Yllapa v mallki, or Yyyapa v malki.

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Donna Yates @profdonnayates.bsky.social · 20/01/2024

Current reading: @chrheaney.bsky.social excellent new book 'Empires of the Dead: Inca Mummies and the Peruvian Ancestors of American Anthropology'. To say I'm enjoying it is an understatement.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 13/01/2024

There will be an online feed. Interested in the history of archaeology and medicine in the Andes and Americas? : www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEpE...

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 13/01/2024

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!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 06/01/2024

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

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Daniel Owen @danieljowen.bsky.social · 05/01/2024

Lots of good stuff in the Xmas @londonreview.bsky.social. My favourites: @jamesmeek.bsky.social on Peter Biskind on TV's recent golden age. Colin Kidd on Claire Rydell on America on John Locke. @artcrimeprof.bsky.social on @chrheaney.bsky.social on Incan mummies. 1/2

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Tade "Will Eat Your Heart in the Marketplace" Thompson @tadethompson.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

In addition to punching Nazis and working behind enemy lines in WWII, Jack Kirby was the 'Argo' artist. He drew the concept art for 'Lord of Light', the fake science fiction film that helped the CIA rescue the Tehran hostages in 1976. Kirby did not phone that shit in. You can find it all online.

Statues of gods in a science fictional setting.
Drawing by Jack Kirby

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 22/12/2023

;) aelarsen.wordpress.com/why-an-histo...

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 22/12/2023

MISINI Solar Systm Building Kit,865/pcs MOC C71004W Bricks for Kids and Adults,Contains Moon Earth and Sun Orrery Model a.co/d/fDdkfGh

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Matt @differentmatt.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

Lego is a Danish company, right? Release the 38,291-piece Tychonic geoheliocentric version, you unpatriotic cowards!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 22/12/2023

Thanks for the tip! MISINI Solar Systm Building Kit,865/pcs MOC C71004W Bricks for Kids and Adults,Contains Moon Earth and Sun Orrery Model a.co/d/fDdkfGh

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Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

L: Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Lecturing on an #Orrery (1766) R: LEGO System A/S of Billund, An Aspiring Philosopher Demonstrating a Tellurium (As @rhiggitt.bsky.social notes, an orrery features the entire solar system) #histsci #histSTM #sciart #astronomy #STEM #LEGO 📜🗃️🔭

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

Thank you! I thereby out myself as a historian of the social sciences.

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Rebekah Higgitt @rhiggitt.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

We'd call it a tellurium rather than an orrery (focus on the earth-sun system rather than solar system)

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

_An_ orrery, an historian meant to write.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

Calling all historians of science -- Lego is releasing what's basically a orrery: www.lego.com/en-us/produc...

Lego technic set of a earth and moon circling the sun.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

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!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 21/12/2023

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).

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Happy early solstice! The first review of Empires of the Dead is in, and I'm so honored that it's by the great @artcrimeprof.bsky.social for the @londonreview.bsky.social!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

Happy early solstice! The first review of Empires of the Dead is in, and I'm so honored that it's by the great @artcrimeprof.bsky.social for the @londonreview.bsky.social!

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Brandy Schillace @bschillace.brandyschillace.com · 17/12/2023

A year from now, I’ll be releasing a book about the first center for #transgender rights, surgery, support—1918-1933. It follows the story of trans pioneer Dora Richter, her Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, and the fight against Nazi oppression. The fight continues: www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-...

scientificamerican.com

The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic

The Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin would be a century old if it hadn’t fallen victim to Nazi ideology

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 14/12/2023

Feeling grateful for the amazing audience for my book at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia on Monday—especially the Peruvian doctors who came out to hear about the recognition of pre-Hispanic Andean surgery. Also, the 1st time my work was advertised in a bathroom stall. Achievement unlocked!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 07/12/2023

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

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 04/12/2023

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?

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

On Dec. 11 I'll be speaking at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia on Inca and Andean trepanation and the collection of ancestral remains from Peru in America's museums. Am grateful for the opportunity. Philadelphia folks, see you there? muttermuseum.org/events/heali...

muttermuseum.org

Healing Incas: Peruvian Surgery and the Recovery of Scientific Ancestors

Before the late nineteenth century, the most successful cranial surgeons in world history were the Inca and Andean trepanners of pre-Hispanic Peru.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 29/11/2023

Seen. In my darkest moments I considered making a living will for this last book if I died before it was done, assigning the decision to pull the plug or complete it to a friend. And then I realized that this was maybe the least friendly thing I could do!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

That’s fantastic. Let’s read each other’s stuff and then have a zoom. With Christina!

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

I've received no pushback on the _history_ of how these collections are informed. But adding exhibit context is another level that I'm only seeing intermittently in museums' preexisting exhibits. It's maybe easier to put up a new exhibit (like the great Native-curated one at the Field Museum).

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

Fascinating conversation. In the U.S., I think curators are becoming fluent in the critique, and it's informing decisions to take human remains down. But that is a very different thing from keeping objects (not remains) up and putting up a legend explaining the colonial history.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 28/11/2023

Thank you! And I just ordered yours from 2020 -- I wish I had had it in hand while writing mine! It looks fascinating. I hope we can talk about digging and colonialism at some point.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 27/11/2023

muttermuseum.org

Healing Incas: Peruvian Surgery and the Recovery of Scientific Ancestors

Before the late nineteenth century, the most successful cranial surgeons in world history were the Inca and Andean trepanners of pre-Hispanic Peru.

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 10/11/2023

And, Public Health, Eugenics, and the Environment in Twentieth-Century Latin America, also at 4, with papers from Andra Chastain, Sabrina González, and Martha L. Espinosa Tavares, w/ commentary from Gabrial Soto Laveaga. tinyurl.com/28verduf See you out there! 6/6

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 10/11/2023

Invaders!, also at 4, with a paper from Alejandro Martinez, "The “biological fight” against invasive species in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century," tinyurl.com/29mhbkcf 5/

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 10/11/2023

ALSO, there are 3 OTHER Latin American #HSTM panels of interest today at #HSS23! Crafting Extraction in South America: The Production of Knowledge as a Collective Enterprise at 11, with papers from Natalia Gandara, Lorena Campuzano Duque, and Aleksandra Kaye tinyurl.com/224kty5d 4/

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Christopher Heaney @chrheaney.bsky.social · 10/11/2023

Also: we sponsored the exciting panel "Observational networks and the social domestication of the weather and climate in Latin America" at 4 today, with Carlos Sanhueza-Cerda, Elisa Sevilla, Gregory T. Cushman, and Stefan Meier. tinyurl.com/2a3dv665 3/

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