Speaker Bios & Abstracts

Gerardo Aldana

Bio

Gerardo Aldana is a professor of Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research takes a history of science and indigenous studies approach to exploring Mayan hieroglyphic history, with a focus on astronomy. Throughout his research, for example in The Apotheosis of Janaab Pakal: Science, History and Religion at Classic Maya Palenque and Calculating Brilliance: an intellectual history of Mayan Astronomy at Chich’en Itza, he investigates cases of historically contingent invention and discovery within indigenous Mayan scientific practice.

...on divination

Recently, my research has led me to further explore what I’ve referred to as “oracular science” within ancient Mesoamerican astronomical practice. At the core of this exploration is a 14th century indigenous Mayan hieroglyphic manuscript comprising primarily divination almanacs and astronomical tables. By focusing on an underlying oracular epistemology within both types of content, I suggest that Mayan scientific endeavor differed substantially from its popular portrayal as proto-(Western-)scientific.

Photo by Xuan Li

Lan Li

...on divination

Full Manchu man, Qing dynasty (1644-1912). Unknown illustrator, woodblock print

Meridian men largely remained consistent as a visual genre. They established a graphic lineage to which authors, illustrators, and editors understood themselves as contributing. The 14 meridian series always showed 14 individual meridian men in the same order, with bladder man appearing seventh.

From Hua Boren (滑伯仁), Guben jiaozhu, Shisi jing fahui, 1969, 39

Intercostal nerves (detail), 17th century. Unknown engraver, engraving

Intercostal nerves, engraving detail. Willis visualized the nerves as a living, rooted entities in constant proliferation. Inset: enlargement of the improvised rendering of the intercostal nerves labeled A, B, C, D.

From Thomas Willis (1621–1675), Cerebri Anatome, 1663, 435, table 10

Miljohn Ruperto

Bio

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Contact:

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