2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society
2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society
2000 HSS/PSA Program 1 - History of Science Society
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<strong>HSS</strong> Abstracts<br />
44<br />
<strong>HSS</strong> ABSTRACTS<br />
The following abstracts for <strong>HSS</strong> sessions appear as they were submitted, with some<br />
minor exceptions. Due to space limitations, paragraph breaks within each abstract<br />
were eliminated. Also, some submissions were difficult to read and some words may<br />
have been inadvertently altered. To promote accuracy, the abstracts were posted on<br />
the society’s Web site, and authors were encouraged to check that their original wording<br />
survived intact. The varying length <strong>of</strong> the abstracts is due to the fact that some authors<br />
exceeded the space allotted on the paper proposal form. Authors were encouraged to<br />
limit their abstracts to 250 words or less. The <strong>History</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Science</strong> <strong>Society</strong> also requests<br />
that future presenters to use the <strong>Society</strong> Web site to submit their paper proposals. This<br />
saves time for all involved. We thank the organizers, presenters, commentators, and<br />
all those involved whose work ensures the success <strong>of</strong> the annual meeting.<br />
Gerardo␣ V. Aldana Harvard University<br />
Re-Creation in Classic Maya Times:<br />
Astronumerology and Secret Knowledge in Kan Balam’s Court<br />
Despite the fact that the calendric and mathematical elements <strong>of</strong> ancient Maya<br />
knowledge were the first-understood <strong>of</strong> their intellectual achievements and that<br />
the bulk <strong>of</strong> this material was deciphered by the early decades <strong>of</strong> this century, the<br />
extent <strong>of</strong> an “<strong>History</strong> <strong>of</strong> Mayan Astronomy” remains one paragraph in Floyd<br />
Lounsbury’s 1978 Dictionary <strong>of</strong> Scientific Biography entry. This is particularly<br />
unfortunate for the history <strong>of</strong> science as a discipline since Maya culture allows<br />
for serious consideration <strong>of</strong> the question <strong>of</strong> ‘science’ in a ‘non-Western’ culture.<br />
This paper constitutes a first attempt at precisely this type <strong>of</strong> investigation by<br />
examining a development in Mayan astronomy in which mathematical innovation<br />
complemented political necessity. That is, Kan Balam II, heir to the throne <strong>of</strong><br />
Palenque during the seventh century A.D., faced a legitimation crisis with the<br />
recent demise <strong>of</strong> two allies, Tikal and Teotihuacan. To ensure a trouble-free<br />
accession he developed an analogy between his immediate family and the mythic<br />
first family <strong>of</strong> Creation. This analogy he presented in monumental architecture,<br />
palatial art, and the astrology <strong>of</strong> his court. The latter was possible because earlier<br />
that century, one <strong>of</strong> his father’s court astrologers had discovered how to compute<br />
the positions <strong>of</strong> the planets in their arithmetic cycles for periods <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong><br />
years. This astrologer then was able to correlate the events <strong>of</strong> the mythic past<br />
into the Long Count calendar relative to contemporary times. Such a feat enabled<br />
Kan Balam to tie his own ceremonies numerologically to those <strong>of</strong> the gods.<br />
Simultaneously, this feat opens up for us a window into the Maya<br />
conceptualization <strong>of</strong> time and the celestial bodies that cannot be adequately<br />
captured by ‘Western’-derived disciplinary categories. We are thus forced, I<br />
argue, to reconsider our understandings <strong>of</strong> “Other” cultures as well as that <strong>of</strong><br />
pre-modern European culture.