Perspectives on Science Empires of the Dead: Inca Mummies and the Peruvian Ancestors of American Anthropology
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Oct 29, 2023 
Christopher Heaney, historian and author focused on museums and Andean history, explores how Peruvian and Andean ancestors became coveted mummies, skulls, and museum specimens. He contrasts Andean mummies with Egyptian ones. He traces Inca political uses of ancestors, Spanish encounters and export of remains, and how collections shaped the rise of Americanist anthropology.
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Ancestors As Living Social Actors
- Andean mummies functioned as socially active ancestors, not merely dead bodies preserved for posterity.
- Christopher Heaney explains Incas seated mummies were carried, consulted, and treated as living members of society.
Colonial Science Reframed Sacred Practices
- Spanish observers interpreted Andean preservation as a technical embalming practice tied to materia medica.
- Heaney shows colonizers reframed spiritual veneration into a scientific explanation to desacralize Andean authority.
San Martín's Diplomatic Mummy Gift
- José de San Martín sent an 'Inca mummy' to King George IV as a diplomatic and scientific symbol after Peruvian independence.
- Heaney frames this gift as linking new Peruvian sovereignty to a precolonial scientific tradition.
