Adam T Sellen
I am a professor of Mesoamerican Studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Merida, Yucatan. My specialty is in pre-Hispanic Oaxacan cultures and have written extensively on the iconography of ceramic effigy vessels commonly referred to as Zapotec urns. My research has also focused on the genesis of Mexican museums and archaeological collecting practices, documenting the history of the local Mexican collectors and their particular vision, with the aim of reuniting the orphaned, decontextualized remnants of their collections. In a recent publication, Real Fake (2018), co-edited with Justin Jennings, we directed an international group of researchers to tackle the difficult problem of pre-Hispanic fakes in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto, Canada.
Address: Mérida, Yucatán
Address: Mérida, Yucatán
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Papers by Adam T Sellen
such an approach it is possible to recover stories, memories and social issues that have been materialized in ancient objects and thus contribute to an understanding
and interpretation of the past.
This paper analyzes an anonymous, unpublished manuscript that sheds light on a relatively unknown chapter in the history of 19 th-century medicine: Mexican scientists' search for a cheaper and more effective native substitute for imported cantharides, species of insects that have medicinal properties. This scientific enterprise is situated in its historical context, where local knowledge, contemporary medicine and imperial politics converged to fuel an international competition to procure American species for the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, the study reveals the identity of the author of that anonymous study, a humble country doctor whose writings inspired this research.
such an approach it is possible to recover stories, memories and social issues that have been materialized in ancient objects and thus contribute to an understanding
and interpretation of the past.
This paper analyzes an anonymous, unpublished manuscript that sheds light on a relatively unknown chapter in the history of 19 th-century medicine: Mexican scientists' search for a cheaper and more effective native substitute for imported cantharides, species of insects that have medicinal properties. This scientific enterprise is situated in its historical context, where local knowledge, contemporary medicine and imperial politics converged to fuel an international competition to procure American species for the pharmaceutical industry. Finally, the study reveals the identity of the author of that anonymous study, a humble country doctor whose writings inspired this research.
Drawing upon archival resources and international museum collections, the contributors analyze the ways shifting patterns of collecting and taste—including how pre-Hispanic objects changed from being viewed as anthropological and scientific curiosities to collectible artworks—have shaped modern academic disciplines as well as public, private, institutional, and nationalistic attitudes toward Mesoamerican art. As many nations across the world demand the return of their cultural patrimony and ancestral heritage, it is essential to examine the historical processes, events, and actors that initially removed so many objects from their countries of origen.