Early Modern

Japanese Butchers

Medieval Japanese Butchery

The COVID outbreaks in American meat-packing warehouses have recently cast attention to the frankly horrifying working conditions in these plants. Like coal-mining and cesspool-cleaning, the practice of animal slaughter and butchery has a long history being considered an undesirable profession — it is one that most of society benefits from, even as the general population […]

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Aztec Alcohol

Indigenous Aztec’s and Their Alcohol Consumption

There is a common misconception that Native American Indians had no exposure to alcohol before contact with the Europeans. This idea extends to imagining that AmerIndians were genetically less able to metabolize alcohol than the explorers from the Old World. In fact, neither of these ideas are true, as the laws and traditions of the

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Witchfinder General

Witch Hunting Tools and Techniques

When I think of Matthew Hopkins, self-styled “Witchfinder General,” I think about episodes in human history where we really went wrong. This image is from Hopkins’ 1647 book, _The Discovery of Witches_, and shows him overseeing the confessions of women naming their demonic familiars. Under Matthew Hopkins’ short career of three years, about 300 women

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Geocentrism

Ancient Greek Theory of Geocentrism

Alright, my brainy friends: it won’t take you but a New York minute to look at this diagram and figure out what’s wrong here.That’s right! The earth is in the middle of the entire universe, and of course we know that’s just silly. But such was the model of the cosmos bequeathed by the Ancient

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Johannes Kepler

Johannes Kepler’s Theory of Heliocentrism

Although other scientists are more famous for getting the astronomical idea of heliocentrism correct, Johannes Kepler (d. 1630) was much more successful than his peers at explaining super important aspects of our solar system (for instance, the planets go round the sun in ellipses). Who would have thought that a driving force behind his significant

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Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton’s Blended Scientific and Occult World Views

Here’s Sir Isaac Newton, sporting what looks like some pretty fantastic quarantine hair in his 46th year. Solitary, misanthropic, and quirky (he once experimented on optics by putting a needle deep into his eyesocket to see how his vision would change), Newton’s work on classical mechanics revolutionized how people understood the cosmos. We all can

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La Ville Lumiere and the Desire to Stop Protests

Like spokes on a wheel, these wide boulevards typify the landscape of Paris. Beautiful components of the city, tourists have come to associate these streets with “La Ville Lumiere”. But this architecture has a more sinister origin: it developed out of a desire to stop protesters.The second image shows a now-demolished street called rue du

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17th Century Design

The Sign and Writings of Baruch de Spinoza

This 17th-century design would make a perfect tattoo, except the meaning would say something pitiable about the wearer. It is a rose with the Latin word “CAUTE” beneath. The rose meant secrecy, and _caute_ means “cautiously.” The person who used this sign, Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), did so because he had to constantly keep his

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Phrenology

The Racial Undertones of Phrenology

Today’s social-media aficionados take a lot of personality tests that we know are pure rot, like “what your birth crystal says about the way you treat your pets” or “what your quarantine eating habits reveal about your financial investment patterns.” The bust pictured here reflects similarly outlandish claims from a century and a half ago,

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Great Bed of Ware

The Famous Great Bed of Ware

This piece of furniture has an epic name: the Great Bed of Ware. Carved around 1600 in Elizabethan England, the exquisitely crafted masterpiece became famous almost immediately – Shakespeare even had one of his characters in _Twelfth Night_ (1601) claim that a piece of paper was so large that it was “big enough for the

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Visions of Constantine

“The Visions of Constantine” – Holiness and Horror

This post is about the juxtaposition of holiness and horror. The statue you see here is “the Vision of Constantine,” sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (d. 1680), one of history’s most talented artists. Bernini is famous for his beautiful marble renderings of the human form, and most of his beloved works were of well known

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Magical Superpowers of Yogis

Hey, anyone down for some yoga? For me, it depends on the context.This illustration is from an early 17th-century manuscript and illustrates an _asana_, or yoga pose, that looks an awful lot like the one called _kukkutasana_, or “rooster pose” shown in the second picture. If this seems arcane and not very practical to you,

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Bloodletting

The Extended Use of Bloodletting Throughout History

We don’t need to wrestle with our beliefs to look at this image of a man undergoing bloodletting (about 1675) to know that this medical practice seems like a bad idea. Sure, the Ancient Greeks might have thought it could cure illnesses, but they had a totally incorrect idea that sickness originated in an imbalance

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Nezahualcoyotl

Central-American Ruler Nezahualcoyotl of Texcoco

This is a 16th- century depiction of a Central-American ruler called Nezahualcoyotl (d. 1472). Before the Aztec Empire took over the region, the area was partitioned among several kingdoms. Nezahualcoyotl ruled over the city-state of Texcoco, and was famed not only for his political leadership, but also his architectural genius and his poetry. Unusually, several

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Japanese Sliding Door

Immortal Leizi Riding the Winds

This Japanese sliding-door panel from about 1606 shows the allegedly immortal Liezi riding the winds. Although based on mythological stories, the flying figure also evokes a state of dreaming, since humans have recorded flying dreams across many civilizations. The Daoist text named after Liezi gives insight to a particular type of dream interpretation. In this

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F-Word Poem

The First F-Word in the World

You are looking at one of the first written appearances of the f-word. (The other two contenders are a version in Scottish dialect and a Latin/English coded poem.) Written in 1528 by a monk-scribe in the margins of a book he was copying, this low-key graffiti artist was slandering his boss, the Abbot.This small scribble

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Isobel Gowdie

Isobel Gowdie – Scotland’s First Witch

Wanna hear about the most famous witch in all of Scottish history? Who wouldn’t, right? This would be one Isobel Gowdie, who gave four testimonials in 1662 confessing her involvement in harmful magical practices and consorting with the devil.Gowdie’s trial is better documented than any other witchcraft confession. Although she was probably treated poorly during

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