Confessions of a Skull
Phrenology and Colonial Knowledge in Early Nineteenth-Century India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4769857 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kim A Wagner (The King's College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 27-51 |
| Publication date | 2010-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History Workshop Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-3554 • E-ISSN: 1477-4569 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/hwj/dbp031 |
| PMID | 20514736 |
| OpenAlex | W2025352760 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 11 |
This article presents a micro-study of seven Indian skulls, labelled simply as ‘Thugs’, which are kept in the Medical School of the University of Edinburgh and were originally presented to the Edinburgh Phrenological Society in 1833. It seeks to unravel the wider story behind the collection and develop a biography of the seven skulls, from living persons to inanimate objects. The seven men earned their livelihood as bandit-retainers in early nineteenth-century India, but were recast as ‘Thugs’ when caught by the British and eventually executed as hereditary criminals. When their skulls were subsequently examined by phrenologists, and later physical anthropologists, they were reconstituted as scientific specimens according to changing discourses of science. The interrogation of the seven men, at the hand of the colonial authorities, was thus continued through their skulls at the hand of phrenologists. In the case of the ‘Thugs’, however, science was not merely harnessed for the imperial project. The article explores the manner in which the seven men and their skulls were ascribed special significance in different contexts, and how the punitive machinery of the colonial state and phrenology interacted in the production of the ‘Thug’ skulls. A micro-historical approach is thus applied to the larger issues relating to the formation of colonial knowledge
Archaeology · Art history · Biography · Colonialism · Phrenology · Political science · Punitive damages · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Medicine · Race, Genetics, and Society
Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination
Bibliography of Books and Articles Published in English on Colonialism and Imperialism in 2010
Colonial Law in India and the Victorian Imagination
Stories, Skulls, and Colonial Collections
Prehistory of Aadhaar
Race, material culture, and the global history of science
The historian beneath the skin
Phrenology, Correspondence, and the Global Politics of Reform, 1815–1848
Imperial Transgressions
The Moghia Menace, or the Watch Over Watchmen In British India
The Laboratory of Scientific Racism
The 'Criminal Tribe' in India before the British
A Secret in the Oxford Sense
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,87 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2022 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |