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My Life in Science Time, History and Belief in Aztec and Colonial Mexico 35 My Life in Science hesitate, stumble, feel their way, question other groups living in what is now Mexico by Sydney Brenner themselves constantly. They go from hope and northern Central America) was the de- BioMed Central Limited, 2001. to disappointment, from exaltation to mel- velopment of a series of calendars. Although $22.10 pbk (191 pages) ancholy, always wondering whether they some were ritual almanacs with little con- ISBN 0 9540278 0 9 will emerge from the dark. Scientists write nection to the real world, other calendars mainly for their fellow scientists and, above were wonders of early empirical science. The all, for historians of science. Historians of Mesoamericans calculated the length of the science, however, mistrust scientists’ auto- solar year and the cycles of the moon, Venus biographies. They know that two scientists and other planets with great accuracy. Schol- telling the same piece of history will not tell ars in the 19th and 20th centuries deciphered exactly the same story. the workings of these calendars and showed Like many of his colleagues, Sydney how they were used to track rituals and cos- Brenner has written his ‘scientific life’. He mic time. In this book, ethnohistorian Ross dissects and recalls with great care his Hassig argues that scholarly emphasis on the major achievements and the steps he took to ritual aspects of the Aztec calendar and con- get to them. What I find most revealing in ceptions of time has obscured a more utili- his account is the less scientific part; that is, tarian function: imperial rulers manipulated I first met Sydney Brenner at a Symposium the beginning of his life and the way he the calendar for political purposes. in the USA at the beginning of the 1950s. came to science. It is the story of a young The Aztec year count, which recorded his- Short and broad of back, this character Jewish boy, the son of Lithuanian emigrants torical events, is the most significant calen- seldom went unnoticed. His squarish head, who lived in a small town of South Africa. dar for Hassig’s argument. Each year is his blue eyes beneath blond brows, enor- It is of the hard time he endured at school, designated by a number (between one and mous, hirsute, shaggy, he resembled certain where his small size attracted a lot of teasing thirteen) paired with one of four symbols Dutch portraits – a real Franz Hals! But and rough play. He said of himself, ‘I grew (rabbit, reed, flint-knife and house). He de- behind his slightly sarcastic manner and up to be a professional coward. I would agree scribes the relationship of this 52-year cycle even devilish aspect, his smile revealed a to anything not to get bullied’. But the ex- to other major Aztec calendars (the 260-day child’s face. Born in South Africa, he had ceptional talents of this small boy were soon ritual cycle and the 365-day annual calen- settled in Cambridge University’s Laboratory recognized. He decided to become a scien- dar) and compares it to the Maya long-count of Molecular Biology, already home of tist, and the beginning of the book describes (a continuous, non-repeating, count of days). Fred Sanger, Max Perutz, John Kendrew and how this remarkable boy became one of the The Aztec year count starts again every 52 Francis Crick. A beautiful string of prima most successful biologists of the century. years, an event celebrated by the New Fire donnas into which Sydney fitted perfectly. The book is clearly and simply written. It is ceremony. Whereas past interpretations have As soon as he appeared on the scene, difficult to resist the fantastic drive and the stressed the cyclical nature of the year count Sydney took part in almost every advance in intelligence of its leading figure. (any given year – for example, 2-reed – molecular biology. He was involved in the recurs every 52 years), Hassig emphasizes establishment of colinearity between gene François Jacob its linear dimension. Aztec pictorial histo- and protein, in the demonstrations of the ries (for example, section one of the Codex triplet nature of the genetic code, in the dis- This book review was first published in Trends in Mendoza) depict the year signs laid out in covery of messenger RNA. And when he Genetics (2002) 18, 55. We thank the author and linear fashion, often running for hundreds of decided to switch from bacteria to metazoa, TIG for allowing us to reproduce it here. If citing years. However, Hassig views the New Fire he ‘invented’ the nematode, a small worm the article, please refer to the original source. ceremony more as a device that linked suc- of which he analysed both genetics and cessive 52-year periods into a chain than as anatomy. As quick with his mind as with his a ritual of cyclical completion, the traditional hands, he was interested in everything. In ad- interpretation. dition, he had a good sense of humour, which Time, History and Belief in Aztec Each city-state dynasty in central Mexico could sometimes turn to nasty wittiness. and Colonial Mexico maintained its own 52-year count to record Scientists’ autobiographies are a special by Ross Hassig the deeds of its rulers, and individual cal- kind of literature, for scientists can rarely University of Texas Press, Austin, 2001. endars were not necessarily synchronized. bring themselves to discuss personal matters. US$ 18.95 pbk (xviii + 220 pages) Hassig argues that as the Aztec kings forged They describe an orderly train of concepts their tributary empire they deliberately ma- and experiments that they have carefully Scientific discoveries and innovations in the nipulated the year count for political pur- purified from all affective and irrational ancient world have frequently occurred in the poses. They moved the New Fire celebration dross. They get rid of any personal scent, service of religion. Historians and archaeolo- from its traditional date of 1-rabbit to 2-reed any human smell. Very few scientists – Jim gists have shown that, from China to Peru, and forced their subjects to adopt a com- Watson, Max Perutz – dare to write a piece early breakthroughs in mathematics, astron- mon year count and annual calendar, on life that is not restricted to work. Scien- omy, engineering and other fields were presumably to coordinate imperial tribute tists spend most of their life in puzzlement initially put to use for ceremonial rather than payment. The change in date of the New and doubt. Yet they describe their work as a utilitarian purposes. One major intellectual Fire ceremony is well documented but the straightforward achievement, a victorious achievement of the ancient peoples of Meso- timing and reasons for the switch have been march from darkness to light. In reality, they america (the Mayas, Olmecs, Aztecs and much debated. Hassig states his views on Endeavour Vol. 26(1) 2002 35 this and other unresolved issues in Aztec This failure does not make Hassig’s argu- and Russia. What if it got out? What if calendrics and history, such as whether the ments wrong, but the reader is prevented someone let it out? Aztecs had leap years to synchronize their from evaluating them within the context of Jonathan Tucker, director of the Chemical calendar with the solar year (he argues that contemporary scholarship. and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation they did, and proposes a novel mechanism) I am also disappointed by Hassig’s treat- Program at the Monterey Institute of Inter- and whether individual city-state calendars ment of archaeological data. He presents national Studies in California, lays out the were coordinated (he says that they were incorrect dates (which support his interpret- entwined history of smallpox and humanity not until forced to do so by the empire). ations) for several key buildings, including in his latest book, Scourge: The Once and Hassig’s revisionist program includes the New Fire temple on Mount Huixachtecatl Future Threat of Smallpox. He recounts the both theoretical and empirical elements. Most and the twin-temple pyramids of Tenayuca battle to eliminate every single case of small- studies of Mesoamerican calendars and and Teopanzolco. Contrary to Hassig’s as- pox infection on earth, and the uncertain fu- history adhere to a theoretical approach that sertions, these latter temples are dated quite ture of that vicious virus. By the time readers Hassig calls ‘ideology-as-action’ that is, firmly to the Early Aztec period (several finish this book, they will likely be as wor- religion and ideology determine behavior, centuries before the Aztec empire) and thus ried as Tucker is. Smallpox is the viral sword and calendrical scholarship should focus on cannot possibly have had the imperial sig- of Damocles hanging over all our heads. the internal workings of calendars and their nificance attributed to them by his model. Some diseases are simple nuisances. Others symbolic aspects. Hassig proposes an al- Time, History and Belief in Aztec and are slow and insidious. Smallpox is acutely ternative approach based on political econ- Colonial Mexico is an intriguing study with apocalyptic. The virus is highly contagious omy, ‘ideology-as-idiom,’ in which religion a fresh theoretical approach and many and highly lethal. Those it fails to kill out- and ideology justify, but do not determine, promising interpretations of Aztec history, right are left disfigured or blind. And the behavior. Studies of calendars should focus time and calendars. However, to be assessed bodies of the dead are as infectious as the on their social and political uses, not their properly, Hassig’s interpretations must be dying. Centuries ago, this massive (for a symbolism. Hassig argues that this approach debated within the community of scholars virus), dumbbell-shaped microbe cut a geno- has not been applied to studies of Aztec cal- working on these issues so that the strength cidal swath through the New World when endars and conceptions of time and history, of his arguments can be evaluated.
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