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The contentious science of phrenology once promised insight into character and intellect through external 'reading' of the head. In the transforming settler-colonial landscapes of nineteenth-century Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, popular phrenologists - figures who often hailed from the margins - performed their science of touch and cranial jargon everywhere from mechanics' institutions to public houses. In this compelling work, Alexandra Roginski recounts a history of this everyday practice, exploring how it featured in the fates of people living in, and moving through, the Tasman World. Innovatively drawing on historical newspapers and a network of archives, she traces the careers of a diverse range of popular phrenologists and those they encountered. By analysing the actions at play in scientific episodes through ethnographic, social and cultural history, Roginski considers how this now-discredited science could, in its own day, yield fleeting power and advantage, even against a backdrop of large-scale dispossession and social brittleness.

Phrenology --- History --- Brain --- Characters and characteristics --- Craniology --- Head --- Psychology --- Mind and body --- Pathognomy --- Physiognomy --- Localization of functions

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Having a phrenological 'head reading' was one of the most significant fads of the nineteenth century - a means for better knowing oneself and a guide for self-improvement. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had a lifelong yet long overlooked interest in phrenology, the pseudoscience claiming to correlate skull features with specialized brain areas and higher mental traits. Twain's books are laced with phrenological terms and concepts, and he lampooned the head readers in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He was influenced by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, who also used his humor to assail head readers and educate the public. Finger shows that both humorists accepted certain features of phrenology, but not their skull-based ideas. By examining a fascinating topic at the intersection of literature and the history of neuroscience, this engaging study will appeal to readers interested in phrenology, science, medicine, American history, and the lives and works of Twain and Holmes.

Phrenology --- History. --- Attitides. --- Twain, Mark, --- Holmes, Oliver Wendell, --- Brain --- Characters and characteristics --- Craniology --- Head --- Psychology --- Mind and body --- Pathognomy --- Physiognomy --- Localization of functions --- Holmes, O. W. --- Twain, Mark --- Tvėn, Mark --- Tuėĭn, Mark --- Tuwayn, Mārk --- Twayn, Mārk --- Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo --- Tven, M. --- Touen, Makū --- Twain, Marek --- Make Tuwen --- Tuwen, Make --- Make Teviin --- Твен, Марк --- Touain, Mark --- טבןַ, מרק, --- טוויין, מארק, --- טוויין, מרק, --- טווין, מארק, --- טווין, מרק, --- טווען, מארק, --- טוין, מרק, --- טװען, מארק, --- טװײן, מארק, --- 馬克吐温, --- Tuvāyn, Mārk --- Tvāyn, Mārk --- تواين، مارک --- Clemens, Samuel Langhorne --- Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius --- Conte, Louis de