Erin L. Thompson

Erin L. Thompson is a professor at the City College of New York.

Even the Eyelashes: Inca Mummies

Erin L. Thompson, 4 January 2024

The Spanish​ garrotted Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor of what is now Peru, in 1533, but their control over their new territory was far from certain. One way they tried to solidify their claim was to promote alliances between those loyal to the Spanish crown and the remaining Inca aristocracy. When the conquistador Pedro Pizarro went to ask one Inca nobleman for permission to arrange a...

Foulest, Vilest, Obscenest: Smashing Images

Erin Thompson, 27 January 2022

Onthe evening of 22 August 1566, a crowd gathered in the town of ’s-Hertogenbosch to listen to an open air sermon by an itinerant Protestant preacher. Afterwards they rushed from church to church, singing psalms and smashing images. Two days later, the reformers held their first sermon in the town cathedral, now purified of the paintings and statues they believed tempted churchgoers...

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