New Books Network Alison Bashford, "Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Jan 10, 2026
Alison Bashford, a historian of medicine and science, delves into intriguing intersections of palmistry and science. She discusses how figures like Isaac Newton explored chiromancy and how Charles Darwin perceived the hand’s importance. Bashford reveals surprising links between palms and genetics, notably with Francis Galton’s work on fingerprints, and highlights the enduring cultural significance of palm reading across various traditions. Her research uncovers a fascinating narrative intertwining magic, medicine, and the quest to understand identity through our hands.
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Archive Moment That Sparked The Book
- Alison Bashford found palm prints of Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf, and André Gide in the Wellcome archives.
- She then discovered Mock the Lowland Gorilla's palm print, which sparked the whole project.
Hand-Reading Has Ancient Global Roots
- Chiromancy and physiognomy have deep, cross-cultural roots in South Asia, Greek, Chinese, Persian, and Hebrew texts.
- These practices read bodily surfaces for temperament, character, or inner states across many traditions.
Orientalists Traced Roma Palmistry To India
- 19th-century Orientalists traced Roma palm-reading practices to India to support linguistic links between Indo-European languages.
- They acted like early ethnographers, documenting Roma languages and palmistry across Europe and the Middle East.
