"Wundarkammern; cabinets of curiousities, which prolifierated in the 16th and 17th centuries. These were usually collections of natural history specimens---skeletons, stuffed animals, fetuses. Sometimes they were ethnographical artifacts, brought from distant lands. Gathered magpie fashion, these cabinets were eclectic, unsystematic and sometimes a bit gruesome." "wonder is not an alternative to scholarly inquiry but its very essence; it is the desire to investigate the world and understand it." |