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Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access published online on February 9, 2008
Journal of the History of Collections, doi:10.1093/jhc/fhm038
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Wonders of America

The curiosity cabinet as a site of representation and knowledge

Isabel Yaya


  Abstract

This essay examines the representation of the New World in cabinets of curiosities throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Despite the contrasting nature of these private collections and the varying degrees of access that European states had to such exotic objects, the characterization and assessment of the Americana displays a consistent similarity. It is argued here that the meaning of these items within the microcosm of the cabinets can be comprehended by the intellectual enterprise that sustained the gathering of curiosities and by the representation of Amerindian societies in moral history works.

Correspondence: Address for correspondence Isabel Yaya, School of History and Philosophy, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia. isbelyaya{at}gmail.com


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