Wissenspoetik und koloniale Naturgeschichte

In G. E. Rumphius's natural history account 'D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer' (Amsterdam 1705), the marine fauna, minerals and stones in and around the island of Ambon are recorded and presented. For Dutch readers, the text provided a look into the nature of the colonial territory controlled by the Dutch East India Company. With special attention to the colonial context of the text and with reference to other colonial natural histories, this study looks at the representation of knowledge in D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer. Among other things, descriptions, lists, narratives, illustrations and comments are analysed in order to show to what extent these forms of representation are determined by colonial power structures and at the same time serve them. The study shows that the orders of knowledge, visual strategies as well as the polyphony of the text can be attributed to colonial poetics of knowledge.