Object Lessons: Materiality and Knowledge in the Kunstkammer of Johannes Schefferus

Abstract

This chapter examines the collections of Johannes Schefferus, a leading scholar and humanist in seventeenth-century Sweden, and in particular the ways he used his collections in his scholarly practice. Concretized by Lapponia, the most influential text on Sámi culture of its time, the chapter traces how Schefferus used drums and other Sámi objects as sources, complementing and sometimes correcting the textual sources. Informed by Homi Bhabha, the chapter concludes by suggesting the conceptual triad of discipline, desire, and knowledge as a tool with which to understand colonial practices in early modern Sweden.