Understanding change

The idea that things might change through time was adapted slowly during the 16th and 17th centuries. As long as the change wasn’t visible, it wasn’t assumed.

So how did the change become visible? One contributing factor was the discoveries of the new worlds. European explorers found primitive cultures there that raised many questions. Were they created by God? If they were, why had He created them inferior? And then, eventually: could it be He had created everyone like those primitive people? Europeans, being superior, had simply evolved from there. A difficult concept to accept for people who believed they had been created to His immutable image.

Evidence began to cumulate at home, too, that supported the notion that Europeans – or the Christian world – had evolved. Fossils and old artefacts, oddly similar to those of the primitive cultures, previously discarded as irrelevant, became items of interest. Explanations were sought for the curious items unearthed all over Europe that didn’t fit the current understanding about the world.

Collecting curiosities became a hobby for the wealthy who built entire chambers for their collections. These curiosity cabinets contained both man-made items and biological specimen that were arranged according to what they were understood to be – a Narwhal husk was obviously a horn of a unicorn, for example. Classifications were made, often based on similarities that seem trivial to modern people, like colouring and shape. Fossils were classified as rocks.

As more and more items were collected, classifications became easier to make and so became more detailed, if not always accurate. And increasingly, it became evident that some specimens or artefacts were simply earlier forms of those items still around. Similar development happened in other areas too. Antiquarian and genealogical studies became popular and added to the cumulating evidence that things had changed through time. Eventually, change ceased from being a cause of wonder and became a fact.

Cabinet of curiosities, Naples 1599.

Engraving from Dell'Historia Naturale by Ferrante Imperato.

I’ll retire for the holidays and return in January with new topics. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.