Zeven delen van het gebit van verschillende soorten neushoorns before 1893

This is an illustration by Nabholz & Co. Scherer entitled 'Zeven delen van het gebit van verschillende soorten neushoorns', or Seven sections of the teeth of various types of rhinoceros. While seemingly an objective scientific record, the image participates in a history of colonial exploitation and taxonomy. European naturalists and scientific illustrators played a crucial role in cataloging the natural world, often extracting and displaying specimens from colonized lands for scientific study. The act of isolating and categorizing these teeth reflects a Western impulse to dissect and understand the world through a lens of scientific superiority. Rhinos, powerful and majestic, become reduced to fragmented specimens, divorced from their ecological and cultural contexts. What does it mean to classify and catalogue a living creature? What narratives are imposed and what perspectives are erased in this process? Ultimately, this illustration compels us to reflect on our relationship with the natural world and the power dynamics that shape our understanding of it.