nineteenth century anthropologists pieced together elaborate jigsaw puzzles

An example of metaphor used to describe science:

"The British scholars who had tackled anthropological questions during the late nineteenth century had relied on travellers' reports, and letters from missionaries and colonial officials stationed abroad, for descriptions of foreign cultures. They collated this evidence at their desks and theorised about the broad brushstrokes of cultural history, piecing together an elaborate jigsaw puzzle using information from many different courses to chart cultural diversity."

Frances Larson (2021) Undreamed Shores. The hidden heroines of British anthropology. London: Granta