HISTORIANS AND ARCHIVES (A Study) HISTORY

Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2020

… Geographic Research and …, 1992

Entangled Future Im/mobilities. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mobility Studies, 2024

Romana Bund carves out elements of progression in narratives of extinc- tion and critically investigates current attempts to reanimate “lost” species from the dead through genetic technologies and selective breeding tech- niques. The aim of her chapter “Resurrecting the Past to Save the Future? Mobile Afterlives of the Thylacine” is to examine the mobile afterlives of extinct species and explore the implications of so-called de-extinction practices. Like Mary Shelley’s fictional character Victor Frankenstein, different biotechno- logical approaches currently try to restore species from the irreversible loss of extinction. In a process known as de-extinction, these resurrection tech- nologies attempt to reanimate animal remains in order to contribute to the rescue and preservation of biodiverse ecosystems. With the help of privately and publicly funded genetic research, the aim is to counter mass extinction and mobilize certain species for the future. By drawing on the example of the so-called thylacine, also known as the Tasmanian tiger, the animal’s en- tanglements in different temporal, spatial, and ideological dimensions are emphasized. The allegedly last thylacine died in 1936 at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. The only traces left today of the animal’s existence are furs, bones, and bodies in museum collections. In 1999, scientists at the Australian Museum in Sydney began to study the DNA of the remains in order to clone and reanimate the animal by using methods of genetic engineering. By tracing the different strands of the animal’s past, present, and future mobilities, this chapter shows how animal remains, as seemingly immobilized bodies, are nevertheless in motion and are used to shape visions of origins, identities, and future perspectives of life on earth.

2015

Estudios Románicos, N°20, 2011

2009

Film History, 1995

2015