Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
An insightful exploration of the iconic Gal pagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world
In a world plagued by environmental crises, the Gal pagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. This book tells the story of how the islands' namesakes--the giant tortoises--became iconic as living remnants of prehistoric nature. Yet the tortoises are not prehistoric. Their stories show that human and nonhuman life are deeply entangled.
This insightful exploration of the cultural and natural history of the tortoises uses these animals to demonstrate the archipelago's inseparability from the flows of global history. As microcosms of ongoing co-evolution shaped by human action, these species bring into sharp relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The book illustrates how attempts to restore the Gal pagos as an evolutionary Eden are insufficient in a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by human history.
Synopsis
An insightful exploration of the iconic Gal pagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world The Gal pagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature. For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers. This book tells the story of the islands' namesakes--the giant tortoises--as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism. By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution. The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled. In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it.