On the backs of tortoises: Darwin, the Galápagos, and the fate of an evolutionary Eden

Abstract

On the backs of tortoises: Darwin, the Galápagos, and the fate of an evolutionary Eden by Elizabeth Hennessy is reviewed.

Elizabeth Hennessy (2019). On the backs of tortoises: Darwin, the Galápagos, and the fate of an evolutionary Eden. New Haven: Yale University Press. 310 pp. ISBN: 9780300232745. Hardcover, US$30.00.

The Galápagos Islands, a collection of arid volcanic islands 700 miles off the coast of Ecuador, have fascinated the Western imagination for nearly five centuries for their unique flora and fauna. Today, the islands are a UNESCO World Heritage site, 97% of the land area (and marine ecosystems) of which is protected as a national park. This conservation effort has managed to retain an estimated 95% of endemic biodiversity, a remarkable feat for any island ecosystem. Yet this ecological success story and ongoing governance project, which aims to restore the islands to their Edenic, pre-discovery state of nature, obscures the reality that 30,000 people live, farm, and labor there, pre-dating the founding of the national park by decades. Elizabeth Hennessys insightful and moving book, On the backs of tortoises: Darwin, the Galápagos, and the fate of an evolutionary Eden, explores the feasibility of the Galápagos conservation agenda, which conceives of the islands as a natural laboratory of evolution which must be sheltered from human influence. Her work reveals that this conception of Galápagos is just one among many geographical imaginations, yet one which has gained credibility and power through its scientific production.

Hennessys work is both a compelling history of five centuries of Galápagos development and an analysis, building on science and technology studies, of the production of Galápagos as a conservation and tourist icon through discourse, knowledge claims, and material relations.

Hennessy centers her social history of the islands on their most iconic inhabitants: the giant tortoises for which they are named. Her analysis takes tortoises seriously as agents in the shaping and reshaping of the islands through interrelationships with human and non-human others.

Presented as largely static 'living fossils' that reveal natural history, Galápagos tortoises have been deeply integrated into the modern world since their discovery. As social actors, they have been seen by Westerners as a natural resource to be exploited for food, water, and oil; as exemplars of the theory of evolution; as endangered species and conservation icons; and finally, as a tourist attraction.

After framing her argument in the first chapter, Hennessy turns to the islands' most prominent non-tortoise icon, Charles Darwin, who apocryphally was inspired to develop his theory of evolution by natural selection after observation of Galápagos finches. Literally and figuratively tracing Darwin's footsteps, Hennessy reshapes the popular conception of Darwin as an environmental icon. His voyage on the Beagle was imbricated with Britain's imperialistic quest for new natural resources, and Darwin himself viewed the islands' namesake tortoises not as evidence of evolution but as vital sources of food, fuel oil, and water on these desert islands.

Hennessy explores how throughout its history, economic activity on the Galápagos - from early piracy and colonization efforts, to the modern tourism-conservation complex - has rested on the backs of its tortoises.

Next, Hennessy addresses shifting conceptions of tortoises and the islands themselves through the naming of tortoise species. Scientific names reveal the process through which the islands were produced as key evidence for the theory of evolution. Tortoise names do not merely reflect scientific discoveries; rather, species were produced through laboratory work, which took place in museums at the centers of imperial power and operated on tortoises that had been killed to be preserved for study. Decontextualized from their ecological and social foundations on the islands, the taxonomical classification of Galápagos tortoise species enacted these megafauna as endemic and endangered, and thus shifted understanding of the islands' place in natural history to justify conservation.

In the remaining chapters, Hennessy analyzes how the vision of Galápagos as a 'natural laboratory of evolution,' which must be preserved so it could be studied, clashed with other understandings of humans' relationship to the islands. Produced through scientific fields like conservation biology and pushed by imperialist powers like the United States, the 'natural laboratory' view demarcated separate natural and social worlds: the natural world of charismatic megafauna and endemic ecosystems, and the social world of residents, conservationists, governments, and tourists. Hennessy shows how conservation thinking produces human presence on the islands as 'unnatural' and therefore inimical to preservation goals, a conception which has enacted material effects for human and non-human inhabitants. This is most evident today in conflicts between technocratic park administrators and scientists who emphasis restoring the 'natural laboratory,' and long-time residents who emphasis livelihood needs. Even recent development discourses which stress harmonic coexistence of people and ecosystems reproduce the bifurcation of nature and society that has marked the entire history of Galápagos development. These visions mask the underlying interrelationship between nature and society, through which both were historically constituted and continue to remake one another. As

Hennessy ably illustrates with vivid illustrations-such as invasive species eradication efforts that include widespread slaughter of goats from helicopter-the production of the Galápagos as a 'natural laboratory of evolution' has always required human labor. Conservation, protection, and restoration are not apolitical terms, yet their deployment on the islands serves to obscure the political construction of the islands' past and visions for their future. Hennessy's work calls into question projects that would return the islands to 'Eden' or which suggest that people do not belong there, and she is critical of conservation efforts which seek to know and govern the social and natural worlds of Galápagos separately. As her powerful social history of the islands shows, there is no scientific, objective way to decide which lives matter on the islands.

Hennessy's writing is engaging and her analysis marshals an impressive array of evidentiary sources for support. Her ethnographic accounts put flesh on the bones of her deeply researched history of the islands and the scientific and economic networks in which they have been entwined since their discovery. For island studies scholars, this book engages with important recent themes in the field, including environmental sustainability, mainstream and alternative development, the Anthropocene, and others, setting these within the context of one of the world's most iconic island ecosystems. Likewise, Hennessy's book would be a welcome addition for students of conservation biology, the history of science, science and technology studies, and geography. Yet it is regretful that for researchers wishing to engage with her work and build on her findings, a methodological and theoretical appendix was not included to illustrate how she approached her work and data. Hennessy's book should inspire researchers from social sciences to expand explorations of social life in the Galápagos, islands which for too long have drawn interest mainly from ecologists and conservationists.

Matthew J. Zinsli

University of Wisconsin - Madison

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