Mammoths, Museums, and Molecules: A De-Extinction Icon Emerges

Abstract

Woolly mammoths are flexible creatures, able to move even in extinction between science and spectacle, the deep past, present, and future, and between the spheres of the living and the dead. This chapter traces how the woolly mammoth has interacted with science and entertainment throughout the modern period. It first places the mammoth in the cultural context of the nineteenth-century museum and then reflects on Lyuba, a mammoth specimen that holds a special fascination for audiences and illustrates the mammoth’s temporal and cultural pliancy. The third section discusses the woolly mammoth’s emergence as a de-extinction icon that holds out promissory hope for nature. The chapter concludes with a discussion of life-on-demand and the meaning of a mammoth in a time out of joint.