Governing the Wild: Ecotours of Power

278 Pages·2011·2.483 MB·English

by  Stephanie Rutherford

GOVERNING THE WILD
This page intentionally left blank
Governing the Wild
• • • •
Ecotours of Power
Stephanie Rutherford
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
Copyright 2011by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rutherford, Stephanie.
Governing the wild : ecotours of power / Stephanie Rutherford.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7440-4(hc : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8166-7447-3(pb : alk. paper)
1. Ecotourism. I. Title.
G156.5.E26R88 2011
910.4—dc23
2011028086
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer.
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
to Paul Rutherford, my father,
for his trenchant insight and thoughtful guidance
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Introduction: Governing Nature ix
1. Ordering Nature at the American Museum of Natural History 1
2. Disney’s Animal Kingdom: The Wild That Never Was 43
3. Wolves, Bison, and Bears, Oh My! Defining Nature
at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks 89
4. Science and Storytelling: Al Gore and the Climate Debate 139
Conclusion: Being Otherwise 183
Acknowledgments 205
Notes 207
Bibliography 213
Index 231
This page intentionally left blank
• INTRODUCTION •
Governing Nature
Many Stories, One Discourse
In the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History in
New York is a glass case embedded in the floor of the exhibit called “The
Crisis Zone.” Housed within this case is a number of extinct or endan-
gered animal specimens, the most notable among them being a giant Ben-
gal tiger. Its eyes are alert, round, steady; it regards the viewer almost in
surprise at the encounter. Its gaze draws the viewer in, inviting a connec-
tion—a mutual recognition of the other and understanding that its wild
cousins are under threat. This is charismatic megafauna at its best, and its
presence countenances reflection on how things could have gone so badly
awry. Its beauty provokes a question: what can we do to stem the tide of
environmental destruction so that animals such as this can be saved?
But it is also a dead tiger; no breath will illuminate its luxuriant fur, no
life can be detected in its static gaze. And so, while it appears that this tiger
offers the museum visitor something, it is, in fact, a one-sided story. It has
been killed, stuffed, and displayed by museum curators, first to show peo-
ple nature from a distant land, and now as a cautionary tale of the excesses
of modernity. In either iteration, it did not choose its fate. Rather, it is a
sacrificial specimen, its life having been taken in the pursuit of science; it
has died so it can never die. And its presence acts as an allegory in a mod-
ern bestiary, a morality tale about the impending death of nature. This
ossuary of biotic life instructs the visitor about what will happen if we do
not act for nature.
The American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Biodiversity is but
one of the case studies that animates this book. The others are Disney’s
Animal Kingdom, an ecotour to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National
Parks, and Al Gore and his film An Inconvenient Truth.Given the diversity
of the cases represented, it would seem that scene described above would
be an isolated one, particular only to museums and their visual logic of dis-
play and representation. However, the narrative of the tiger does not stand
• ix •