After a series of interludes on the slow sedimentations of geological archives, Chapter Two, “Alternative Archives of the Present,” catalogues other forms of evidentiary sites of our time. These sites include places (natural history museums, seed banks, zoos, a cousin’s pantry), the genetic history and multispecies relationships of Fuegian dogs, and a letter from the Yagán community to the King of Norway, decrying the illicit and destructive expansion of the salmon industry. In these various evidentiary sites, extinctions are registered and revivals are envisioned.

Points to Consider

• What counts as an archive?

• Write an entry into an archive of the present.

• How do species archive colonial histories?

Images from the Comunidad Indígena yaghan de bahía mejillones