麻豆影院

What if we are our worst enemy? Two professors explore the biological and cultural roots of extinction.

Before Truganini, a Tasmanian aboriginal woman, took her final听breath in 1876, she was widely believed to be one of the last remaining full-blooded Tasmanians, or Palawa, as she and her people called themselves.

Her death marked the end of a chapter that began in 1803 when the British created a penal colony on Tasmania, an island off the south coast of Australia, and ended with the extinction of the Palawa people seven decades later. Born in 1812, Truganini watched her people be wiped out under a policy of capture, relocation or murder that resulted in the death of thousands.

By 1833, she and the 100 remaining Palawa had been forcibly removed to Flinders Island, some 20 miles north of their home. When Truganini died at age 64, the native Tasmanian language almost all but died with her.

鈥淎ll of the major genocides have been horrific, but Tasmania was one of the worst,鈥� says Paul Shankman, CU-麻豆影院 anthropology professor. 鈥淲ithin about three-quarters of a century they [the British] were able to eliminate virtually every single Tasmanian.鈥�

Extinction is a big word, a sprawling concept and more complicated than it may first seem. That鈥檚 precisely why Shankman and anthropology professor Michelle Sauther co-created their 2013 graduate-level seminar, 鈥淓xtinction: Biological and Cultural Perspectives.鈥�

In the course Shankman, Sauther and their students have explored various modes of extinction 鈥� evolutionary extinction, genocide, cultural and linguistic extinction, apocalyptic scenarios and the ongoing catastrophic loss of species known as the 鈥渟ixth extinction,鈥� a modern sequel to the 鈥渂ig five鈥� prehistoric events that completely reconfigured life on Earth.

Sauther brings expertise in biological anthropology and years of research on how primates on Madagascar are adapting to natural and human-induced biological change. Shankman鈥檚 studies on the peoples of Polynesia and his longstanding courses on the Nazi Holocaust and nuclear apocalypse offer a more cultural perspective.

鈥淥bviously, species extinction is different from cultural extinction is different from linguistic extinction,鈥� Shankman says. 鈥淏ut there is enough in common that we are looking at them all under the same rubric.鈥�

Extinction, while devastating, is seldom complete. The infamous fifth extinction, commonly known as the Cretaceous-Paleocene event, wiped out 75 percent of all species some 65 million years ago. But that event had a silver lining for us humans. With听Tyrannosaurus rex, ocean-going plesiosaurs and flying听pterosaurs out of the picture, mammalian life flourished 鈥� and headed down the path of evolution.

鈥淚t was catastrophic,鈥� Sauther says. 鈥淏ut if it hadn鈥檛 happened, the human species wouldn鈥檛 be here.鈥�

The idea of extinction, understandably, holds negative connotations for many people. But sometimes it鈥檚 just the ticket. Most species today 鈥� sharks being one notable exception 鈥� are the descendants of other species that long ago went 鈥渆xtinct.鈥� Horses today, for example, are not the horses of millions of years ago. Those species are long gone, but their genetic ancestors survive.

鈥淚t was catastrophic,鈥� Sauther says. 鈥淏ut if it hadn鈥檛 happened, the human species wouldn鈥檛 be here.鈥�

The same goes for humankind. Long mocked as a species of hominid too dense to survive, the Neanderthal was
believed to have gone 鈥渆xtinct鈥� eons ago. Yet we now know some Neanderthal genes live on in today鈥檚听Homo sapiens.Using DNA extracted from fossilized bones, scientists have discovered that some of our descendants interbred with Neanderthals.

Neanderthals 鈥渁re not totally extinct. In some of us they live on, a little bit,鈥� professor Svante Paabo told the听BBC听in 2010. Paabo is director of genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, which has been at the forefront of Neanderthal DNA research.

鈥淓xtinction,鈥� Shankman agrees, 鈥渋sn鈥檛 always as absolute as we thought.鈥�

Shankman and Sauther are careful not to assert there is any kind of equivalence between the 鈥渘atural鈥� disappearance of the dinosaurs or Neanderthals and the deliberate genocide of Truganini鈥檚 people or the attempted annihilation of Jews by Nazi Germany.

In genocide, 鈥渒illing people is an end in and of itself. The idea is to eliminate, to annihilate, to exterminate,鈥� Shankman says.

In April 1945, when U.S. and Soviet troops pulled back the curtain on Nazi Germany鈥檚 brutal network of killing camps, the world saw the horrific results of Adolf Hitler鈥檚 attempted 鈥渇inal solution.鈥� There were shriveled bodies stacked like cordwood and ovens blackened with the bitter smoke of massacre. Haggard survivors of hell revealed Hitler鈥檚 coldly calculated attempt to rid the world of Jewish people.

More than 1.1 million people were killed at Auschwitz in Poland; some 800,000 at Treblinka in Poland. The end result was an estimated 6 million Jews murdered, along with millions of Gypsies, Slavs and members of other religious, cultural or political minority groups.

鈥淗itler was able to kill about two-thirds of Europe鈥檚 Jews,鈥� Shankman says.

Yet genocide was more common in the 20th century than most Americans realize, he says. In 1994 more than 800,000 Tutsis and Hutu sympathizers in Rwanda were killed during three months. Between 1975-79, more than 2 million Cambodians died from execution, disease, starvation and exhaustion under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. During the 1930s, Joseph Stalin鈥檚 forced collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union killed from an estimated 3 to 7 million citizens and the Ottoman Turks slaughtered more than 1 million Armenians during the early 1900s. In addition, the U.S. government鈥檚 orchestrated efforts to destroy American Indians extended into the 20th century.

But there are subtler ways to destroy a people than out-and-out slaughter. Missionaries and settlers in North America and Australia removed children from their parents and sent them to schools where they were not allowed to speak their native tongues. Language is the key to culture.

鈥淭he basic idea is to annihilate them not physically but culturally to make them assimilate into the dominant culture,鈥� Shankman says.

Yet there are examples of languages being resurrected after falling into almost complete disuse. In 1896 Hawaiian was banned by a government closely allied with the United States, but it was resurrected in 1949 when the territory of Hawaii commissioned the writing of a new Hawaiian dictionary. Today, about 10,000 people speak the language, and the number is growing.

Hebrew had not been a spoken language since the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C., but it was resurrected in the 19th century by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. Born in 1858, Ben-Yehuda spent much of his life promoting Jewish nationalism after being inspired by European nationalist movements. In his mind Jews needed to return to Israel, as well as speak Hebrew, which had existed primarily as a written language. Before dying in 1922, he authored the first modern Hebrew dictionary. Today Hebrew is the official language of Israel and is spoken by millions of people around the world.

Of course, nothing lasts forever, be it language, a species or a culture. Change is the only constant, and part of change is destruction. Of the 4 billion species estimated to have existed on Earth over the last 3.5 billion years, some 99 percent are gone.

Yet the assertion by one group of another鈥檚 extinction is itself complicated, depending on who is making the claims. Jennifer Shannon, assistant professor of anthropology and curator of cultural anthropology at the CU Museum of Natural History, recalls an almost comical example from her time working at the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Museum of the American Indian. Irving Auguiste, former chief of the Kalinago people 鈥� often called Island Caribs 鈥� had viewed with interest an exhibit pronouncing his people extinct.

鈥淵et there he was,鈥� Shannon says, 鈥渓ooking at the exhibit.鈥�

When it comes to human-caused extinction, Shankman and Sauther agree humanity has a duty to respond, whether it鈥檚 intervening in genocide or being mindful of habitat destruction.

鈥淲e always have a choice,鈥� Shankman says. 鈥淓xtinction is not inevitable. To say it鈥檚 inevitable is to make a choice to say we can鈥檛 鈥� or won鈥檛 鈥� do anything about it.鈥�

Extinction graphic courtesy听Serazet Dinov, photo courtesy Glenn Asakawa