Fixism and conservation science.

The field of biodiversity conservation has recently been criticized as relying on a fixist view of the living world in which existing species constitute at the same time targets of conservation efforts and static states of reference, which is in apparent disagreement with evolutionary dynamics. We reviewed the prominent role of species as conservation units and the common benchmark approach to conservation that aims to use past biodiversity as a reference to conserve current biodiversity. We found that the species approach is justified by the discrepancy between the time scales of macroevolution and human influence and that biodiversity benchmarks are based on reference processes rather than fixed reference states. Overall, we argue that the ethical and theoretical frameworks underlying conservation research are based on macroevolutionary processes, such as extinction dynamics. Current species, phylogenetic, community, and functional conservation approaches constitute short-term responses to short-term human effects on these reference processes, and these approaches are consistent with evolutionary principles.

Chapitre 1. Lait, sang, larmes en offrande : la manipulation des fluides corporels féminins comme support d'une élaboration éthique pour la biosphère.

The ever-growing ecological imprint of human activities has lead numerous and diverse actors to develop new environmental ethical approaches, both based on experimentation and theoretical elaboration. These approaches hold multiple philosophical roots and practical consequences: some insist on the life and value of each being, ecosystems or evolutional processes, other insist on the instrumental value of nature. As for us, we have chosen to bring together experimentation and theorization, in order to lead a hybrid exploration between contemporary art and anthropology. Since 2015, we have conducted a series of performances, stemming from our own body fluids, considered as feminine (breastmilk, menstrual blood, tears of grief), and used as offerings for different living environments (« milieux de vie ¼). These gestures, conceived as rituals, led to debate with different publics about the relation between human existence and biogeochimical cycles. This reflection is grounded in the analogies between terrestrial and female fertility, but it goes one step further. We propose that a new pathway could be opened, based on a renewal of physiological concepts in relation with the development of an ethical position for the protection of the biosphere. It is rooted in the intimacy of each of us, and the material and symbolic continuities between human existence and the rest of the living word.

[Milk, blood, tears as offerings: the manipulation of feminine body fluids as a support for an ethical elaboration for the biosphere.] / Chapitre 1. Lait, sang, larmes en offrande : la manipulation des fluides corporels féminins comme support d'une élaboration éthique pour la biosphère.

The ever-growing ecological imprint of human activities has lead numerous and diverse actors to develop new environmental ethical approaches, both based on experimentation and theoretical elaboration. These approaches hold multiple philosophical roots and practical consequences: some insist on the life and value of each being, ecosystems or evolutional processes, other insist on the instrumental value of nature. As for us, we have chosen to bring together experimentation and theorization, in order to lead a hybrid exploration between contemporary art and anthropology. Since 2015, we have conducted a series of performances, stemming from our own body fluids, considered as feminine (breastmilk, menstrual blood, tears of grief), and used as offerings for different living environments (« milieux de vie »). These gestures, conceived as rituals, led to debate with different publics about the relation between human existence and biogeochimical cycles. This reflection is grounded in the analogies between terrestrial and female fertility, but it goes one step further. We propose that a new pathway could be opened, based on a renewal of physiological concepts in relation with the development of an ethical position for the protection of the biosphere. It is rooted in the intimacy of each of us, and the material and symbolic continuities between human existence and the rest of the living word.