# A political epistemology for extinction studies? On the ideas of preservation and replenishment

## TL;DR

This article explores how political epistemology can help understand ideas of preservation and replenishment in the context of extinction studies.

## Contribution

It introduces a political epistemology framework for analyzing preservation and replenishment in extinction studies.

## Key findings

- Political epistemology helps question the social goals of preservation in extinction studies.
- The article uses the thylacine to illustrate a political epistemology for museum-based preservation.
- Replenishment, as practiced by Indigenous peoples, offers an alternative to traditional preservation.

## Abstract

This perspective article takes up the challenge of articulating a political epistemology for extinction studies, centered around how both the systematic-scientific and mythopoetic traditions conceive of the idea of preservation. Political epistemology offers a solution to this for impasse because it asks the question of the social orientation or “end” of knowledge formations, thereby questioning what the larger goal of preservation might be. By focusing on the example of the thylacine, I outline one strand of what a political epistemology for contemporary justifications of preservation in the Museum might look like. Then I discuss how the mode of storytelling in extinction studies also conceives of preservation. Finally, I introduce the idea of replenishment as contrary to the preservation, focused on the cultural practices of Indigenous peoples in North East Arnhem Land, and ask whether new developments in the techno-scientific tradition will begin to turn to replenishment as well.