Abstract
In this paper we articulate how time and temporalities are involved in the making of living things. For these purposes, we draw on an instructive episode concerning Norfolk Horn sheep. We attend to historical debates over the nature of the breed, whether it is extinct or not, and whether presently living exemplars are faithful copies of those that came before. We argue that there are features to these debates that are important to understanding contemporary configurations of life, time, and the organism, especially as these are articulated within the field of synthetic biology. In particular, we highlight how organisms are configured within different material and semiotic assemblages that are always structured temporally. While we identify three distinct structures, namely the historical, phyletic, and molecular registers, we do not regard the list as exhaustive. We also highlight how these structures are related to the care and value invested in the organisms at issue. Finally, because we are interested ultimately in ways of producing time, our subject matter requires us to think about historiographical practice reflexively. This draws us into dialogue with other scholars interested in time, not just historians, but also philosophers and sociologists, and into conversations with them about time as always multiple and never an inert background.
Highlights
The Norfolk Horn Breeders’ Group (NHBG) aims to “advance awareness, promotion, preservation and enhancement” of the ovine breed in its care
By the late 1960s, the Norfolk Horn was on the brink of extinction, but, according to the NHBG, the Rare Breed Survival Trust (RBST) has brought the Norfolk Horn back from the brink
The relationships we have described between the temporal registers and their correlate notions of worth are most illuminating if understood as pivoting around alternative notions of care (Haraway 2008; Shukin 2009)
Summary
The Norfolk Horn Breeders’ Group (NHBG) aims to “advance awareness, promotion, preservation and enhancement” of the ovine breed in its care. The question of whether the Norfolk Horn is extinct or not is one that was, and still is, divisive, but the discussions on the pages of Ark suggest that the answers will depend on one’s definitions and starting assumptions about authenticity and artificiality This understanding applies just as well with regard to the discussions about synthetic biology and its proposals to bring iconic animals back from extinction, and to the more general questions about the relationship between copies, originals, and simulacra which synthetic biology raises, as it sets out to transform organisms into the wholly disciplined materials of engineering and industrial manufacture.. In what follows we build on such resonance by first observing how the diverse views on the relationship between copies and original at stake in the debates over the Norfolk Horn would seem to entail three distinct temporal registers, which, for reasons we outline below, we will label historical, phyletic, and molecular. We hope that as soon as you have finished reading, you will feel the need to rush out, stare at a sheep and repeatedly ask yourself “what is this now?”6
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
