Prehistoric Routes and Oracular Invasives: Assisted Migration as a Revival and Divination Technology

ABSTRACT:This article brings into conversation the question of species revival and projects of assisted migration. It engages the question of assisted migration—the translocation of species threatened by climate change to ranges outside of their natural distribution—as a surprising or overlooked technology for species revival, more specifically the revival and creation of migratory routes and movements rather than individual bodies. Its central argument is that de-extinction is a project that comes to bear not only on cells and bodies but also on the circulatory, geographic, and cultural aspects of a given species. The article closes on a speculative perspective, imagining invasive, migrating species as oracular in order to enrich the imaginary of species revival.