Paper short abstract

This paper addresses the characterisation of moral failings in the exploitation in Tierra del Fuego of fur seals for garments against a background of historical change in which the population of local human groups was extinguished and that of sea mammals severely threatened.

Paper long abstract

Moral choices are often made in the light of experience gained from historical precedent. As the hunting of seals changed from the self-sufficient localism practised by the Yamana and Selknam of Tierra del Fuego to the full-scale exploitation by whalers and sealers from northern countries, different moral equations pitted local humans, outsiders and non-human animals against each other. This paper addresses some of the moral implications involved in changing attitudes toward the clothing of human bodies with the fur of non-human animals in a process in which the population of local human groups was extinguished and that of sea mammals severely threatened.