Paper short abstract:

Human practices and technologies of measuring kinship as genetic similarity, lived closeness or good care travel beyond species boundaries. This paper examines how competing kinship measurements are applied in projects of biodiversity conservation by considering the iconic case of the giant panda.

Paper long abstract:

Genetic testing appears as a powerful technology for measuring kinship. Yet, older practices such as drawing genealogies and assessing kinship as lived closeness or good care persist and new indicators keep emerging, e.g. for microbial or chemical kinship. Such overlapping and competing kinship measurements are not only applied in negotiations of human belonging that structure inequalities (Thelen and Lammer 2021) but continue to travel beyond species boundaries. This paper sets out to explore the generative and exclusionary force of kinship measurements in projects aimed at protecting species and conserving biodiversity. In particular, it explores the iconic case of the giant panda: a global symbol of conservation efforts and a national treasure of the People’s Republic of China. To maintain a healthy population of captive pandas, kinship is measured in a variety of ways. While the priority of genetic diversity has been translated into a studbook and a matchmaking algorithm that is supposed to reduce inbreeding, biologists who observe animal behaviour highlight affinity (and thus kinship as lived closeness) rather than descent when making recommendations for successful reproduction. Moreover, the value of genetic kinship is both challenged and reinforced when reproductive biologists promise to develop embryo transfer protocols in pseudo-pregnant female pandas by measuring kinship as embodied maternal care. Experts of different biological subdisciplines thus tap into the flow of resources mobilized to protect this valuable species. In turn, their various measurements reshuffle the value of giant pandas as a collective and which specific individuals are worthy of breathing and breeding.