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Short abstract:

The most radical animal immobility is death, yet dead animals often have a dynamic life, through taxidermy and museological display. This paper investigates the moral tensions of (im)mobilities by connecting contemporary collections of African animal specimens with the dynamics of Spanish fascism.

Long abstract:

If there is an edge to animal immobility, its boundary is defined by death. Yet, in contemporary culture, dead animals have had a highly mobile second life, through taxidermy and public display. The Western enterprise has been shaped over the last centuries by a particular culture of animal hunting associated with masculinity, privilege, profiteerism, racism, colonialism and ecological backlash. Animal trophies are at the centre of a material and moral economy residing in natural history museums, private collections and drinking socialization spaces, but extending further into society. They are also part of an international traffic regulated (with difficulties) by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, established in 1975. I discuss these issues through a case study connecting contemporary collections based on big game hunting in Africa, with the political and cultural dynamics of Spanish fascism (1939-1975) and its residues in the ensuing neoliberal democracy (1975-2024). I enquire into: The recent public discovery of large collections formed by Spanish tycoons who combined privileged connections in the Spanish regime, with major experience as trophy hunter aficionados in Africa. Its relation with an official culture associating national identity with a long-held aristocratic hunting practice, art, and the country’s wealth of natural resources. And, its role with past and current museological practice: Natural history museums have traditionally received exotic specimens (hunted by aristocrats) as gifts, and currently the seizure of such collections by Spanish police is a major way of new acquisitions for these (underfunded) museums.