A Presentation Based on the Hypothetical Meeting of The Origin of Species with Fishing Vessels in Istanbul, by Güven İncirlioğlu; Sept. ‘97

Between 1831 and 1835, Charles Darwin sailed aboard the Beagle on a research voyage, and his observations on natural history later led to the theory of evolution of organic life forms on earth and ultimately to "The Origin of Species". The ship sailed through the Carribean, Atlantic coast of South America and through the Magellan Strait towards the Pacific Ocean, and to the natural preserve of the Galapagos Archipelago. The chronicles of these travels titled "The Voyage of the Beagle" came out afterwards in book format, and the first (and to Darwin, incomplete) ‘abstract’ of the "Origin of Species" was published in London in 1859. Throughout the book, one is able to follow the wide scope of observations and thoughts on variation, the struggle for existence, the geographical distribution and most importantly on the natural selection of living matter in nature. Before the concluding chapter, that is the part to concern us here, is the one on ‘classification’ under the title ‘Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs’. As in the basis of most other modern disciplines of science, the theory of evolution was an ultimate nineteenth century system of thought, as were archaeology, anthropology and many other western systems of classification and preservation of artefacts, organic life, people, as well as history itself.

To me, besides fiction, the instance (that the Beagle were in İstanbul) has the capacity to spark a chain of ideas, starting with much used dichotomy on the East-West axis. Photography came out officially in 1839 along the mentioned systems of knowledge and order, as an indispensable tool to classify and preserve appearances. To skip the already well defined field of colonisation and its close ties with control and power over the photographed ‘subjects’(ie. in İstanbul), one can glimpse into the offspring of the similar phenomena, regarding nature itself.

On the event of the ‘disappearance of animals’(a mental-visual thing), John Berger gives a detailed account of the nineteenth century. ("Why Look at Animals?" John Berger, About Looking) In fact, as the breadth of knowledge on animals expands, so are the distinction and distance between man and the animals widen. Berger obviously links the issue with the economy and culture of capitalism, as observed in the establishment of the zoos in the last century, all the way to Disney and children’s toys, and to pets as substitutes for the real thing. To be added to this is the function of modern sciences (and with it, the museums) to put in order and preserve and, in return, do away with it and to forget. In fact today, the major crisis of the global culture of capitalism involves the not so virtual disappearance of species that were dear to Charles Darwin, as if, once charted and now can be stuffed (or dried) and put on the shelf. But even within the worldwide hype of globalism, the western world (a distinct entity) was quick to realise the consequences and the coming catastrophe, and was able to bounce back early enough to save at least certain aspects of its immediate environment. Not so lucky is the other world. (Actually, it must, for quite some time, have been realised that the survival be global as well, but then that requires another type of control and power over the non-western subject, making the issue doubly problematic)

Enter the complex affair of The State of Turkish Republic and its people, with geography, nature, and its inhabitants. My own observation and very limited and naive recollections dating back to 25 years the most, tell me that perhaps nowhere else (except for a few countries with a highly radioactive record) the abuse of land and the sea is as intense and violent as this. But indeed as a humanitarian believing in the good of civil disobedience and in the peoples of this country (naive again), I tend to put the blame on the official policies of the state and, related to this, I see the current situation as a western legacy, a latecomer as always, and incurable. Charles Darwin inevitably put the animal in between man and his origin. But for this country, there is no origin, no memorabilia to reflect back on: it is always to the fore, progress by all means, at all cost. The western legacy (or residue?) is the fusion/confusion (read Virilio adapted) in reading the western texts, ‘to see the world that way’, and with the technocratic dominance of the official speech, put it to work. At the peak of the third wave, the telematic revolution and all, and among the bombast of the globalism, the latecomer is indeed the tourism, the industry, the urbanisation and the side-effects.