The Relics of Science: Nonhuman Bodies in Natural History and Zoological Museums

Natural history museums function as pedagogical showrooms for science. They operate within the contemporary framework of the biological sciences—presented as secular, value-free, and devoid of social influence. However, I argue the practice of preserving and displaying bodies carries not only an epistemological lineage but also an ontological one. In this paper, I consider the function of preserved bodies in both Catholicism and natural history museums, exploring correlations in their respective developments, methods of collection, documentation, and presentation, as well as the contexts of relationality between human people and nonhuman dead bodies. Through this examination, I argue that, much like the fragmentary remains of saints, these reconstructed nonhuman bodies manifest a new kind of relic, weaving together the past and present through their own special powers of resurrection, reconstitution, and miraculous healing through the engagement with materiality.