Abstract

Through extended genetic ties, distant extreme horizons, such as oceans’ floors, the Antarctic pole and outer space have come closer than ever. The scientific study of the origin of life in the depths of the oceans has been connected to the search for life in other planets, as well as extreme Antarctic environments. Life is no longer conceived as exclusively bound to the exchange of nutrients and oxygen across soil and water, as it occurs in the hospitable environments that flourish in the proximity of the earth’s surface, where most humans live. Interestingly, in such extreme environments, what has been traditionally conceived as a genetic process along clear-cut lines of decent has become the product of lateral exchanges facilitated by ongoing interactions, which bring evolution closer to development. Anthropologists reflecting on the immediate implications of this understanding of life, in a post-human/post-planetary world, have point out how current scientific views on evolution resembles anthropological views on kinship, where relations do not necessarily follow demarcated lines of decent. However, the use of trees of life and family trees, in the understanding of extreme life, need to be revisited, bearing in mind their complex temporal trajectories. Grounded on an analysis of how time has been historically conceived in evolution and kinship, I show how genealogical ties across remote environments mingle with other temporal trajectories that connect our scientific understanding of extreme life to geological phenomena occurring on the earth’s surface, including both the accumulation soil and the flow of rivers.