From ivory to plastic, or the unnatural history of materiality in the Anthropocene

A global demand for ivory has caused a decimation of two endangered species: the African elephant and the Indian elephant. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, ivory was a popular material for the production of everyday objects. Appreciated for its physical properties (durability, flexibility, malleability), this valuable material obtained from elephant tusks was widely used in the production of billiard balls, piano keytops, cutlery handles, buttons, and jewellery, defining the material culture also outside the areas of elephants’ natural habitats. It was not until plastic entered mass production that ivory was replaced as a bourgeois material for daily use. This historical insight into the transition from killing elephants for ‘white gold’ to the boom of the plastic age prompts a materially oriented analysis of the Anthropocene through the prism of human–animal relationships, colonial exploitation of natural resources, and the origins of Western consumer culture. Forming multiple links between nature and culture, ivory emerges as the ultimate artefact of the Anthropocene