Haunted by hunting: A landscape geneology of the biopolitics, necropolitics, and sovereign power of red deer and wild boar management at the Veluwe

The Veluwe is considered as one of the most important nature areas in the Netherlands. Its public appeal in part derives from the presence of large ungulates, such as red deer and wild boar. These populations of red deer and wild boar are caught up in management practices and spaces of control that have emerged as part of the history of the Veluwe as an elite hunting reserve, including material practices and imaginations of nature and culture. Historically, these deer and boars were considered to be hunting animals, but now they are killed under the name of wildlife management. Yet, the hunting histories of this space persist through certain landscapes, particular animal species and breeds, discourses and symbolic meanings, resulting in the production of particular biopolitical subjects and objects. In this article, we draw on an ethnography of these hunting landscapes and historical and archival research to trace the genealogy of the ways in which certain forms of bio-, necro-, and sovereign power are inscribed into the landscape of the Veluwe and how these forms of power continue to play a role in the lives and deaths of these animals today. The case of the Veluwe contributes to a growing understanding of how conservation in many places has emerged as part of elite hunting practices.