The Ideology of Environmental Domination Lecture Part 3 SOC165 Spring 2010 [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 2 In Part 3 •Patriarchy and Eco-feminism napoleon-throne haj03d 2666052 amin [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 3 Nature and Gender •Are women are more connected with nature than men? –If yes, is this positive? – •How does social hierarchy affect resource use and distribution of power? [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 4 Carolyn Merchant •Historical analysis •Similar analysis as Bakhtin: •There was a change in Europe in the 1600s – a shift from more the “organismic” social relations of a rural, pre-modern society to the more formal, mechanistic, rationalistic relations of an urbanizing, modernizing society convers_carolyn_150 Carolyn Merchant 1936 - [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 5 Carolyn Merchant •Western society is patriarchal •Historically, women have been identified with nature as weak and inferior •Social domination promotes ideological dualisms, such as: earthc • Good vs. bad • Man vs. woman • Nature vs. culture • Nature vs. reason • Nature vs. science [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 6 Carolyn Merchant •Domination of the environment starts with social domination of all kinds, not just gender •The historic emergence of mechanistic worldview caused “The Death of Nature” (1980) 9780062505958 [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 7 •"The female earth was central to organic cosmology that was undermined by the Scientific Revolution and the rise of a market-oriented culture...for sixteenth-century Europeans the root metaphor binding together the self, society and the cosmos was that of an organism...organismic theory emphasized interdependence among the parts of the human body, subordination of individual to communal purposes in family, community, and state, and vital life permeate the cosmos to the lowliest stone.” • • -- Merchant, The Death of Nature (1980: 278) [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 8 Carolyn Merchant •The ideology and practice of industrial capitalism has created today’s ecological crisis • •Her conclusion: We need a new “partnership ethic” with nature bagger288 fukuoka_side [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 9 Critique of Eco-feminism •Not just Western society has ecological problems • •Jared Diamond: Many non-Western and pre-modern cultures have destroyed environment Mayan_5 norsechurch Pueblo de Taos easter_island_04 [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 10 Critique of Eco-feminism •Women participate in environmental destruction 4380568 shopping_woman 3430521 [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 11 Critique of Eco-feminism •Just Another Dualism? • •Sometimes, ecofeminists identify the female with nature – as a positive thing •This is another dualism, separating men from women •Celebration of the “Ecofeminine,” not ecofeminism? 21382 mother_earth mother_earth Spiritofthewind [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 12 End of Part 3. Continue to Part 4. oil_platform_lg [USEMAP] Ideology of Domination ● Part 3 13 Citations Used in This Lecture •Diamond, J. 2004. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. London: Penguin books. • •Merchant, C. 1980. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: HarperCollins.