Dear Zeldoy:
Here is the summary of the paper entitled: The seed and the
earth:biotechnology and the colonization of regeneration. published by
Ecodecision Environment and policy magazine September 1993. Women
regenerating the earth. Special issue on women. You can order past
numbers to Ecodecision FAX: Canada 514 284-3045 or voice: 284-3043.
There is also e-mail. I do not have it here now.
You can get her address at Ecodecision too.
Vandana Shiva states that the concept of regeneration is
of central importance to the building and sustenance of living societies.
She observes, however, that the processes of regeneration have been
systematically hampered by patriarchal forms of thinking and patriarchal
patterns of behaviour. In her analysis, she traces the origins of
this devaluation of regeneration to the artificially constructed division
between activity/spirituality/culture as typically male characteristics, and
passivity/materiality/nature as typically female characteristics, and
shows how this dicothomy has been used to intrude into and colonize
the field of regeneration. One example of this is how the concept of
terra mater, Mother Earth, was transformed into an inert terra nullius.
Another example is provided by the biotechnology revolution, robbing the
seed of its fertility and self-generative capacity by colonizing it
both through technical means and through claimed intellectual property
rights. As in the case of the colonization of land, this appropriation
of the life processes has had a serious impact on Third World
agriculture, increasingly so since the introduction of patents on seeds.
What were previously looked upon as gifts of nature, freely exchanged
between farmers, have now been turned into patented commodities. And just
as technology has transformed the seed from a living, renewable
resource into a mere raw material, it has devalued women in a corresponding
way. The medicalization of reproduction has been linked to the
mechanization of the female body in which a set of fragmented and
replaceable parts are managed by professional experts. While this
medicalization is most advanced in the United States, it is also
spreading to the Third World. As is the case with plant generation,
where agriculture has moved from the Green Revolution technologies to
biotechnology, a parallel shift is taking place in
human reproduction: the relocation of knowledge and skills from the
mother to the doctor is increasingly accentuated.
The ecological movement has tried to counteract these developments
by emphasizing that there is no separation between mind and body,
culture and nature. Nature is, from the ecological perspective,
inherent inthe relationships and connections that provide the
very conditions for our life and health. The politics of connection
and regeneration is one of solidarity with nature and an
alternative to the politics of separatism and fragmentation, which
is causing ecological destruction all over the world. Natural
agriculture and natural childbirth involve human creativity and
sensitivity emerging from partnership and participation, not
separation. The politics of partnership with nature, as it is
being shaped inthe everyday life of women and communities, is
a politics of rebuilding connections and of regeneration
through dynamism and diversity.
Best ecofemwishes,
Albertina
doctoral student
Faculty of Architecture and urbanism University of Sao Paulo Brazil
