I wouldn't say that Shiva implies that all women s...

2008-08-05T19:05:30.717-04:00

I wouldn't say that Shiva implies that all women should act within 'earth mother' roles, instead is giving a socio-cultural interpretation of agriculture.

the Indian ecofeminist Vandana Shiva (1988, p38) makes this link explicit in her writing when she argues that 'women in India are an intimate part of nature, both in imagination and in practice. At one level, nature is symbolized as the embodiment of the feminine principle, and at another, she is nurtured by the feminine to produce life and provide sustenance.' Shiva considers that women are closer to nature because nature (prakriti) is seen as feminine in the Hindu tradition. Hindu philosophical traditions consider that there are two principles in the universe: purusha, which is male/non-material/'self ' or 'soul'/static, and prakriti, which is female/nature/dynamic.6 For Shiva, the 'death of the feminine principle' is equated with 'mal-development', the introduction of Western modes of development into the 'Third World', particularly intensive agriculture. Many ecofeminists, thus, re-evaluate what they see as a myth of patriarchal progress and instead envisage a return to small-scale, agricultural communities that worship the Earth Goddess, and in which women's natural inclination to work with nature rather than against it is permitted to flourish. Even where the antipathy towards modern progress is less extreme there is still a tendency to see non-Western religious traditions as 'free of the nature–culture dualism which is believed to underpin the oppression of both women and nature in Western history and thought, and the absence of which is thought to engender positive and sustainable relations between peoples and their environments in many non-Western societies' (Jackson, 2001, p23; see also Merchant, 1982; Plumwood, 1986;Warren, 1987).

Shiva has done a lot in supporting women, especially in india after the immense increase in the suicide rates amongst indian farmers (due to a monopolisation of agriculture by large corporations, n how they were forced into using non renewable seeds).

Shiva has done a great deal of work to empower farmers/impoverished people in asia (the seed revolution, slow food campaign etc)

but i think most often her work goes unaccounted for in the mainstream, perhaps because her stanchly anti globalisation views...
In addition, i think shiva acts as an excellent icon in the development of women. Comming from a south asian heritage, she is the only woman of her generation i have seen that has made such an impact in global terms.

Yeah, okay. But wasn't there some sort of debate s...

2008-08-03T21:28:23.595-04:00

Yeah, okay. But wasn't there some sort of debate surrounding Shiva's essentializing the role of women or something within certain sectors of food production?

I can see Dr. Shiva getting new life in this moment when the whole Green Revolution myth surrounding food production (referring to the Green Revolution in genomics) is proven untrue. Does that mean we will return to a notion of women in the developing world as Earth Mother in her name? Or is it that the Earth Mother as economist will be re-couped?

Comments on The Liberator Magazine | Blog: World food prices and Dr. Vandana Shiva

I wouldn't say that Shiva implies that all women s...

Yeah, okay. But wasn't there some sort of debate s...