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Living in a chaotic time before the turn of the millennium, more and more people have begun to realize that a thread of crisis has been woven into the fabric of our most basic states of being: environmental, spiritual, social, and political. The question is not whether we have problems, as it is obvious that we do, but how we are going to solve our problems. Humanity is searching for a path to lead out of chaos and confusion and into the next millennium with new human and planetary awareness. We must create a life affirming future in order to survive in a time where we have created the technology to destroy ourselves. This realization has had it's own effect on many theories and philosophies, including traditional feminist theory. The outcome is a feminism mixed with environmentalism and flavored with hints of spiritual overtones; the outcome is ecofeminism.
The term ecofeminisme was coined by the French writer Francoise d'Eauboone in 1974 to represent women's potential for bringing about an ecological revolution to ensure human survival on the planet. Since that time ecofeminism has taken root and blossomed into a growing movement attracting diverse people of race and gender. Through the ecofeminist lens the devaluing of natural processes (nature) and the devaluing of women are linked, and both stem from patriarchal society and consciousness. What happens to women happens to the earth and vice versa because of the natural connection between the two, not to mention the unnatural associations imposed by male domination (Diamond Intro). In order to go any further with ecofeminist theory however, it is necessary to understand what ecofeminsts define as our current problems and the roots or causes of those problems, namely patriarchal consciousness and dualism. If our hope is to ultimately transform, we must first know what we are transforming from. Therefore an investigation of what has lead us to this point is essential to the ecofeminist argument.
Despite what people may have believed for centuries about the origins of the human race, there is now overwhelming archeological and scholarly evidence that in the first few millennia of human life God was envisioned as female and people lived in matrilinear societies, meaning that identity and oppressions were passed down through a mother lineage (Stone 2). Not to be confused with a "female dominated" society, matrilinear or matrifocal also means "mother centered" with humans having a deep respect for both the male and female aspects of life. Early societies also realized that opposing energies existed in all creation, material and spiritual, light and darkness, masculine and feminine, heaven and earth, technology and nature, thinking and feeling, good and evil, yet had not learned how to profit form the separation and isolation of these differences.
Obviously something changed, and like many profound occurrences in human history, the shift from a balanced society into patriarchy cannot be documented a single event. Rather, there were several factors which, starting as early as 3000 B.C., resulted in an unnatural system of male domination.
At the same time, the delicate balance of opposite energies began to tilt to one side; "When men discovered how to turn 'difference' into dominance they laid the ideological foundation for all systems of hierarchy, inequality, and exploitation" (Vowels 55). With this change, recognition of duality changed into the conflict of dualism.
Duality is how the early matrifocal societies viewed the world; realizing that differences exist, but also realizing that our existence is based on the inter-connectedness and working together of opposite energies. Similar in concept is the Taoist teaching of Yin and Yang: there is always something of the other in every whole, flowing continuously in the form of infinity.
With the gradual shift into patriarchy cam the practice of dualism; pitting of opposites against each other. At one end in nature, emotions, feminine energy; at the other end is technology, thinking, and masculine energy. Both are static, isolated, and working against each other, causing conflict internally as well as externally. With dualism also came the valuing and devaluing of each half of the scale; of they are separate, one must be better.
The phrase "all history is a footnote to Plato" indicates the power that Greek philosophers had in creating our current state of consciousness (Gore 245). By far the most influential philosophers were Plato (428-347 B.C.) and Aristotle (389-322 B.C.). As Plato tried to give rational explanation to the earth and species known as human, he developed his famous 'World of Ideas' in which everything that existed on earth in physical form first had it's origins in a separate conceptual world where perfect "mold" for each form existed. The first to state that reason (coming to conclusion without the ability of the senses) was a superior form of knowledge, he therefore believed we could have only true knowledge of things that can be understood with reason. Asserting that the human being is a dual creature, he furthered the split, "man's soul is of reason and therefore wishes to leave it's earthly body and return to the world of ideas" (Gaarder 81-92). As for Aristotle, one of his more famous quotes is the assertion that "a woman is an unfinished man" and lacks the ability to reason, a virtue valued higher that intuition or feeling.
Plato and Aristotle did not found the belief that there are opposing energies in everything. Early people were quite aware of this and could see it clearly in many examples. What Greek philosophers were responsible for however, was promoting the division of the two and putting a greater value on one half of the scale. Also of great importance was the claim that mankind was separate from the natural environment, a belief that has supported much of the environmental destruction we see today (Gore 238).
Greek philosophy has been incorporated into many religions and cultures, changing Western society, tbus playing an important part in the emergence of our current crisis.
After realizing what is wrong, men and women must work together to weave new stories, new myths, and create a vision of the future that is neither one sided or devaluing. Five thousand years of conditioning is not easily erased, but the issue cannot wait any longer; the crisis upon us is too severe. Ecofeminist are wise to realize that the way we choose to change things plays a part in the final outcome. In their to introduction to "Reweaving the World", Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman-Orenstien make this clear, "while ecofeminism recognizes the severity of the crisis, it also recognizes that the method we choose in dealing with the problem must be life-affirming, concentual, and nonviolent."
Attaining balance is not simply giving occasional "recognition" to women for "outstanding achievements", meaning women acting like men. Women, in increasing numbers look for a "more fundamental shift in consciouses then the acceptance of women's participation in the marketplace of the public world" , and realize that this male world with it's environmental destruction, loss of sacred connection with nature, physical and spiritual warfare, and devaluing of the feminine side of life is not worthy of our support and loyalty (Diamond Into).
Our patriarchal society is resistant to any healing changes because in the nature of it's set-up, one side benefits over the other. Men will not give up their "inherent" privileges and humans will not stop exploiting natural resources until is made clear that both sides suffer under dualism. After all, what world would be left to live in if we destroy the one we already inhabit?
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