The Seed and the Earth: Biotechnology and the Colonisation of Regeneration
Author(s)
Shiva, Vandana
Abstract
The paper elaborates the concept of regeneration as one of central importance for 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 behavior. The paper 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 dichotomy has been used to intrude into and colonize the field of regeneration. 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 in the everyday life of women and communities, is a politics of rebuilding connections and of regeneration through dynamism and diversity.
