This blog post should more appropriately be titled: Personal Explorations in HNR360: Women's Rights, a Native American Tradition
This class had that sociological perspective on biology, and science in general, that every hard science major should mingle with. Reliving my observations from a non-eurocentric point of view (pov), but rather an indigenous or native american pov has restored some of the beauty and mystery that academia pulls from nature. Truly a gift to be a part of this class, and under the instruction of a great professor.
Topics to be expanded: Government, rape culture, GMOs, The Decline of Women Equality, Science, Medicine and the Church
**Note there were many more topics that were explored during class (ie. The boarding school experience, native american lifestyle, women's role in native societies, just to name a few, but this post would be endlessly long so I chose to exclude these, and others)
August 28th: GOVERMENT, RAPE CULTURE
In reference to native american government:
“They are to leave personal issues at the door; not use harsh tones and think about the coming generations in their decision making. They are to end their meetings before the sun sets”. Could you imagine how efficient Congress and the House of Representatives would be if they only followed this small list of civil rules?
In response to the question: “What are the ingredients for a rape culture?”, my answer is complicated. I feel that in order for this culture to arise, it involves a necessary superiority complex as well as the lack of fear of punishment. In a culture that contains the previously listed, there would need to be a “dominant” gender, ethnicity, or creed that feels their actions are of above the law because of their targets “inferiority”. It is for this reason that I believe it is improbable for sexual abuse to be common in indigenous cultures. Since creed and ethnicity are stable in these societies, gender appears to be the sole determinant. From my understanding male and female gender roles are incredibly equal in importance and strength making the reduction of ones gender to the other impossible without a cultural overhaul (ie. westernization).
September 12th: RAPE CULTURE (does it extend to Mother Earth?)
The elephant in the room the past week has been our focus on rape culture. Beginning the discussion, the statement “sovereign women in sovereign nations” was brought to the chopping block in order to kindle a heated debate on what it could mean, which then led to an important exploration of whether or not Mother Earth has sovereignty. When people take legal claim or forceful possession of a patch of Mother Earth, what are they actually obtaining? If Mother Earth were a sovereign woman, would it be right to violate her in the ways modern culture does? My thought is, that when you purchase land, or obtain it legally, to the state you are “marrying” that land; for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. The vows you take with Mother Earth should be no different than those you swear to your spouse. Just as Mother Earth cares for you, humanity should care for her. I feel that in many ways this is how the indigenous culture treats their relationship to the land.
A second digression of Thursday discussion that I found myself pondering was how we defined the ways to violate someone.
-in mind
-in body
-in spirit
In class we determined that a violation of body is called rape. But what is the equivalent offense to rape of the other two (mind and spirit). This is an interesting thought that I have been having trouble defining.
September 29th: GMOs
We have been talking about GMO’s for a week or so now but not ONCE have we actually gone through the classroom and discovered why people are afraid of them. Does anyone know why GMO’s are “bad”?
As far as natural goes, no, GMO’s are not natural by any definition, but what about the world around you is? Our buildings are made of steel (a man-made alloy), we vaccinate to prevent mass disease, we use fire to cook our food, we fly around in airplanes, we have flattened hills and hollowed mountains to lay track and road for transportation, we have gone great lengths to connect the United States and truly make it one nation. But now, as we modify crops to feed our growing population, we receive scrutiny?
We have been talking about GMO’s for a week or so now but not ONCE have we actually gone through the classroom and discovered why people are afraid of them. Does anyone know why GMO’s are “bad”?
As far as natural goes, no, GMO’s are not natural by any definition, but what about the world around you is? Our buildings are made of steel (a man-made alloy), we vaccinate to prevent mass disease, we use fire to cook our food, we fly around in airplanes, we have flattened hills and hollowed mountains to lay track and road for transportation, we have gone great lengths to connect the United States and truly make it one nation. But now, as we modify crops to feed our growing population, we receive scrutiny?
October 6th: THE DECLINE OF WOMEN EQUALITY
Jewish people during the Iron Age
worshipped Yahweh (God’s names) and Asherah as a pair.
During the “exilic period: the impulse to assimilate the attributes of the many gods and goddesses of older polytheistic systems to the one god, YHWH. Language that speaks of God as mother, for example probably represents the assimilation of Asherah’s maternal characteristics to YHWH.”
So could we blame the view of women in the world as the result of a radical reform to consolidate polytheistic religions?
October 13th: SCIENCE
One of my favorite quotes from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer: “I smile when I hear my colleagues say, “I discovered X”” “It was here all along, it’s just that [they] didn’t know it”. To be honest I have never thought of science this way, but it makes complete sense. When you move into the realm of profound scientific “discoveries” such as gravity (Isaac Newton) and the solar system (Nicolaus Copernicus), the wonder of their “discoveries” often distracts from the reality of the world around us. For in fact, those things have always been and most likely continue to be. In that same realm I am wonderstruck in the thought of how many things there remain to “discover” in the things that we look at everyday.
And in reflection of another quote from the book:
For when time is not of the essence (especially when you are a child during summer break) even the mundane becomes extraordinary. “I could not bear the loneliness of being dry in a wet world”, “I want to be part of the downpour, to be soaked, along with the dark hummus that squishes underfoot. I wish that I could stand like a shaggy cedar with rain seeping into my bark, that water could dissolve the barrier between us. I want to feel what the cedars feel and know what they know” (295). What a powerful thought, clear and expanding, free and unfiltered. It is series like this one that make this book so enjoyable to read.
November 17th: MEDICINE AND THE CHURCH
Just wanted to note that I got a good laugh out of the Church’s deductions.
1. Medical Schools and the Devil are the only places you can learn about medicine
2. Learning medicine from the devil is heresy and punishable by death
3. Women are not allowed in Medical Schools
4. Therefore, if women know medicine, they learned it from the Devil and should be punished by death
Classic Church logic…
I was extremely amazed when I discovered Pedanius Dioscorides (40-90 AD), a greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist, and his pharmacopeia, which was a 5-volume encyclopedia of herbal and related medicinal substances. I wonder if their discovery of herbal healing came through their own studies of from an encounter with an indigenous culture?
Anyways, herbalist remedies existed in the foundation of western society, where did it get lost?
I am not sure, but I hope to find out. The divide may have come with the Church’s monopoly on medical knowledge, creating a filter for healthcare in western society. Their scare tactics of retributive health (you’re sick because you sinned) created fear and fostered followers. What a wicked practice… It’s no wonder when westerners were exposed to the practice of indigenous medicine they were so easily swayed by its effectiveness.
