Connections between readings.
Gebara states that “Christian traditional theology is a way without concrete ways to overcome injustices and alienation and submerged by hegemonic dehumanization and provides an irrational stimulus to forget unjust patriarchal order.” (102) This is disingenuous. True Christianity teaches and practices the teaching of Jesus which eliminates this. Slave owners were Christians, phobias are spread by many who identify with Christianity. These teaching were brought to the world by white men, but they could not obscure the humane underpinnings of Jesus’ inclusive and non-discriminatory teachings. Professor Wangari took refuge in a church for a year. Gebara informs us that most women in Latin America believe that traditional theology rooted in a patriarchal anthropology shows no path of their emancipation or autonomy. (97) They -the patriarchy, have corrupted the teachings of Jesus.
“The challenging question for me is not the struggle among ways of interpreting women’s lives, but the destruction of life while we are discussing the theories.” (95) I wonder if this statement is borne from Gebara’s statement that “marginalized people are growing; because the richness of the world is becoming more and more in the hands of a small elite.” (101) That is evident in the videos of the indigenous women Land is identity and Violence against the land. Anne Marie Sam claimed that her people’s identity comes from the land, and the imposition of the mines in their community was seen as producing jobs with lots of money, instead of asking how this would impact them. Indigenous people state the narrator, are violated, and experience loss when the land is harmed.
Gebara argues that oppressing women results in marginalization of they and their dependants. “Daily life for these women is like a jail, monotonous and limited.” (96) They are concerned about providing food and healing for their families, and concerns for the world around them is overwhelming and not understood. Most of these women were thrusted into womanhood by ages 13 or 14. Just as indigenous women feel dislocated from their land with the imposition of mines and join the group of the marginalized, because the financial windfall from mines trickle slowly to them. This other group of women, I believe feel dislocated from themselves-thrusted into womanhood so early in life. Marginalized people especially women become victims of sexual harassment or victims of rape. One video states that resource extraction leads to increase violence against women and girls. This is true in Canada because with revenue increase brings increase in alcohol and drug use. In addition, women in some indigenous communities reputation gets tarnished, the community accuses them of going to meet men, although many of them worked as housekeepers for mine workers.
How are these problems resolved? Gebara argues that feminists and small groups of women believe that resolutions to these problems cannot come from the patriarchal structure (who then?) because it is not rooted in egalitarian principles; only “reproduces the circle of dependence and violence.” (96).
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
“In India, Indigenous Tribes Clash With Government Over Trees.”
A government campaign to plant more trees in India has sparked a backlash from Adivasi-indigenous tribes. They express their rights are being violated. When “the trees grow, nothing else can take root here.” Said resident Yadav. Government planters, complain the locals, plant more trees, lots of it, like teak saplings because they are more lucrative. This results in dense root systems, not allowing any other plant growth. Del Bello reported that the locals complain “the animals relying on other types of vegetation, migrate further reducing the biodiversity of a once healthy resilient forest.” Yadav prefers bamboo-used for local construction, instead of teak-trucked off to make furniture. The UN climate reporter Krishnaswamy, writes that India’s greening initiatives are too “carbon and tree centric.”
Del Bello, Lou. UNDARK.org
Women sit at the edge of a teak plantation in India.