Papers by Frederique Apffel-Marglin
In this article, my purpose is to foreground recent discussions on reontologizing the notion of "... more In this article, my purpose is to foreground recent discussions on reontologizing the notion of "socionature" as a way of critiquing modern thought and practice, which subverted the original hylozoism of Andean peoples. The term "socionature" acknowledges a critique of
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2012
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2012
South Asia Research, Mar 1, 1995
... Page 2. GENDER AND THE UNITARY SELF: LOOKING FOR THE SUBALTERN IN COASTAL ORISSA Fr&eacut... more ... Page 2. GENDER AND THE UNITARY SELF: LOOKING FOR THE SUBALTERN IN COASTAL ORISSA Frédérique Apffel-Marglin in ... A gendered life-style implies that non-interchangeable men and women work together for the survival of their community. ...
Worldviews, Jul 7, 2020
This paper explores the cultural context and ecological implications of two menstrual festivals i... more This paper explores the cultural context and ecological implications of two menstrual festivals in northeastern India: Rajaparba in Orissa and Ambuvaci in Kamakhya, Assam. We argue that these festivals are extremely fruitful sites to explore questions of women and power in religious communities where the Goddess is a central focus as well as their ecological implications for an integral worldview. These festivals, usually held at the beginning of the monsoon when the Hindu Goddess menstruates, are times when the earth is regenerated, when the body of the Goddess is regenerated, and when women and communities are regenerated in various ways. Participants report that pilgrimages to these festivals are indeed transformative and have positive impacts on their lives. As a result, we critique feminist arguments that claim that Hinduism is the basis for women’s social disempowerment, and as a result, the only meaningful social change must occur on a secular basis. We also use these festivals to critique contemporary feminist developmentalist ideologies.
Springer eBooks, 2019
Practical spirituality has a political as well as bio-cultural dimension. This essay explores the... more Practical spirituality has a political as well as bio-cultural dimension. This essay explores the implications of spiritual politics and bio-cultural regeneration for the vision and practice of practical spirituality and sustainable development. It explores the theme ‘bio-cultural regeneration’ as well as the necessity to solve the problem of a sustainable livelihood in order to be able to obtain such regeneration. This is motivated by a keen concern for the cultural-environmental (or bio-cultural) destruction that development/modernization, as well as globalization and neoliberal policies, are bringing about. Having worked for many years with some Peruvian intellectual activist organizations dedicated to the cultural affirmation of its autochthonous peasantry, the author acquired a deep-seated admiration for this peasantry’s agricultural knowledge and its practices that are at once sustainable and rich in agro-bio-diversity. With them the author explored the possibility of putting in practice ancestral autochthonous practices as alternatives to development which meant a rejection of production for the market, rejection of monetization, rejection of the capitalist market economy, and rejection of modernization/westernization. The essay presents such works of critique, creativity, collaboration, and transformations.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Apr 25, 1996
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2012
Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Sep 1, 1996
Mester, 2020
We can as humans indeed recognize ourselves in nature, and not only as we do when it has been col... more We can as humans indeed recognize ourselves in nature, and not only as we do when it has been colonized.. . made into a mirror which reflects back only our own species' images and our own need. We can instead recognize in the myriad forms of nature other beings-earth others-whose needs, goals and purposes, like our own, be acknowledged and respected. (Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. Val Plumwood, 1993) "We" on our side, presume to be the ones who have accepted the hard truth that we are alone in a mute, blind, yet knowable world-one that is our task to appropriate… Science, when taken in the singular and with a big S, may indeed be described as a general conquest bent on translating everything that exists into objective, rational knowledge.. . what is called Science, or the idea of a hegemonic scientific rationality, can be understood as itself the product of a colonization process.
Peeters Publishers eBooks, Jun 25, 2021
Seven papers are presented focusing on the work of PRATEC (the Andean Project for Peasant Technol... more Seven papers are presented focusing on the work of PRATEC (the Andean Project for Peasant Technology), an NGO of Peruvian development specialists of peasant background that was initiated in 1987. Their starting point is that development itself is the problem because its ...
Worldviews, Mar 12, 2018
This essay is an example of a post-materialist science in the work of molecular biologist Candace... more This essay is an example of a post-materialist science in the work of molecular biologist Candace Pert. Post-materialist science supersedes materialist-reductionist science and integrates spirituality with materiality. This discussion is motivated by the author's experience as an academic in a New England institution. Integral ecology is entangled with post-material science as in the work of cosmologist Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry and Mary-Evelyn Tucker. The last part discusses the author's creation of a non-profit organization in the Peruvian Upper Amazon. The work of her center is a response to requests by the local indigenous leadership for an alternative to their slash and burn form of agriculture. The alternative is the regeneration of a pre-Columbian anthropogenic Amazonian soil known as Terra Preta do Indio (black earth of the Indians) in Brazil, which integrates materiality and spirituality and offers the possibility of food security and sovereignty as well as climate mitigation.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 9, 2012
1. INTRODUCTION PART I SHAKTI: REGENERATING THE WORLD THROUGH ILLNESS, DEATH, AND FEMALE SEXUALIT... more 1. INTRODUCTION PART I SHAKTI: REGENERATING THE WORLD THROUGH ILLNESS, DEATH, AND FEMALE SEXUALITY 2. TYPES OF OPPOSITIONS IN HINDU CULTURE 3. FEMALE SEXUALITY IN THE HINDU WORLD 4. WHO HAS THE POTENCY? (WITH DAVID HUDSON) 5. DEATH AND REGENERATION: BRAHMIN AND NON-BRAHMIN NARRATIVES 6. SMALLPOX IN TWO SYSTEMS OF KNOWLEDGE PART II DECONSTRUCTING MODERNIST CATEGORIES: THE SUBALTERN THE THIRD WORLD WOMAN, THE SACRED HISTORY 7. GENDER AND THE UNITARY SELF: LOOKING FOR THE SUBALTERN IN COASTAL ORISSA 8. FEMINIST ORIENTALISM AND DEVELOPMENT (WITH SUZANNE SIMON) 9. SECULARISM, UNICITY, AND DIVERSITY: THE CASE OF HARACANDIS GROVE 10. RHYTHMS OF LIFE: RITUAL, TIME, AND HISTORICAL TIME INDEX
Contributions to Indian Sociology, Nov 1, 1998
This paper argues that secularism as a concept and practice arose from the need in 16th and 17th ... more This paper argues that secularism as a concept and practice arose from the need in 16th and 17th century Europe to create a neutral space making possible intra- as well as inter-State discourse. This neutral space was from the beginning part of the emerging scientific revolution; it transposed in a different key the dogmatic unicity of the two warring religious denominations. Secular science created the 'sacred/spiritual' as an other-worldly domain totally separate from this-worldly realms of nature and society. By looking at an important festival in coastal Orissa taking place in a so-called 'sacred grove', the paper argues that the category of sacred thus wielded does violence to a different reality where unicity and the sacred/secular dichotomy, among others, are not found. Rather than essentialist categories, local practice conjures a dynamic, shifting, alternating reality, in which no single principle or reality dominates. The paper argues that unicity is lethal to diversity and that secular nation-states have everywhere adopted science as both a strengthening and legitimising tool, thus endangering diversity. Newly emergent religious 'fundamentalisms' negatively mirror the unicity of the secular nation-state, whereas much of local practice retains its diversity-generating ways of life.
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Papers by Frederique Apffel-Marglin