Cultivating a Decolonial Feminist Integral Ecology: Extractive Zones and the Nexus of the Coloniality of Being/Coloniality of Gender

Citation:

Pagán, Melissa. 2020. “Cultivating a Decolonial Feminist Integral Ecology: Extractive Zones and the Nexus of the Coloniality of Being/Coloniality of Gender.” Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology 22 (1): 1-28.

Author: Melissa Pagán

Keywords: ecofeminism, coloniality, climate crisis

Annotation:

Summary:
“I contend that we ought to analyze the anthropological subject at the root of the climate crisis through the purview of modernity/coloniality, not only modernity. Explaining and analyzing the onto-anthropological nexus of the coloniality of being/coloniality of gender, I argue that while the modern anthropological subject certainly does sustain an extractive view of peoples and lands, it is born from a prior conception of the human person, one that is born from coloniality and that continues to be present in our own theological anthropologies (natural law, complementarity) especially. These anthropologies coalesce with and thus intensify the problems associated with the modern subject insofar as they aid in creating and sustaining hierarchized systems of knowledge and being. This further entrenches our complicity in the nexus of the coloniality of being/coloniality of gender rather than empowering us to subvert it, threatening our ability to build an authentic integral ecology and thus call for the creation of a feminist decolonial integral ecology to disrupt the nexus of the coloniality of being/coloniality of gender. To demonstrate the creative possibilities contained in a decolonial feminist integral ecology, I will provide and analyze two central concepts crucial to the cultivation of this decolonial integral ecology: hermeneutics of el grito, which is a renewed way to hear the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor, and vincularidad, which facilitates relationality and ecologies of decolonial rupture that, if incorporated into our integral ecology, would prove more helpful in resisting the extractability of bodies and lands” (Pagán, 2020, 5-6).

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Climate Change, Extractive Industries, Feminisms, Feminist Political Ecology, Gender

Year: 2020