An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of NatureLantern Books, 2004 - 319 pages First published by Simon & Schuster in 1993 and then by Continuum in 1998, Jim Mason's An Unnatural Order has become a classic. Now in a new Lantern edition, the book explores, from an anthropological, sociocultural, and holistic perspective, how and why we have cut ourselves off from other animals and the natural world, and the toll this has taken on our consciousness, our ability to steward nature wisely, and the will to control our own tendencies. Jim Mason writes: "My own view is that the primal worldview, updated by a scientific understanding of the living world, offers the best hope for a human spirituality. Life on earth is the miracle, the sacred. The dynamic living world is the creator, the First Being, the sustainer, and the final resting place for all living beings--humans included. We humans evolved with other living beings; their lives informed our lives. They provided models for our existence; they shaped our minds and culture. With dominionism out of the way, we could enjoy a deep sense of kinship with the other animals, which would give us a deep sense of belonging to our living world. "Then, once again, we could feel for this world. We could feel included in the awesome family of living beings. We could feel our continuum with the living world. We could, once again, feel a genuine sense of the sacred in the world." |
From inside the book
... plants ) . These made the prairie's upper soil a region a dynamic processes , a seething mass of life forces doing the microbiological labors that produced deep deposits of the dark , organic dirt we call humus . Some 150 kinds of ...
... plants other than grasses , also grew in a rich variety , 150 kinds in all . They included compass plant , rattlesnake master , blazing star , yellow stargrass , blue - eyed grass , yellow cornflower , bottle gentian , black samson ...
... plant spurs with a sound like fusillades of tiny pistol fire , all amplified by the tempered steel moldboard in a steady ringing hum that might last fourteen hours a day . In the wake of the plow was the confusion of the prairie's ...
... plants , animals , and natural forces to make them more productive and beneficial to human beings . It is often defined as the manipulation and control of nature for the benefit of " man , " meaning human beings . We usually think of ...
... plants , seasons , the sun , the stars , and the moon in four days . Then He made fish and sea creatures and birds of the air , urging them to " be fruitful and multiply , and fill the waters in the seas , and let the fowl multiply in ...
Contents
11 | |
21 | |
Before Agriculture A World Alive and Ensouled | 50 |
Animals The Most Moving Things in the World | 91 |
Agriculture A New Relationship with Nature a New World Order for Living Beings | 118 |
Misothery and the Reduction of Animals and Nature | 158 |
Misogyny and the Reduction of Women and Female Power | 186 |
Racism and Colonialism Dominating Lands and Others | 210 |
Rituals of Dominionism Then and Now | 242 |
Beyond Dominionism | 269 |
References | 299 |
Index | 310 |
Other editions - View all
UNNATURAL ORDER: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature?fully Revised and ... JIM. MASON No preview available - 2021 |