Women as Sacred Custodians of the Earth? Women, Spirituality and the Environment

by Alaine Low (Editor), Soraya Tremayne (Editor)

Literature on women, development and environment is abundant. The relationship between women and ecology has been analyzed by various disciplines, by specialists from the North as well as the South. This book offers a new perspective, specifically to challenge the assumption that women have a special affinity with the Earth and therefore a historic mission for the care of the environment. The book explores spiritual, religious and philosophical beliefs concerning women and ecology, and whether women are truly "sacred custodians" of the Earth. This concept has evolved from ideas developed by eco-feminists. Whether and how different belief systems can be put to use to create an awareness to protect, preserve and improve ecological conditions is discussed. The collection of papers demonstrates the complexity of the issues and the variations and vulnerability of the assumed relationship between women and the environment in different cultural and political contexts. The book challenges policy solutions which are devised to be on a global scale and to create unrealistic global aspirations, and the value of targeting women in a particular attempt to achieve environmentally sustainable development.

208 pages, Library Binding

First published July 1, 2001

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essay collections are always unpredictable reads. Usually, one or two essays is a bit dodgy, and there is one true standout of the collection. Furthermore, for a researcher, reading the entire collection is typically a redundancy because only one essay is relevant to their research.

While it doesn't fully escape from these downsides of the genre, this is a remarkable collection. Broadly, it explores how various non-Western and antique societies conceive of the relation between womanhood and the environment. However, to my surprise, the essays of this volume contained an incredible level of nuance and were interested in portraying these cultural groups with minimal fetishization. Truly remarkable.