Grizzly @ Adams

American Studies. Carolyn Merchant’s “Reinventing Eden” contrasts two creation stories, both of which turn on the actions of a woman: a Penobscot Indian “Corn Mother” myth that “mov[es] from desert to garden” (leaving humankind in a happy, stable position) and an old Israelite myth that moves from garden to desert (leaving humankind in an unhappy, unstable position it must struggle to rectify). Merchant proceeds to frame all of western culture — at least its patriarchy, Christianity, science, capitalism, and imperialism — in terms of a furious and ongoing attempt to recover the lost garden (132-133). Hence the “recovery narrative” of her subtitle.

Opposed to the main western story, says Merchant, are two counter-stories: feminism and environmentalism. The first opposes patriarchy and attempts to recast Eve as a Corn Mother. The second opposes the capitalist-technocratic-imperialist attempt to transform wild nature into human-friendly garden.

Richard White’s essay is not quite so ambitious. White notes that environmentalism tends to see wild nature as a place for recreation, a place where one goes to play, rather than to work. Environmentalists tend to

equate productive work in nature with destruction. They ignore the ways that work itself is a means of knowing nature while celebrating the virtues of play and recreation in nature. Whereas mainstream environmentalism creates a popular imagery that often harshly condemns all work in nature, this second group is apt to sentimentalize certain kinds of farming and argue that work on the land creates a connection to place that will protect nature itself. (171)

One result of these habits is the familiar conflict between urban middle-class environmentalists and rural working-class people of the sort whose cars bear the famous bumper-sticker that asks, “Are you an environmentalist or do you work for a living?” Note how the bumper-sticker implies that if you’re not working out in nature, you’re not really even working. To work is to work outdoors, with one’s hands — not indoors with one’s brain. In this view ranching and logging count as work, but not, say, approving loans or teaching American studies courses.

I’d like you to put these two essays in dialogue. What do you suppose Merchant and White might have to say about each other’s ideas? Also, feel free to provide examples of how their ideas are (or aren’t) reflected in popular culture. Here’s my example: Joni Mitchell’s justly famous song about getting caught up in the “devil’s bargain” of patriarchal-technocratic-capitalist-imperialism and trying to recover the garden, Woodstock. And what the heck — I'll throw in Merle Haggard singing the Working Man Blues.