Ph.D. in comparative literature (Univ. of Toronto, l99l), and having occupied several positions as (associate or full) professor of women's studies in Canada and Finland I continue to do research on ecofeminist, ecospiritual and cultural studies topics. Website kaarinakailo.info gives more info on my many books, eg. on Finno-Ugric goddess mythology, sauna and spirituality, modern matriarchal studies, neoliberalism
Karhumytologia ja Suuri Äiti. Luolauskonnosta saunapyhäkköön (Bear Mythology and the Great Mother. From the Cave Religion to the Sauna Shrine), 2023
Many folk poems and myths describe the bear ceremonial many elements of which have been preserved... more Many folk poems and myths describe the bear ceremonial many elements of which have been preserved up to modern times among Finno-Ugric peoples. The dialectic of marriage, death and rebirth dates back to ancient history. Great Mother and Bear worship can be seen to date from roughly the same archaic timeline and are still reflected in many bear carnivals throughout Alpine Europe although in more patriarchal form. Both are characterized by the worship of ancestors and of the dead, as well as the cyclical passage of biocosmic time, the alternation of life and death, fertility and the withering of nature. The sauna as a primal temple and the Native American sweat lodge can also be related to the earliest spiritual rituals or noninstitutionalized religion. In both the world order was created and renewed in the symbolic womb or cave, with the constellation of the Great Bear and the symbolic bear's liar representing the source of life. It is thanks to this star constellation that ancient humans could plan events and establish/follow the life cycle. Bear mythology contains countless international bear stories and oral tales, while making a distinction between mythology and historical antiquity is a big challenge. Stories about maidens married to bears and bear goddesses can also be found all over the world, going far back in time. Archaeomythology, modern matriarchal and gender studies have revolutionized the study of antiquity with new interpretations of prepatriarchal, even matriarchal, cultures.
The Woman Who Married the Bear--The Spirituality of the Ancient Foremothers, 2023
Stories of the primordial woman who married a bear, appear in matriarchal traditions across the g... more Stories of the primordial woman who married a bear, appear in matriarchal traditions across the global North from Indigenous North America and Scandinavia to Russia and Korea. In The Woman Who Married the Bear, authors Barbara Alice Mann, a scholar of Indigenous American culture, and Kaarina Kailo, who specializes in the cultures of Northern Europe, join forces to examine these Woman-Bear stories, their common elements, and their meanings in the context of matriarchal culture.
The authors reach back 35,000 years to tease out different threads of Indigenous Woman-Bear traditions, using the lens of bear spirituality to uncover the ancient matriarchies found in rock art, caves, ceremonies, rituals, and traditions. Across cultures, in the earliest known traditions, women and bears are shown to collaborate through star configurations and winter cave-dwelling, symbolized by the spring awakening from hibernation followed by the birth of “cubs.” By the Bronze Age, however, the story of the Woman-Bear marriage had changed: it had become a hunting tale, refocused on the male hunter.
Throughout the book, Mann and Kailo offer interpretations of this earliest known Bear religion in both its original and its later forms. Together, they uncover the maternal cultural symbolism behind the bear marriage and the Original Instructions given by Bear to Woman on sustainable ecology and lifeways free of patriarchy and social stratification.
Mothering, Gift and Revolution. Honoring Genevieve Vaughan's Life's Work
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
Introduction
Part 1. The Personal is Political – On Genevieve Vaughan’... more TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Introduction Part 1. The Personal is Political – On Genevieve Vaughan’s Impact 1.1. Genevieve Vaughan and Susan Petrilli in Dialogue. For the Sake of the Other. 1.2. Kaarina Kailo, The Significance of Genevieve Vaughan’s Writings for the Post-Coronial World 1.3. Erella Shadmi, A Letter to Genevieve 1.4. Maria Luisa Di Blasi, Being Outside the Market, to Recover Integrity in the Light of the Gift Economy Part 2. Indigenous Background to the Gift Economy 2.1. Vandana Shiva, Living in Times of Epidemics and Extinction: Remembering that the Art of Living is the Art of Giving 2.2. Barbara Alice Mann, The Gift of Womb and Breath 2.3. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, The Relationship Between Modern Matriarchal Studies and the Gift Economy 2.4. Patricia Mukhim, Gift Economy - the Essence of Matriarchy Part 3. Historical Views on the Gift Economy 3.1. Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Gift and Exchange in Historical Perspective, Money, Exchange and the Modern Society 3.2. Rajani Kanth, Matricentric Gift Economy Part 4. Mothering and the Gift 4.1. Mariam Irene Tazi-Preve, Reversing Matricide 4.2. Darcia Narvaez, Angela M. Kurth and Mary S. Tarsha, The Centrality of Mothering for Human Flourishing Part 5. Women's Body, Divinity and the Gift 5.1. Vicki Noble, The Gift of Women’s Blood: The Sacred Waters of Life 5.2. Annine Van der Meer, Continuing Marija Gimbutas' Work on Ancient Female Figurines. The Latest World News 5.3. Nané Jordan, Placental Musings for Birthing the Maternal Gift Economy Part 6. From Theory to Practice 6.1. Alessandra Piccoli & Marco Linardi, Maternal Gift Economy and a Circle of Women and Men on their Way to an Egalitarian Society: a Participatory Action Research 6.2. Miki Kashtan, Attending to Needs without Coercion: Moving Beyond the Patriarchal Limits of Socialism to a Full Gift Economy 6.3. Angela Dolmetsch, The Gifts from Genevieve Vaughan and Nashira Eco-village 6.4. Kirre Koivunen, Women-at-Risk – Gift Economy’s Possibilities and Matriarchal Social Systems Worldwide Biographies Endnotes
Sauna, naiseus ja elämänkaari-Perinnekulttuurin paluu, 2022
This pioneering book on the FInnish sauna focuses on life cycle rituals from birth to love raisin... more This pioneering book on the FInnish sauna focuses on life cycle rituals from birth to love raising magic, wedding saunas and funeral rites. Like the patriarchal Church, the sauna has become a masculated institution while its origins reveal the strong ceremonial status of elderly women who were in charge of ritual life. The book is the first ecofeminist study of the sauna as a world renewal sanctuary and focuses particularly on women and the sauna's matricultural traces.
The study introduces the female spirit guardians or goddesses of Air, Water, Fire and Water as th... more The study introduces the female spirit guardians or goddesses of Air, Water, Fire and Water as they express the ecological practices to do with the FInnish sauna. The author approaches the institute of sweating as the microcosmos of Northern, mostly Finnish culture, and as the matrix of key rituals of well-being, healing, equality, maternal values of care. The study places ancient myths in this ecospiritual context as an alternative to how patriarchal religions and colonizers have previously represented folk deities, often transforming the gender of female deities.
Kirjanen sisältää muutaman edustavan näytteen haltia-
asuista, emoessuista ja tilkkutöistä, joide... more Kirjanen sisältää muutaman edustavan näytteen haltia- asuista, emoessuista ja tilkkutöistä, joiden kautta pyrimme tekemään näkyväksi Suomen kansan vanhoissa runoissa (SKVR) esiintyvät, tietoisesti tai muista syistä piiloon jääneet naishahmot ja niihin liittyvän muinaisen maailmankuvan. Esittelemme tarina-tekstiiliemme kautta myös naisen elämänvoiman ja sosiaalisen tehtävän innoittamaa muinaista ornamentiikkaa ja sen voimasymboleja.
Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman. Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift, 2018
This interdisciplinary study focuses on Finnish and Finno-Ugric myths of Nature Spirits and respe... more This interdisciplinary study focuses on Finnish and Finno-Ugric myths of Nature Spirits and respectful human/animal relations as social mechanisms for the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge. It introduces and applies Indigenous, ecofeminist and modern matriarchal research methods aimed at promoting Earth Democracy. The female figures of Finnish folk belief have been overshadowed by the male heroes. Kailo revisits the Finnish shamanic worldview beyond patriarchal prejudices. She introduces Finnish Goddess mythology (with her own illustrations) and shows the links between the legendary Golden Woman, Zolataja Baba, and other Northern Great Mothers. The author refers to ancient folk materials that provide hints of a mysterious Northern Land of Women (Terra Feminarum) of high antiquity. The study argues that a shift is needed from the competitive economics of exchange to the Gift Economy, and towards the culturally, not biologically “maternal,” human norm of the Gift Imaginary. This worldview has characterized many cultures past and present. The motto of the book is “Planet first!”
W o(men) and Bears: The Gifts of Nature, Culture and Gender Revisted, edited by Kaarina Kailo, re... more W o(men) and Bears: The Gifts of Nature, Culture and Gender Revisted, edited by Kaarina Kailo, revisits classic debates in feminist, cultural and Indigenous studies regarding gender, nature, and culture. Kailo presents a collection of essays, poetry, art, drama, and fiction that focuses on the mythological, academic, ethnographic, aesthetic, and socio-historic relations between women and bears by scholars, storytellers, poets, and artists from many cultures and backgrounds. "The Girl Who Married the Bear," for example, is a widely-circulated ancient tale in which women defy dualistic gender roles and relations and interact with nature in a variety of adaptive or transgressive ways. The story's power derives from its simple core: through a series of agonizing dilemmas it confronts the fundamental and decisive issues of marriage and death. Cross-cultural variants and fragments point to traces of powerful but suppressed worldviews that were relatively gender-balanced, even matricentric in parts of the world, and where humans and animals are interdependent and equal aspects of the ecological chain of being. This international anthology thus highlights the need to replace the master narratives with Indigenous and alternative narratives of regeneration, life-oriented values promoting an ethic of care and ecosocial responsibility.
Gender and Power in the New Europe, the 5th European Feminist Research Conference proceedingsd University, Sweden., 2003
The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collec... more The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collective compass towards eco-social sustainability in the digital age. I address the violent, ecophobic and misogynist globalization and its fundamentalisms, and introduce alternatives to the models of "compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity," dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. In my vision, one needs to both deconstruct the harmful potential within male-led High Technology (with its feminist clones) and to research and offer more eco-socially sustainable paradigms and futures. I have coined the term "cyber/ecofeminism" as a challenge to the dualistic tendency to perceive ecological concerns as the opposite of technology or the cyberrevolution. I will first deconstruct the dominant myths of cyberfeminism, and will then introduce a new imaginary, the Gift Paradigm, to replace the hegemonic "master imaginary."
This volume gives voice to Sami views on Sami culture and colonial experiences. It brings togethe... more This volume gives voice to Sami views on Sami culture and colonial experiences. It brings together a series of conversations between a Sami and a non-Sami scholar and selected Sami cultural practitioners who discuss a wide range of issues--from Sami knowledge systems and cultural expression, yoiking, reindeer herding, arts and crafts, and feminism, to shamanism, postmodernism, post-colonialism, epistemic violence, colonialism, racism, and specific concrete issues such as cultural appropriation.
... He fails in one of the initiatory tasks to which Louhi subjects him and is dismembered in Man... more ... He fails in one of the initiatory tasks to which Louhi subjects him and is dismembered in Manala, the river of death. ... exist, but to live often in a bitter struggle against a harsh and treacherous nature.' The writings of the Sami themselves on issues of property, moral reg-ulation, and ...
Gender and Power in the New Europe, the 5th European Feminist Research Conference August 20-24, 2003 Lund University, SwedenI, Jan 18, 2003
The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collect... more The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collective compass towards eco-social sustainability in the digital age. I address the violent, ecophobic and misogynist globalization and its fundamentalisms, and introduce alternatives to the models of "compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity," dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. In my vision, one needs to both deconstruct the harmful potential within male-led High Technology (with its feminist clones) and to research and offer more eco-socially sustainable paradigms and futures. I have coined the term "cyber/ecofeminism" as a challenge to the dualistic tendency to perceive ecological concerns as the opposite of technology or the cyberrevolution. I will first deconstruct the dominant myths of cyberfeminism, and will then introduce a new imaginary, the Gift Paradigm, to replace the hegemonic "master imaginary." I will contrast the modern cyberfeminist representations of hybridity between women and machines (Donna Haraway's cyborgs) with the more old-fashioned hybrids linking women and animals. I also address Haraway's prioritization of the cyborg over the Goddess.
... Page 2. Koulutus, sukupuolisosialisaatio ja teknologia näkökulmia segregaatioon Toimituskun... more ... Page 2. Koulutus, sukupuolisosialisaatio ja teknologia näkökulmia segregaatioon Toimituskunta Leena Teräs Vappu Sunnari Kaarina Kailo Kielentarkistus Osuma Consult Oy ... Page 4. 6 OSA III: Sukupuoli ja teknologia Leena Teräs ..... ...
Karhumytologia ja Suuri Äiti. Luolauskonnosta saunapyhäkköön (Bear Mythology and the Great Mother. From the Cave Religion to the Sauna Shrine), 2023
Many folk poems and myths describe the bear ceremonial many elements of which have been preserved... more Many folk poems and myths describe the bear ceremonial many elements of which have been preserved up to modern times among Finno-Ugric peoples. The dialectic of marriage, death and rebirth dates back to ancient history. Great Mother and Bear worship can be seen to date from roughly the same archaic timeline and are still reflected in many bear carnivals throughout Alpine Europe although in more patriarchal form. Both are characterized by the worship of ancestors and of the dead, as well as the cyclical passage of biocosmic time, the alternation of life and death, fertility and the withering of nature. The sauna as a primal temple and the Native American sweat lodge can also be related to the earliest spiritual rituals or noninstitutionalized religion. In both the world order was created and renewed in the symbolic womb or cave, with the constellation of the Great Bear and the symbolic bear's liar representing the source of life. It is thanks to this star constellation that ancient humans could plan events and establish/follow the life cycle. Bear mythology contains countless international bear stories and oral tales, while making a distinction between mythology and historical antiquity is a big challenge. Stories about maidens married to bears and bear goddesses can also be found all over the world, going far back in time. Archaeomythology, modern matriarchal and gender studies have revolutionized the study of antiquity with new interpretations of prepatriarchal, even matriarchal, cultures.
The Woman Who Married the Bear--The Spirituality of the Ancient Foremothers, 2023
Stories of the primordial woman who married a bear, appear in matriarchal traditions across the g... more Stories of the primordial woman who married a bear, appear in matriarchal traditions across the global North from Indigenous North America and Scandinavia to Russia and Korea. In The Woman Who Married the Bear, authors Barbara Alice Mann, a scholar of Indigenous American culture, and Kaarina Kailo, who specializes in the cultures of Northern Europe, join forces to examine these Woman-Bear stories, their common elements, and their meanings in the context of matriarchal culture.
The authors reach back 35,000 years to tease out different threads of Indigenous Woman-Bear traditions, using the lens of bear spirituality to uncover the ancient matriarchies found in rock art, caves, ceremonies, rituals, and traditions. Across cultures, in the earliest known traditions, women and bears are shown to collaborate through star configurations and winter cave-dwelling, symbolized by the spring awakening from hibernation followed by the birth of “cubs.” By the Bronze Age, however, the story of the Woman-Bear marriage had changed: it had become a hunting tale, refocused on the male hunter.
Throughout the book, Mann and Kailo offer interpretations of this earliest known Bear religion in both its original and its later forms. Together, they uncover the maternal cultural symbolism behind the bear marriage and the Original Instructions given by Bear to Woman on sustainable ecology and lifeways free of patriarchy and social stratification.
Mothering, Gift and Revolution. Honoring Genevieve Vaughan's Life's Work
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
Introduction
Part 1. The Personal is Political – On Genevieve Vaughan’... more TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE Introduction Part 1. The Personal is Political – On Genevieve Vaughan’s Impact 1.1. Genevieve Vaughan and Susan Petrilli in Dialogue. For the Sake of the Other. 1.2. Kaarina Kailo, The Significance of Genevieve Vaughan’s Writings for the Post-Coronial World 1.3. Erella Shadmi, A Letter to Genevieve 1.4. Maria Luisa Di Blasi, Being Outside the Market, to Recover Integrity in the Light of the Gift Economy Part 2. Indigenous Background to the Gift Economy 2.1. Vandana Shiva, Living in Times of Epidemics and Extinction: Remembering that the Art of Living is the Art of Giving 2.2. Barbara Alice Mann, The Gift of Womb and Breath 2.3. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, The Relationship Between Modern Matriarchal Studies and the Gift Economy 2.4. Patricia Mukhim, Gift Economy - the Essence of Matriarchy Part 3. Historical Views on the Gift Economy 3.1. Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Gift and Exchange in Historical Perspective, Money, Exchange and the Modern Society 3.2. Rajani Kanth, Matricentric Gift Economy Part 4. Mothering and the Gift 4.1. Mariam Irene Tazi-Preve, Reversing Matricide 4.2. Darcia Narvaez, Angela M. Kurth and Mary S. Tarsha, The Centrality of Mothering for Human Flourishing Part 5. Women's Body, Divinity and the Gift 5.1. Vicki Noble, The Gift of Women’s Blood: The Sacred Waters of Life 5.2. Annine Van der Meer, Continuing Marija Gimbutas' Work on Ancient Female Figurines. The Latest World News 5.3. Nané Jordan, Placental Musings for Birthing the Maternal Gift Economy Part 6. From Theory to Practice 6.1. Alessandra Piccoli & Marco Linardi, Maternal Gift Economy and a Circle of Women and Men on their Way to an Egalitarian Society: a Participatory Action Research 6.2. Miki Kashtan, Attending to Needs without Coercion: Moving Beyond the Patriarchal Limits of Socialism to a Full Gift Economy 6.3. Angela Dolmetsch, The Gifts from Genevieve Vaughan and Nashira Eco-village 6.4. Kirre Koivunen, Women-at-Risk – Gift Economy’s Possibilities and Matriarchal Social Systems Worldwide Biographies Endnotes
Sauna, naiseus ja elämänkaari-Perinnekulttuurin paluu, 2022
This pioneering book on the FInnish sauna focuses on life cycle rituals from birth to love raisin... more This pioneering book on the FInnish sauna focuses on life cycle rituals from birth to love raising magic, wedding saunas and funeral rites. Like the patriarchal Church, the sauna has become a masculated institution while its origins reveal the strong ceremonial status of elderly women who were in charge of ritual life. The book is the first ecofeminist study of the sauna as a world renewal sanctuary and focuses particularly on women and the sauna's matricultural traces.
The study introduces the female spirit guardians or goddesses of Air, Water, Fire and Water as th... more The study introduces the female spirit guardians or goddesses of Air, Water, Fire and Water as they express the ecological practices to do with the FInnish sauna. The author approaches the institute of sweating as the microcosmos of Northern, mostly Finnish culture, and as the matrix of key rituals of well-being, healing, equality, maternal values of care. The study places ancient myths in this ecospiritual context as an alternative to how patriarchal religions and colonizers have previously represented folk deities, often transforming the gender of female deities.
Kirjanen sisältää muutaman edustavan näytteen haltia-
asuista, emoessuista ja tilkkutöistä, joide... more Kirjanen sisältää muutaman edustavan näytteen haltia- asuista, emoessuista ja tilkkutöistä, joiden kautta pyrimme tekemään näkyväksi Suomen kansan vanhoissa runoissa (SKVR) esiintyvät, tietoisesti tai muista syistä piiloon jääneet naishahmot ja niihin liittyvän muinaisen maailmankuvan. Esittelemme tarina-tekstiiliemme kautta myös naisen elämänvoiman ja sosiaalisen tehtävän innoittamaa muinaista ornamentiikkaa ja sen voimasymboleja.
Finnish Goddess Mythology and the Golden Woman. Climate Change, Earth-based Indigenous knowledge and the Gift, 2018
This interdisciplinary study focuses on Finnish and Finno-Ugric myths of Nature Spirits and respe... more This interdisciplinary study focuses on Finnish and Finno-Ugric myths of Nature Spirits and respectful human/animal relations as social mechanisms for the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge. It introduces and applies Indigenous, ecofeminist and modern matriarchal research methods aimed at promoting Earth Democracy. The female figures of Finnish folk belief have been overshadowed by the male heroes. Kailo revisits the Finnish shamanic worldview beyond patriarchal prejudices. She introduces Finnish Goddess mythology (with her own illustrations) and shows the links between the legendary Golden Woman, Zolataja Baba, and other Northern Great Mothers. The author refers to ancient folk materials that provide hints of a mysterious Northern Land of Women (Terra Feminarum) of high antiquity. The study argues that a shift is needed from the competitive economics of exchange to the Gift Economy, and towards the culturally, not biologically “maternal,” human norm of the Gift Imaginary. This worldview has characterized many cultures past and present. The motto of the book is “Planet first!”
W o(men) and Bears: The Gifts of Nature, Culture and Gender Revisted, edited by Kaarina Kailo, re... more W o(men) and Bears: The Gifts of Nature, Culture and Gender Revisted, edited by Kaarina Kailo, revisits classic debates in feminist, cultural and Indigenous studies regarding gender, nature, and culture. Kailo presents a collection of essays, poetry, art, drama, and fiction that focuses on the mythological, academic, ethnographic, aesthetic, and socio-historic relations between women and bears by scholars, storytellers, poets, and artists from many cultures and backgrounds. "The Girl Who Married the Bear," for example, is a widely-circulated ancient tale in which women defy dualistic gender roles and relations and interact with nature in a variety of adaptive or transgressive ways. The story's power derives from its simple core: through a series of agonizing dilemmas it confronts the fundamental and decisive issues of marriage and death. Cross-cultural variants and fragments point to traces of powerful but suppressed worldviews that were relatively gender-balanced, even matricentric in parts of the world, and where humans and animals are interdependent and equal aspects of the ecological chain of being. This international anthology thus highlights the need to replace the master narratives with Indigenous and alternative narratives of regeneration, life-oriented values promoting an ethic of care and ecosocial responsibility.
Gender and Power in the New Europe, the 5th European Feminist Research Conference proceedingsd University, Sweden., 2003
The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collec... more The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collective compass towards eco-social sustainability in the digital age. I address the violent, ecophobic and misogynist globalization and its fundamentalisms, and introduce alternatives to the models of "compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity," dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. In my vision, one needs to both deconstruct the harmful potential within male-led High Technology (with its feminist clones) and to research and offer more eco-socially sustainable paradigms and futures. I have coined the term "cyber/ecofeminism" as a challenge to the dualistic tendency to perceive ecological concerns as the opposite of technology or the cyberrevolution. I will first deconstruct the dominant myths of cyberfeminism, and will then introduce a new imaginary, the Gift Paradigm, to replace the hegemonic "master imaginary."
This volume gives voice to Sami views on Sami culture and colonial experiences. It brings togethe... more This volume gives voice to Sami views on Sami culture and colonial experiences. It brings together a series of conversations between a Sami and a non-Sami scholar and selected Sami cultural practitioners who discuss a wide range of issues--from Sami knowledge systems and cultural expression, yoiking, reindeer herding, arts and crafts, and feminism, to shamanism, postmodernism, post-colonialism, epistemic violence, colonialism, racism, and specific concrete issues such as cultural appropriation.
... He fails in one of the initiatory tasks to which Louhi subjects him and is dismembered in Man... more ... He fails in one of the initiatory tasks to which Louhi subjects him and is dismembered in Manala, the river of death. ... exist, but to live often in a bitter struggle against a harsh and treacherous nature.' The writings of the Sami themselves on issues of property, moral reg-ulation, and ...
Gender and Power in the New Europe, the 5th European Feminist Research Conference August 20-24, 2003 Lund University, SwedenI, Jan 18, 2003
The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collect... more The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collective compass towards eco-social sustainability in the digital age. I address the violent, ecophobic and misogynist globalization and its fundamentalisms, and introduce alternatives to the models of "compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity," dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. In my vision, one needs to both deconstruct the harmful potential within male-led High Technology (with its feminist clones) and to research and offer more eco-socially sustainable paradigms and futures. I have coined the term "cyber/ecofeminism" as a challenge to the dualistic tendency to perceive ecological concerns as the opposite of technology or the cyberrevolution. I will first deconstruct the dominant myths of cyberfeminism, and will then introduce a new imaginary, the Gift Paradigm, to replace the hegemonic "master imaginary." I will contrast the modern cyberfeminist representations of hybridity between women and machines (Donna Haraway's cyborgs) with the more old-fashioned hybrids linking women and animals. I also address Haraway's prioritization of the cyborg over the Goddess.
... Page 2. Koulutus, sukupuolisosialisaatio ja teknologia näkökulmia segregaatioon Toimituskun... more ... Page 2. Koulutus, sukupuolisosialisaatio ja teknologia näkökulmia segregaatioon Toimituskunta Leena Teräs Vappu Sunnari Kaarina Kailo Kielentarkistus Osuma Consult Oy ... Page 4. 6 OSA III: Sukupuoli ja teknologia Leena Teräs ..... ...
I will discuss in this paper how a new modality of learning and teaching-the politics of visualiz... more I will discuss in this paper how a new modality of learning and teaching-the politics of visualization-may help integrative feminists meet a challenge of the 1990s; to release the blocked energies, imaginations and intellects of women from a myriad of cultural backgrounds. By showing how the enlightenment models of teaching and learning are being revamped in the wake of the debates on inclusivity and pedagogy, I will describe the emergence of "visionwork" as central to pedagogical renewal. "Visionwork"-an abbreviation for the politics of visualization-is an umbrella term for all strategies of creative self-knowledge that women in different communities across time and
by Kiutr'na fiih lair, producing half-hrry offspring. she is also the prototype on which the ... more by Kiutr'na fiih lair, producing half-hrry offspring. she is also the prototype on which the The affinities between the ancient Heavenly Father seems to have been Dam Ic contexteh la chasseauw oun, peoples who celebrated the bear modelled, but with increasing cet artick examine comment crrtaincs through elaborate bear-hunt rituals demonization of the feminine and of croyances peuvent influencer ks diviand communal feasts include peoples Mother Earth. The "Honey-paws" l nitds fiminincs terrestrrs et cCkJtes as diverse as the Ainu of Japan, the (see poem at end) is a sweet rolereprdsentdes p a r Canadian Cree Indians, Finno-Ugric model for feminists seeking to move
ing from a state ...is different from abstr ac ing from a process or different instances or lev e... more ing from a state ...is different from abstr ac ing from a process or different instances or lev els of a process. Abstracting from states we may find an essence, att mpting to abstract from a process at different lev els and instances of a process gives us a common logic or s eries of interconnected behaviors. If mothering is a process which takes place at different levels, abstracting its commonalities does not give us an essence. It g ives us the logic of the gift. (Vaughan 2002: 7). Vaughan's logic of motherhood as the new norm does n t reside in the dualistic division of labour esta blished by patriarchy to the benefit of elite nations and men, but in extending the role of nurturing and the ethics of care and responsibility to all. This logic of mothe ring as a way to meet the needs of all in society, and to extend thanks and respect to the entire ecosystem, also me ans becoming active rather than passive and unconsc ious recipients of care, of seeing concrete and politica l...
Dans le present article, l’auteure se propose d’interpreter des poemes d’Eleonore Sioui du point ... more Dans le present article, l’auteure se propose d’interpreter des poemes d’Eleonore Sioui du point de vue de l’orientalisme arctique. Le defi de l’etude du Nord imaginaire est celui d’une sensibilisation double – liee aux questions de femmes ecrivains avec leur alterite sexuelle-textuelle et ethnique. L’etude du Nord et de l’Amerindien imaginaire requiert une autoreflexion sur le possible « orientalisme » de nos categories et guides de lecture. Cela exige la reconnaissance de logiques de visions du monde differentes, de meme que d’une epistemologie allant au-dela du discours scientifique servant a controler l’univers, la femme et la nature.
Ecología y Género en diálogo interdisciplinar ( publicada por la editorial Plaza y Valdés en la colección Ciencia, Moral y Sociedad), la traducción en español. Coordinated by Profesor Alicia Puleo., 2014
Today’s dominant motto across the globalized neoliberal regimes is TINA: “There is no alternative... more Today’s dominant motto across the globalized neoliberal regimes is TINA: “There is no alternative”. The aim of my paper is to challenge this new form of monotheistic, economically motivated dogma. I introduce the Gift imaginary and other ways of resisting TINA, as theoretically and empirically formulated alternatives to the current cult of the neo-liberal Golden Calf. The Gift Imaginary represents to me a psycho-spiritual and cultural matrix of internalized gift-oriented values, ways of relating to the world, and ecosocially sustainable ways of being and living. As a philosophical notion rooted in my appropriation and feminist reinterpretation of masculated “imaginaries” theorized by Jacques Lacan and other patriarchal scholars (e.g. Althusser 1971), I circumscribe this concept and the action-values to which it leads as another inner path of Degrowth (not necessary for those already living by its tenets). As another compass of “reality”, my concept challenges the psycho-social and subliminal core of the world’s hegemonic mindset—the master imaginary with its emphasis on a consumeristic and competitive rather than ecological and life-oriented identity.
The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collect... more The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach--cyber/ecofeminism--as a collective compass towards eco-social sustainability. In order to resist the master identity that women, too, risk embracing, as they get plugged, downloaded, and wired into the digital world, one needs to introduce alternatives to the models of "compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity," dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. Cyber/ecofeminismis my method and approach for testing which of the schools--cyberfeminism OR ecofeminism--promises more hope for a woman-friendly eco-social sustainable future. How and why would the notion of cyborgs (humans interfaced with machines) rather than of humans intertwined with animals facilitate the feminist goal of creating a viable, just future? Do we have to choose between the two discourses?
THE GIFT IN THE HEART OF LANGUAGE: THE MATERNAL SOURCE OF MEANING Genevieve Vaughan Milan, Italy:... more THE GIFT IN THE HEART OF LANGUAGE: THE MATERNAL SOURCE OF MEANING Genevieve Vaughan Milan, Italy: Mimesis International 2015 Genevieve Vaughan has published her third book regarding the reality and transformative potential of the Gift economy, a logic and matrix of practices that imply the liberation of all genders. Two examples, among many, must suffice to illustrate the sort of antitheses Vaughan posits in her work: mother is aneconomic (exchange paradigm) vs. mothering is economic (Gift paradigm) ; market creates abundance (exchange paradigm) vs. market creates scarcity (Gift paradigm).The new theory provides solutions to the most urgent need in neoliberal capitalist societies: to overturn the civilizational crises that capitalism and patriarchy have caused with the distortion and appropriation of the Gift. The Gift in the Heart of Language provides sobering and mind-altering perspectives on the Gift economy in all of its manifestations. The Gift has mostly been discussed in soci...
Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme’s (CWS/cf) issue, “Feminist Gift Economy” (Vol. 34, Nos. 1,2) . , 2020
In the context of the sauna, gifting was no doubt part of the
Finnish “original instructions,” i.... more In the context of the sauna, gifting was no doubt part of the Finnish “original instructions,” i.e., the shared rules that one had to respect in order not to anger the spirits, and to ensure luck and onni (Finnish for happiness). Finns, like Indigenous peoples in general were shamanistic and animistic prior to the imposition of Christian patriarchy in the eleventh century. This article explores how the philosophy of gifting has functioned in the sauna and how the sauna continues to be a multidimensional shrine of healing.
Simone de Beauvoir Institute Review/Revue de l'Institut Simone de Beauvoir. Vol. 18., 2000
Artikkeli on suomennos kirjoituksestani, jossa pohditaan naistutkimuksen tarkoitusperiä ja päämää... more Artikkeli on suomennos kirjoituksestani, jossa pohditaan naistutkimuksen tarkoitusperiä ja päämäärää asettamalla heuristisesti vastakkain "kuukautismaja"- ja norsunluutornifeministit. Edelliset viittaavat feministeihin, jotka löytävät aidosti tasa-arvoisen, ekologisesti ja sosiaalisesti kestävän feminismin prototyypin muinaisuuden naiskeskeisistä rituaalikäytännöistä ja ns. matristisesta menneisyydestä kun jälkimmäiset myötäilevät patriarkaalista maailmankuvaa ja elämäntapaa pohtimatta riittävän syvällisesti voiko sellaista maailmankuvaa muokata idealistisimpien feministien arvojen tyyssijaksi. Kirjoitus keskittyy kuitenkin yliopistomaailman arvojen kritiikkiin esimerkkitapauksena.
S/he--the International Journal of Goddess Studies , 2022
The creative arts play a crucial role in this expression of Earth Love. Ecofeminst arts ... [are]... more The creative arts play a crucial role in this expression of Earth Love. Ecofeminst arts ... [are] essential catalysts of change that (re)connect us with nature and spirit. Diamond & G.F. Orenstein
The aim of this article is to describe how I have proceeded in introducing little-known Finnish goddesses and ancestral great mothers to Finns at home and abroad, and how I have tried to give them a new voice and face through quilt art. As I have little academic or financial support for my projects (having retired), I try to encourage other, better funded scholars to delve into the topics that need revisiting and a different approach. The work I am carrying out would ideally be part of a team effort involving gender studies experts, linguists, etymologists, archeologists, religious studies experts with a feminist perspective and ethnographers, as well as historians committed to recovering herstory and its mysteries. Since there is no such team, I see as my mandate to plant seeds and to gather hints and vestiges of another imaginary and land of women – Terra Feminarum, the mythical Kvenland of high antiquity in the North. Pioneers and bioneers tread on thin ice but are needed so new flows of information and wisdom traditions can be uncovered from under the ice age of patriarchal overwriting of our past…My aim here is to scrape off the patriarchal layers of bias and make room for the knowledge brought by archeomythological, modern matriarchal and indigenous studies as well as rock art and ancient figurines.
S/she--International Journal of Goddess Studies, 2022
Rebirthing Finnish Ancestral Mothers and Goddesses through Art and Research
The creative arts p... more Rebirthing Finnish Ancestral Mothers and Goddesses through Art and Research
The creative arts play a crucial role in this expression of Earth Love. Ecofeminst arts ... [are] essential catalysts of change that (re)connect us with nature and spirit. Diamond & G.F. Orenstein
The aim of this article is to describe how I have proceeded in introducing little-known Finnish goddesses and ancestral great mothers to Finns at home and abroad, and how I have tried to give them a new voice and face through quilt art. As I have little academic or financial support for my projects (having retired), I try to encourage other, better funded scholars to delve into the topics that need revisiting and a different approach. The work I am carrying out would ideally be part of a team effort involving gender studies experts, linguists, etymologists, archeologists, religious studies experts with a feminist perspective and ethnographers, as well as historians committed to recovering herstory and its mysteries. Since there is no such team, I see as my mandate to plant seeds and to gather hints and vestiges of another imaginary and land of women – Terra Feminarum, the mythical Kvenland of high antiquity in the North. Pioneers and bioneers tread on thin ice but are needed so new flows of information and wisdom traditions can be uncovered from under the ice age of patriarchal overwriting of our past…My aim here is to scrape off the patriarchal layers of bias and make room for the knowledge brought by archeomythological, modern matriarchal and indigenous studies as well as rock art and ancient figurines
S/He--the International Journal of Goddess Studies, 2022
Rebirthing Finnish Ancestral Mothers and Goddesses through Art and Research
The creative arts p... more Rebirthing Finnish Ancestral Mothers and Goddesses through Art and Research
The creative arts play a crucial role in this expression of Earth Love. Ecofeminst arts ... [are] essential catalysts of change that (re)connect us with nature and spirit. Diamond & G.F. Orenstein
The aim of this article is to describe how I have proceeded in introducing little-known Finnish goddesses and ancestral great mothers to Finns at home and abroad, and how I have tried to give them a new voice and face through quilt art. As I have little academic or financial support for my projects (having retired), I try to encourage other, better funded scholars to delve into the topics that need revisiting and a different approach. The work I am carrying out would ideally be part of a team effort involving gender studies experts, linguists, etymologists, archeologists, religious studies experts with a feminist perspective and ethnographers, as well as historians committed to recovering herstory and its mysteries. Since there is no such team, I see as my mandate to plant seeds and to gather hints and vestiges of another imaginary and land of women – Terra Feminarum, the mythical Kvenland of high antiquity in the North. Pioneers and bioneers tread on thin ice but are needed so new flows of information and wisdom traditions can be uncovered from under the ice age of patriarchal overwriting of our past…My aim here is to scrape off the patriarchal layers of bias and make room for the knowledge brought by archeomythological, modern matriarchal and indigenous studies as well as rock art and ancient figurines
Lahja-ja vaihtotalouden sukupuolittuneet paradigmat. Ekososiaalisesti kestävän tulevaisuuden visi... more Lahja-ja vaihtotalouden sukupuolittuneet paradigmat. Ekososiaalisesti kestävän tulevaisuuden visioista ja edellytyksistä Kirjoituksen tavoitteena on kuvata kaksi mahdollista tulevaisuuskuvaa uusliberalistisen vaihtotalouden ja sen taustalla vaikuttavan lahjatalouden taisteluna ihmisten mielistä ja yhteiskunnan ydinarvoista. Näissä heuristisesti vastakkain asetelluissa talous-ja tasa-arvoparadigmoissa heijastuu erilaisia näkemyksiä ekososiaalisesti kestävästä tulevaisuudesta ja laaja-alaisesti ymmärretyn yhdenvertai-suuden edellytyksistä. Aloitan vaihtotalouden ja lahjan sosiologian esittelyllä, kuvaan sitten feministiteorian kontribuutiota lahjatalousteoriaan ja kommentoin lopulta vaihtotalouden implisiittistä uusliberalismissa heijastuvaa sukupuolijärjestelmää. Lopuksi pohdin lahjatalouden uusia tuulia ja sen mahdollisuuksia edesauttaa toisenlaisen, ekososiaalisesti kestävämmän ja tasa-arvoisemman tulevaisuuden rakentamista. Avainsanat: lahja-ja vaihtotalous, tulevaisuuden sukupuoli-ja tasa-arvojärjestelmät, ekososiaalisen kestävän tulevaisuuden mahdollisuudet, sukupuoli, hoiva ja talous Johdanto Tämän kirjoituksen lähtökohtana on näkemys, että ekososiaalisesti kestävän tasa-arvon uhat ja mahdollisuudet määrittyvät pitkälti sen pohjalta, millaiset vapaudet, arvot ja sukupuolten väliset suhteet tulevat hallitseviksi globalisoituvassa maailmassa. Kirjoituksen pääkäsitteet, lahja-ja vaihtotalouden (talous)paradigmat ovat kehittyneet erilaisissa historiallisissa ja etnokulttuurisissa olosuhteissa, jotka hei-jastavat myös aikansa luontosuhdetta sekä sukupuolten välistä työnjakoa. Paikallinen, pienimuotoinen vaihtotalous on vähitellen muovautunut oravannahkavaluutasta globaaliksi rahataloudeksi, ja lopulta finanssikeinottelun reaalitaloudesta erkaantuneeksi johdannaiskauppa-bisnekseksi (Seppänen, 2009). Vallitsevassa taloustieteessä ei ole kuitenkaan juuri tutkittu ja pohdittu erilaisten toimeentulo-järjestelmien sukupuolittunutta luonnetta tai luontosuhdetta. Hallitsevaksi talousmalliksi kehittynyt vaihtotalous ja rahataloudelle vaihtoehtoinen lahjatalous edellisen ylijäämänä tai jäänteenä ovatkin erilaisia todellisuuden, luonnon, kulttuurin ja ihmissuhteiden kehystämisen ja ymmärtämisen paradigmoja. Ne ovat myös sukupuolittuneita, talouselämän raamit ylittäviä arvokehikkoja, jotka eivät kuitenkaan rajoitu tai tyhjenny sukupuoleen. Huomioin pohdinnassani ns. hyvät ja pahat vapaudet (Polanyi, 2009 [l944]), koska tulevaisuutta rakennetaan tällä hetkellä vetoamalla tietoyhteiskunnan ja innovaatiotalouden uusiin, valinnanvapauden-ja yrittämisen vapauksiin. Tulevaisuus ei vain tapahdu, vaan sitä tuotetaan diskursiivisesti, Suomessa mm. toistolla huoltosuhdekriisin edustamasta uhasta julkisen talouden kestävyydelle. Voisimme kuitenkin kilpailuttaa myös tulevaisuuden, ulkoistamalla hallitseviin "tahtotiloihin" piiloutuvat sukupuolistavat arvohierarkiat, ja painottamalla toimenpiteitä, joilla (d)emokratian utopiat Futura3_2010.indd 48 27.9.2010 23:50:34 9 3/10 vahvistuisivat yksisilmäisen yhtiövallan dystopian sijaan. Näkemykset eroavat siitä, minkälainen talouden logiikka tai rationalismi johtaa kansalaisten ja luonnon kannalta parhaaseen lopputulokseen.1 Vaihto-ja lahjatalouden suhde tasa-arvoon eroaa monin tavoin, joten tulevaisuutta ohjaavina inhimillisen elämän tausta-ideologioina ne tuottavat erilaisia vapauksia ja vastuita. Peilaan tulevaisuuden sukupuolijärjestelmää tässä kirjoituksessa toisaalta amerikkalaisen Genevieve Vaughanin lahjatalous-teorioitten, lahjan sosiologisten ja antropologisten tutkimusten ja toisaalta uusliberalistisen vaihtotalouden näkökulmiin. Vaihto ja lahjatalouseetoksen eroista ja erilaisesta logiikasta Vaikka kapitalismin eri tavoin paikantuneita muotoja ei voida yksinkertaistaa vaihtotaloudeksi menettämättä monitasoisia vivahteita, tässä kirjoituksessa viittaan vaihtotaloudella pääasiallisesti miesnäkökulmasta kehitettyyn hegemoniseen taloustieteeseen, jossa uusliberalismi tai uuskonservatismi edustavat sen nykyistä
Dans le présent article, l’auteure se propose d’interpréter des poèmes
d’Eléonore Sioui du point ... more Dans le présent article, l’auteure se propose d’interpréter des poèmes d’Eléonore Sioui du point de vue de l’orientalisme arctique. Le défi de l’étude du Nord imaginaire est celui d’une sensibilisation double – liée aux questions de femmes écrivains avec leur altérité sexuelle-textuelle et ethnique. L’étude du Nord et de l’Amérindien imaginaire requiert une autoréflexion sur le possible « orientalisme » de nos catégories et guides de lecture. Cela exige la reconnaissance de logiques de visions du monde différentes, de même que d’une épistémologie allant au-delà du discours scientifique servant à contrôler l’univers, la femme et la nature.
In response to the numerous debates on postcolonialism in North America, my aim in this paper is ... more In response to the numerous debates on postcolonialism in North America, my aim in this paper is to reconsider traditional research on the Finnish epic, the Kalevala in terms of its ethnic representations and its sexual textual politics. My re-visioning has been inspired among others by the writings of Trinh T. Minh-ha, Stuart Hall and Hobi Bhabha all of whom forge thought-provoking connections between identity and representation, stressing hybrid and overlapping, rather than static and dualistic models of selfhood and nation. As I will show, sexuality, textuality and ethnicity are intertwined in powerful, power-driven ways so that discursive politics are present as much in national mythologies as in all other discourses. It is not the creation of the Finns' "national epic" that I am most concerned about in this context; rather, I am looking upon the Kalevala as one major source of stereotypical and hence harmful representations of minorities, an issue which has emerged as most central in contemporary cultural debates in Finland. For the first time in history, Finland is faced with serious internal issues to do with the racist incidents, the emergence of neo-Nazi youth (skinheads) and social problems among the recent immigrants to Finland. Among the world's most ethnically homogeneous countries that has opened its doors to immigrants and refugees only in the past twenty years, Finland is in acute need of understanding race relations, minority/minority issues and of ensuring the rights of groups that have little impact over the ways in which they are stereotyped by those with access to media and educational contents-central channels of conditioning and the creation of representations beyond the groups' control. There has also been international pressure from the European Union, that Finland has joined recently, forcing the Finns to report on its treatment of the Sami, Europe's indigenous population. The UN dedicated the year l997 to the fight against racism and it is in the context of such UN declarations regarding human/woman rights that I will now consider Finnish "postcolonialism." As a starting point for my discussion, it is necessary to reflect on the relevance of this academic buzzword which itself bears the mark of hegemonic colonial practices. What are the specific postcolonial issues that Finland must deal with? Are North American postcolonial debates of relevance in Northern Europe and how? While I would have a lot to write about the situation of minorities in Finland at large, I will focus on the way the Sami as others together with the category "woman" have been conflated and rendered inimical in the Finnish epic. The relations between the Sami and the Suomi-Finns, their linguistic and cultural relatives, are in my view the most urgent framework for postcolonial discussions and revisions of the politics of representation. The attitude towards the Sami is rooted in the same controlling stance as the attitudes towards women in general-and this applies also to the biosphere and earth rights.
This article will contrast the dominant myths and motifs regarding “Pohjola” with the geopolitica... more This article will contrast the dominant myths and motifs regarding “Pohjola” with the geopolitical reality of the North, a region that affects men and women very differently in today’s context of globalization.
Naistutkimus ja-liike ovat esittäneet erilaisia teorioita naisten alistamisen ja eriarvoisuuden s... more Naistutkimus ja-liike ovat esittäneet erilaisia teorioita naisten alistamisen ja eriarvoisuuden syistä ja historiallisista taustoista. Naisten ja muiden "toisiksi" leimattujen sorto on on paikannettu heteropatriarkaattiin, eliittijohtoiseen ja ydinperhe-keskeiseen maailmanjärjestykseen sen eri variaatioissa. Monique Wittig esittää The Straight Mind-kokoelmateoksessaan, etteivät lesbot ole naisia, koska he ovat "orjakarkureina" paenneet taloudelliseksi riistojärjestelmäksi luodun ydinperhe-heteropatriarkaatin kahleista. "Naiseus" on monille naistutkijoille lähinnä patriarkaalisten valtasuhteiden ja hyväksikäytön positio: biologian tarkoitushakuisilla tulkinnoilla ja mielivaltaisilla rooleilla on luotu hoiva-ja tunnetalouden ilmainen tai huonosti resursoitu ja palkattu naistyövoima(reservi). Vertaileva kulttuurienvälinen tutkimus osoittaa, ettei sukupuoli sinänsä ole merkittävintä perhe-ja tasa-arvokysymyksissä, vaan juuri tapa jolla se koodataan osaksi tietyn yhteiskunnan hallinnan suhteita luokan, etnisyyden, iän, seksuaalisen orientaation ja monien muiden tekijöiden risteyspisteissä. Olipa kyse kommunismista, sosialismista tai kapitalismista, mikään patriarkaalinen "ismi" ei ole kuitenkaan korjannut sukupuolten välisen työnjaon ja resurssien epäreilua jakautumista, puhumattakaan seksuaalisesta kaksinaismoraalista ja väkivallan kulttuurista (vaikka niissä onkin isoja eroja edellä mainittujen seikkojen suhteen). Kuvaan irokeesimatriarkaattia vaihtoehtona patriarkaalisille yhteiskuntamalleille, jossa ketään ei kuitenkaan alisteta; niissä ei ole kyse käänteisestä seksismista vaan tasapainoisesta ja tasa-arvoisesta yhteiskuntarakenteesta nais- ja miesneuvostoineen.
"Integraatiofeminismi" on uusi laaja-alainen käsite, jota tapaa lisääntyvästi varsinkin Kanadan ... more "Integraatiofeminismi" on uusi laaja-alainen käsite, jota tapaa lisääntyvästi varsinkin Kanadan naistutkimuspiireissä ja joka heijastaa valtafeminismin naisliikkeen ns. "kolmannen aallon" uutta kollektiivista tietoisuutta feminismin sisäisistä valta-ongelmista. Integraatio-feminismi on syntynyt valtafeministien ja valtaa vähemmän omaavien naisryhmien välisestä jatkuvasta dialogista sekä 1990-luvun kirjoituksista, joissa marginalisoidut naistutkijat ja teoreetikot ovat lisääntyvästi kiinnittäneet huomiota valtafeminismin "sivistyksen" aukkoihin. Tämän kirjoituksen päämääränä on esitellä tätä uusinta 90-luvulle ominaista feministisen tutkimuksen, opetuksen ja toiminnan "aaltoliikettä" ja herättää keskustelua valtaväestöjen naistutkimuksen sisäisistä ristiriidoista, eettisistä ja humanistisista periaatteista. Kirjoitukseni liittyy samalla myös yleiseen keskusteluun naistutkimuksen etiikasta: millaisia eettisiä periaatteita naistutkimuksen tulisi noudattaa, millainen on oikea asenne tutkimuskohteeseen?
My aim in this paper is to discuss through selected "furry tales" how women's collective loss of ... more My aim in this paper is to discuss through selected "furry tales" how women's collective loss of soul is linked to the dearth of a symbolic language--folklore among them, and how rewriting or making known the existent woman-centered stories can help heal our deep structures. I will also refer not only to western but arctic hysteria as examples of the silent revolution for which we don't have an adequate language. We need more stories as medicine, as our collective talking cure.
Hi Heels- Women and Technology Conference, Oulu, 2001
In my ongoing research I investigate the conflicting cultural representations of female authority... more In my ongoing research I investigate the conflicting cultural representations of female authority, knowledge, technical contributions and power in their local and more global manifestations. One needs to analyze and become more aware of the politics of representation, sexual-textual or discursive politics, for they are among the factors that make women internalize self-limiting beliefs about their gender, skills and knowhow. By contrasting dualistic and narrow sex/gender roles and images on the one hand and alternative, more empowering representations of female knowledge, on the other, one can offer suggestions to educators, employers and advertisers on how they might encourage women to rise to new levels of social and professional competence, expertise and authority. As case material, I will refer in my paper to selected Finnish student journals such as Ööpinen and Äpy, produced every Spring by the Faculties of Technology at Helsinki and Oulu. i I have chosen my samples of gendered textual politics from these journals for a specific reason. They consist of popular parodies of gender relations and public discourses particularly regarding student life and relations. They also epitomize the representations of engineering and technology, crystallizing in hyperbolic form popularly held assumptions about male and female sexuality and "nature" in relation to engineering and other male-dominated fields. The conference theme, "high heels" and "Hi-Tech" sums up in a pithy and concrete way the social representation of femininity and
Tämän kirjoituksen tavoitteena on kuvata tasa-arvoa ja yhdenvertaisuutta luonnollisina pitänyttä ... more Tämän kirjoituksen tavoitteena on kuvata tasa-arvoa ja yhdenvertaisuutta luonnollisina pitänyttä irokeesi-demokratiaa, jonka tuntemus on Suomessa jäänyt länsimaisen filosofian ja demokratian valtavirtatutkimuksen katveeseen. Irokeesit kutsuivat itseään pitkän talon kansaksi, ja tämä viittaa alkuaikojen matriarkaaliseen, äitien sukulinjaan perustuvaan yhteiskuntajärjestykseen. Aikana, jolloin demokratia heikkenee heikkenemistään ja väkivalta kasvaa eri muodoissaan, aihe ei voisi olla ajankohtaisempi. Globalisaation tulkitessa tasa-arvon ja yhdenvertaisuuden vain tasapäistäväksi esteeksi korporaatiovallalle, voisi olla paljon uutta ajateltavaa ja omaksuttavaa maa-ilmankuvasta, joka on ollut, ja on yhä tyypillistä tasa-arvoon rakentuville lahjatalouskulttuureille. Kuten nämä, irokeesimalli perustui aivan erilaisille arvoille ja tulevaisuudenvisioille kuin tekno- ja digikapitalismin kilpajuoksu pohjalle, jota nyky-uusliberalismi edistää ekologisesti ja sosiaalisesti kestämättömällä tavalla.
Gender and Power in the New Europe, the 5th European Feminist Research Conference, 2003
The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach-cyber/ecofeminism-as a collectiv... more The purpose of my paper is to introduce a method and an approach-cyber/ecofeminism-as a collective compass towards eco-social sustainability in the digital age. I address the violent, ecophobic and misogynist globalization and its fundamentalisms, and introduce alternatives to the models of "compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity," dichotomous and hierarchical sex/gender systems, as well as dysfunctional, exploitative animal/human relations. In my vision, one needs to both deconstruct the harmful potential within male-led High Technology (with its feminist clones) and to research and offer more eco-socially sustainable paradigms and futures. I have coined the term "cyber/ecofeminism" as a challenge to the dualistic tendency to perceive ecological concerns as the opposite of technology or the cyberrevolution. I will first deconstruct the dominant myths of cyberfeminism, and will then introduce a new imaginary, the Gift Paradigm, to replace the hegemonic "master imaginary." I will contrast the modern cyberfeminist representations of hybridity between women and machines (Donna Haraway's cyborgs) with the more old-fashioned hybrids linking women and animals. I also address Haraway's prioritization of the cyborg over the Goddess.
Olli Pyyhtinen: The Gift and its Paradoxes – Beyond Mauss. Ashgate 2014. Arvioin Pyyhtisen kirjan... more Olli Pyyhtinen: The Gift and its Paradoxes – Beyond Mauss. Ashgate 2014. Arvioin Pyyhtisen kirjan feministisen lahjatalousteorian ja natiiviteorian näkökulmasta.
Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme’s (CWS/cf, 2012
Ce texte examine les efforts du féminisme éco-spirituel et plus spécialement ceux du Réseau inte... more Ce texte examine les efforts du féminisme éco-spirituel et plus spécialement ceux du Réseau international des féministes pour une économie du DON, pour offrir des alternatives radicales aux politiques néo-conservatrices d'avidité, d'accumulation et de renouveau élitiste. L'auteur décortique la rhétorique trompeuse derrière les politiques néo-libérales dominantes et les différentes actions pour les transformer. Elle soumet les objectifs à long terme conçus par plusieurs mouvements féministes éco-spirituels qui préconisent un détournement des paradigmes ou encore un nouvel imaginaire social du don.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the broader international context of the nurses’ labor ... more The purpose of this paper is to highlight the broader international context of the nurses’ labor struggle, and to provide hope against the odds. After all, HEU, the Canadian Nurses’ Association first met with a fate much worse than that of the Finns, but in the end their struggle led to a major victory. By appealing to ILO, and then to the Supreme Court of Canada, the labor activists in Canada showed that resisting the worst excesses of corporate power is not only desirable but possible
Women and the Gift Economy. A Radically Different World View is Possible ed. by Genevieve Vaughan. Toronto, Inanna Publications and Education Inc., 2007
Abstract. The article revisits the myth of Pandora’s Box as the source of mankind’s scourges and ... more Abstract. The article revisits the myth of Pandora’s Box as the source of mankind’s scourges and imagines Pan Dora as a prepatriarchal Guardian of Giving and Abundance. After addressing the gendered assumptions about “human nature” underlying neo-liberal economic thought, I will introduce one archaic alternative imaginary characterized by a worldview of giving back to nature for the goods it bestows: Finnish mythology. I claim that the naturalization of a masculated world view behind the “human norm” needs to be exposed as merely one among many possible ways of ordering human life and understanding human nature. In the Gift imaginary and logic, instead of homo economicus, homo and femina donans, or the giving, care circulating humans are the norm.
L’article explore le mythe de la boîte de Pandora comme source des maux de l’humanité du point de vue gynocentrique. Pan Dora a-t-elle plutôt représenté la déesse ou esprit de don et d’abondance, á l’époque précédant le patriarcat. Après l’analyse et exposition de la notion néolibérale de la nature humaine, l’article introduit l’autre imaginaire dit l’imaginaire du don avec sa philosophie de partage et circulation des dons : celle que je trouve chez les peuples finnois, et dans la mythologie finlandaise. Il faut exposer que la naturalisation de la norme humaine néolibérale n’est qu’une façon historique entre autres de concevoir l’être humain. Du point de vue de l’imaginaire du don, on peut introduire le norme de homo et femina donans, a la place du homo economicus, le modèle actuel.
Among the many Circumpolar and Northern stories, there is a particular motif which I find most su... more Among the many Circumpolar and Northern stories, there is a particular motif which I find most suitable for discussing our Northern affinities across cultural differences; the motif of a woman who marries a bear, thus creating the original totemic link between her people and their half-human, half-animal ancestor. This is a story of relevance for ecocriticism, ecomythology and improving our relationship with nature.
I will use the notion of the "gift economy" as my analytical tool for analyzing the tension betw... more I will use the notion of the "gift economy" as my analytical tool for analyzing the tension between the gift-circulating welfare state and the gift-appropriating, gift-misnaming predatory exchange economy. I will at the same time outline some of the key elements and beliefs behind the neo-liberal market economy from the point of view of women's status, rights and roles in the changing global economic order.
Mujeres y Ecologia: Historia, Pensamiento, Sociedad, 2004
The aim of my article is to contrast the "virile" discourse and "fertile" concourses within ecofe... more The aim of my article is to contrast the "virile" discourse and "fertile" concourses within ecofeminism, while exploring new non-dualistic narratives and models of socio-cosmic organization (the motif of women marrying bears). I seek to articulate a Finnish "concourse" of eco and woman-friendly "beingknowing" which both exposes the dualistic fallacies of feminism and outlines a more holistic, ethical and eros-centric social imaginary. I will debate the global ecofeminist adherence to patriarchal epistemologies in order to help pave the way for a marriage of politics and spirituality as a non-dualistic form of activism.
Mothering, Gift and Revolution--Honoring Genevieve Vaughan's Life's Work, 2020
In this article I wish to present what I consider to be Genevieve Vaughan's best contributions to... more In this article I wish to present what I consider to be Genevieve Vaughan's best contributions to the writings on the gift. I also consider their relevance to material feminist/ecofeminist and psychoanalytic theories in full recognition of their applicability across a much greater range of academic disciplines. Since we are now grappling with the Covid-l9 pandemic, and its gender impact, I situate my thoughts in this particular context of patriarchal pathology. I explore how Genevieve’s theories and activisms could be applied to help us deal with and get out of these recurrent crises of capitalistic patriarchy. Most importantly, politicians and laypeople should consider what this theory has the potential to change in the post-coronial world of “business as usual”—after all, life will not return to “normal” after the Corona crises. I also provide some examples from my own research to show how revolutionary Genevieve’s ideas are in terms of changing how we perceive cognition, life, reality and the very roots of language, knowledge and the construction of gender identity.
Naisten vapaaehtoistyö. Vapaaehtoistoiminta opiskelun osana. , 2001
Tämän artikkelin päämääränä on pohtia naistutkimuksen ja samalla laajemmin koko yliopistokoulutuk... more Tämän artikkelin päämääränä on pohtia naistutkimuksen ja samalla laajemmin koko yliopistokoulutuksen ja -tutkimuksen soveltavaa yhteiskunnallista roolia sekä vaikutusmahdollisuuksia. Mitä merkitystä vapaaehtoistyöllä voisi olla mm. naistutkimuksen päämäärien – esim. kaikentasoisen tasa-arvon toteutumisen suhteen?
Sweating with the Finns. Sauna Stories from North America. (Saunakirjoituskilpailun satoa ja analyysi Kanadasta) , 2005
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the links between the Finnish sauna and the Native Sweatl... more The purpose of this paper is to discuss the links between the Finnish sauna and the Native Sweatlodge as rituals of holistic, multidimensional world renewal. I will present comparative material on wellness not heeded or even recognized by the mainstream Western biomedical model of health. The Sauna and the sweatlodge share many features; they belong to the most ancient shamanistic healing institutions and can be related historically and culturally with bear cults. I will contrast ancient and modern attitudes and ideologies towards the sauna or the Native inipi-sweatlodge-in order to provoke a debate about the "loss of vital essence" and the "loss of soul" that I claim has taken place in the context of sweat rituals and holistic sweat healing. I argue, on the basis of my comparative study of Native and mainstream psychotherapeutic practices-that the very transformation or disappearance of ancient holistic rituals of renewal in the context of the sauna are in many ways a cultural loss, rather than a marker of progress. Also, when we talk about the sauna and the sweats as a site of purification, we need to consider how gender-neutral such a concept is. What kind of renewal and wellness do we have in mind? Because much of the research on the sauna has been done in the context of and with the values of male-identified, androcentric scholars, the picture remains skewed, onesided and focussed on the male experience of purification. While I seek to revalorize the holistic prechristian culture of sweating for all, it is a necessary stage of research to focus on the female point of view, to redress the existing imbalance and to foreground the female aspects of renewal and healing. Only then will we have a more holistic and complete, gender-sensitive picture of ancient Finnish healing dramas. Sauna and the Sweatlodge as Ritual spaces: Baring Our Beeing Raise your nature through a trance from the crevice, raise your guardian from under the tree before day break before the rising of the sun (Vuolle-Apiala, 1991, 95) i The Western world view with its underlying ideologies and epistemologies has, in the recent years, come increasingly under fire and scrutiny. Postmodernism and postcolonialism together with Native, Black and Women's studies have deconstructed the Western hegemonic master discourses to expose their ethnocentric biases and shortsighted , profit-centered values. Ideas and practices surrounding the Finnish sauna culture have, of course, not been any freer of the impact of social
Tuhat ja yksi askelta. Islamilaisuus maailman mosaiikissa. , 2006
Hunnutettu ja riisuttu nainen-taloudellis-uskonnollisen fundamentalismin syvätasot Mitä yhteistä... more Hunnutettu ja riisuttu nainen-taloudellis-uskonnollisen fundamentalismin syvätasot Mitä yhteistä on Lännen ja Idän, Etelän ja Pohjoisen symbolisesti ja konkreettisesti hunnutetuilla naisilla? Entä miltä taloudellis-uskonnollisen fundamentalismin syvätasolta näitä alistamisen yhtymäkohtia tulisi lähestyä? Artikkelini lähtökohtana on talouden ja kommunikaation maapalloistuminen ja Yhdysvalloissa sekä Lähi-idän maissa vahvistunut monitasoinen fundamentalismi, joka uhkaa murentaa ennen kaikkea naisten ihmisoikeudet ja elämisen ehdot. Miten globalisaatioon kytkeytyvä fundamentalismi liittyy naisten itsemääräämis-ja muiden oikeuksien alasajoon-ja kaikentasoisen globaalin "huntupakon" lisääntyneeseen uhkaan? Huntu voi toimia miesjohtoisen yhtenäiskulttuurin keinona häivyttää epäsymmetrinen vallan-ja resurssien jako naisten tietoisuudesta. Miehensä suudelmaa odottava hunnutettu morsian voi olla samalla tavoin miehisen vaihtotalouden valuuttaa läntisessä fundamentalistis-patriarkaalisessa yhteiskunnassa kuin pysyvästi hunnutetut naiset joissakin muslimikulttuureissa. Tapa saattaa olla molemmissa tapauksissa toisaalta pelkkä jäänne alistamisesta, tyhjä symboli vailla sen suurempia käytännön vaikutuksia. Mutta huntu eri muodoissaan nousee konkreettisesti naisnäkökulman sensuroivaksi muuriksi miesten ehdoilla toimivassa maailmassa silloin, kun valta keskittyy ja fundamentalismi voimistuu. Niin länsimaiden kuin Lähi-idän naiset ovat ulkoa tulevan patriarkaalisen kontrollin ja säätelyn kohteita, joskin eri tavoin. Siinä missä monet muslimimaat pyrkivät kätkemään naiskehon uskonnollisen fundamentalismin nimissä, länsimaissa nainen on tyypillisesti miehisen talousfundamentalismin ja siihen kytkeytyvän kontrolloivan katseen "narsistinen kohde": pornon kyllästämässä markkinataloudessa häntä ei peitetä vaan päinvastoin riisutaan niin paljaaksi kuin vain vallitseva eetos sallii. Artikkelini päämääränä on raottaa huntua heteropatriarkaatin ideologisten, taloudellis-sosiaalisten ja psykologisten ulottuvuuksien edestä ja analysoida fundamentalismin kasvualustaa. Fundamentalismin juurille pääseminen edellyttää makrotason poliittisten kysymysten huomioimisen lisäksi myös niiden psykoemotionaalisten tekijöiden ymmärtämistä, jotka vaikuttavat sukupuolittuneiden ja sukupuolittavien epäsymmetristen valtasuhteiden taustavoimana. Artikkelin keskiössä ovat kunnian ja häpeän patriarkaalinen sukupuolisopimus sekä naisten kokema, erilaisista fundamentalismeista juontuva väkivalta, usein suoranainen terrori julkisen ja
The article revisits the myth of Pandora's Box as the source of mankind's scourges and foreground... more The article revisits the myth of Pandora's Box as the source of mankind's scourges and foregrounds Pan Dora as a pre-patriarchal All-Giver and Guardian of Giving and Abundance. After addressing the gendered assumptions about "human nature" underlying neo-liberal economic thought, I present an example of a Nordic/Finnish Pandora variant with her gift-related aspects. I suggest that the naturalization of a masculated world view behind the "human norm" needs to be exposed. It is merely one among many possible ways of ordering human life and understanding human nature. In the alternative Gift imaginary and logic, instead of homo economicus, the norm may well have been femina donans, the giving human, Kave. L'article explore le mythe de la boîte de Pandore comme source des maux de l'humanité du point de vue gynocentrique. Pan Dora at -elle plutôt représenté la déesse ou l'esprit de don et d'abondance, á l'époque précédant le patriarchat ? Après l'analyse et exposition de la conception néolibérale de la nature humaine, l'article introduit l'autre imaginaire dit l'imaginaire du don avec sa philosophie de partage et circulation des dons: celle que je trouve chez les peuples finnois, et dans la mythologie finlandaise. Il faut exposer que la naturalisation du norme humain néolibéral n'est qu'une façon historique entre autres de concevoir l'être humain. Du point de vue de l'imaginaire du don, il se peut que e norme humain ait été representée par femina donans, á la place du homo economicus, le modèle actuel. Pan Dora Revisited-FROM patriarchal WOMAN-BLAMING TO A feminist Gift Imaginary The goal of my engaged research consists in reclaiming gynocentric imaginaries with their implicit ecological economics and sustainable worldview, one that also honors women and nature. In this paper, I will revisit the Greco-Roman myth of Pandora as a cross-cultural motif and its Finnish variant. This master narrative of humanity's creative origins consists in transforming women's gift labor into a woman-blaming narrative of male superiority. I introduce at the same time the Gift imaginary with its philosophical tenets based on giving back to nature the goods it bestows on humans. Both patriarchal and gynocentric variants of Pan Dora as All-Giver, the goddess of Abundance and life-centered values can be found across the world. My discussion of the fate of Pandora in Finnish, and more broadly Nordic mythology is an example of how we can draw on local, situated mythologies to rediscover and make more visible the submerged and symbolically non-masculated (Vaughan l997) ways of relating to and ordering the surrounding world. I call the dominant Western paradigm and world view to do with human nature and values the master imaginary, which echoes aspects of the exchange economy on which Vaughan has elaborated (l997) and what ecofeminist scholars have labelled as either the master identity (Plumwood l993) or consciousness (Warren 1994 (2000, 48), 1992). The concept condenses the artificial and arbitrary dichotomies that have allowed mostly white heterosexual elite men to dominate nature, women, native populations and people of colour as well as men defying the hegemonic gender contracts. The master imaginary refers to the totality of cultural customs, etiquettes, gendered divisions and processes of labour, attitudes, behaviours, activities and gestures that lend legitimacy and inner strength to patriarchy's asymmetrical gender system. Among the central elements of this logic are assumptions and projections of non-egalitarian and hierarchically constructed difference (e.g. men vs. women, humans vs. animals, mind vs. matter or spirit, rationality vs. emotionality). This includes a gendered segregation of "male" and "female" realms of reason, influence, prestige, power or social activities and a relegation of the less prestigious "emotional" labor mostly to women. This imaginary rests also on a perceptual pivot which privileges a worldview of strict boundaries to ground ownership rights, competition and social hierarchies. Establishing society's moral boundaries via the female body is an effect of asymmetrical power relations, not of a categorical logic within social structures. Women can and do, at different locations of power and privilege also embrace the master imaginary and its logic of mastery over the "other." Many women embrace themselves a system of boundaries projected on the (female) body, on territory and society that marks and defines female corporeality in its "open and vulnerable stage" (menses, pregnancy) as polluted and polluting (Douglas 1996 [1966]. However, it is necessary to distinguish between the internalization of patriarchal societal values and conscious, informed consent to sex/gender systems that subjugate women through a misleading politics of idealization/denigration of the "feminine". If one does not grow up knowing of alternatives to a patriarchal social order, one cannot really claim that women willingly embrace asymmetrically constructed social systems. Although the master imaginary in its current, markedly economistic form can be embraced by
In my article, I wish to explore the validity and appropriateness of the Jungian notions, the tra... more In my article, I wish to explore the validity and appropriateness of the Jungian notions, the transcendent function and temenos--for ecocriticism, a new interdisciplinary area of study and research which combines and integrates the best of woman-friendly and general ecological critical thought in today's academic practices.
Ekopsykologia ja perinnetieto. Polkuja eheyteen., 2006
Häät ovat rituaaliperinnettä ja tapakulttuuria, joiden kautta muovataan, tuotetaan ja ylläpidetää... more Häät ovat rituaaliperinnettä ja tapakulttuuria, joiden kautta muovataan, tuotetaan ja ylläpidetään erityisesti miehiseksi tai naiselliseksi miellettyä käyttäytymistä ja sukupuolisuhteita. Ristiäisten ja hautajaisten tavoin häät ovat voimakkaasti tunnepitoisia tilaisuuksia, ja niiden kautta on helppo saada niin morsian kuin sulhanen sisäistämään ja omaksumaan ikään kuin luonnollisina kulloinkin vallitsevat sosiaaliset suhteet ja nais- tai miesroolit. Lähtökohtani tässä artikkelissa on että häät ja morsiusteollisuus kuuluvat olennaisena osana ns. kaupallisen kauneuden myytin palvontariitteihin: niiden kautta ylläpidetään ja uusinnetaan tiedostamatta tai tietoisesti naisten taloudellisesti ja kulttuuripoliittisesti haavoittuvaisempaa asemaa. Morsiusteollisuuteen nykyaikana kytkeytyvä kuluttajakansalaisuuden normi koettelee myös luonnon sietokykyä.
Learning Desire: Perspectives on Pedagogy, Culture, and the Unsaid, 1997
I will discuss in this paper how a new modality of learning and teaching-the politics of visuali... more I will discuss in this paper how a new modality of learning and teaching-the politics of visualization-may help integrative feminists meet a challenge of the 1990s; to release the blocked energies, imaginations and intellects of women from a myriad of cultural backgrounds. By showing how the enlightenment models of teaching and learning are being revamped in the wake of the debates on inclusivity and pedagogy, I will describe the emergence of "visionwork" as central to pedagogical renewal. "Visionwork"-an abbreviation for the politics of visualization-is an umbrella term for all strategies of creative self-knowledge that women in different communities across time and
Artikkelin päämääränä on tehdä näkyväksi Pandora-myytin avulla suomalaisessa kansanrunoudessa es... more Artikkelin päämääränä on tehdä näkyväksi Pandora-myytin avulla suomalaisessa kansanrunoudessa esiintyvien naispuolisten haltioiden myyttinen kaltoinkohtelu ja naisnäkökulmaisen, gynosentrisen, jopa matriarkaalisen kulttuuriperimän vähättely ja tietoinen muuntelu. Naiskulttuurin kannalta merkittävien patriarkaatille vaihtoehtoisten naiseuden representaatioiden ja maailmankuvien kääntäminen ja esittäminen täysin vastakkaisena on tapahtunut kautta maailman. Kuten tunnettua, kristilliset kirkot on rakennettu pyhien lehtojen ja esikristillisten pyhien paikkojen päälle. Patriarkaalinen jumalten pantheon on sekin juurrutettu naisjumaluuden kerrosten päälle. Kun tiedostamme tämän myyttisen vallankaappauksen, onkin helpompaa lähteä takaisin myyttisen perimän alkujuurille, ja nostaa lovesta, maanraosta sinne manatut ja kuopatut "pakanajumalat" ja mahdollinen matriarkaatti-Kvenland, Pohjolan miestensyöjäkylä, Kalevalan myyttinen naisten maa. Pandoran myytti on patriarkaalisen matriarkaattifobian oiva allegoria. Laajalle levinnyt ja laajalti tunnettu myyttihän kertoo uteliaasta maailman ensimmäisestä naisesta, jonka kiinnostus maailman mysteerioihin johti siihen, että hän päästi valloilleen mitä kauheimmat vitsaukset avattuaan kielletyn lippaan. On kyse opettavaisesta patriarkaalisesta proto-tarinasta, jolla naisten tiedonnälkää ja halua ymmärtää ja tuntea patriarkaatin salaisuudet on pyritty säätelemään ja hillitsemään. Kuten Raamatun kertomuksessa hyvän ja pahan tiedon puusta ja "Eevan lankeamuksesta", naisten uteliaisuus ja kiinnostus tiedon syvimpään olemukseen on kuvattu negatiivisena ja epänaisellisena, suorastaan tuomittavana ominaisuutena.
Acta Univ Ouluensis, Ethical Challenges for Teacher Education and Teaching. Special Focus on Gender and Multicultural Issues, 2000
The purpose of this paper is to initiate a discussion about a topic that is of increasing educati... more The purpose of this paper is to initiate a discussion about a topic that is of increasing educational importance in Finland as it is becoming more multicultural: the mechanisms of mono-acculturation that contribute to conditioning Finns regarding the sex-gender system and ethnic stereotypes. I claim that Kalevala is an influential "master narrative" of Finnish monoculture which needs to be taught and approached also from a woman-friendly and postcolonial perspective. Also, women across the global village are becoming more aware and insistant of their needs for spiritual, psychological and cultural equality and self-determination. In my paper I outline the techniques and strategies of mono-acculturation. As a case study, I discuss the pictorial and textual representations of Aino and of other female figures related to "femininity" and otherness in Kalevala. My approach overlaps theoretically and methodologically with postmodern and postcolonial epistemologies, practices and ideological trends. The Kalevala provides an excellent opportunity for analyzing the politics of self and other in terms of nationalism, patriarchy, ethnicity and gender. The paper discusses some of the ways in which marginalized groups can reclaim the center, not just the margins by taking control of representations, first and foremost by exposing the conscious and subliminal discourses of othering.
Societies of Peace. Past, Present, Future. 2. World Congress on Matriarchal Studies, 2005
The purpose of this article is to revisit this special festival in light of the most distant gyno... more The purpose of this article is to revisit this special festival in light of the most distant gynocentric, possibly matriarchal elements that one can detect in the ritual’s historical layers. Matriarchies and gynocentric imaginaries are not identical, but they provide heuristic tools through which we might imagine or become sensitized to a psychic and gendered geography and paradigm of “elsewhere”, contrasting with the taken-for-granted patriarchal social contract, sex/gender systems and imaginaries. As all research into the distant past is at best educated guesswork, including non-gynocentric research, the value of research into matriarchies is part of an important process of academic archaeology. Every informed, if speculative new step in that direction helps future scholars reconstruct past societies, slowly allowing a more full and scientifically well-rounded, gender-sensitive picture to emerge out of history.
From Violence to Caring- Conference, Oulu University, Dec. 6-7, 2008, 2008
As a case study of how literary works and ecomythologies can be important sources of understandin... more As a case study of how literary works and ecomythologies can be important sources of understanding the roots of gendered and ecological violence, and of finding insights towards collective healing, I contrast the writings of two female writers, Maria Vaara of Northern Finland and Lee Maracle of Native North America (Métis/Cree-Salish). I also add references to other Native writings addressing similar issues. Both selected writers epitomize in their work the most common theme of Northern European and Native North American women’s writings—multilevel cultural and individual violence and ways of overwriting the traumas that are only too common as experiences in Northern communities. The writings represent efforts to put violence to shame by evoking alternative models of human existence and of social, intercultural relations. As I will show, these texts of women writers from different ethnocultural backgrounds reflect both similarities and affinities, provoking us to consider the extent to which the hegemonic worldview of capitalism is itself gendered. Although there are affinities in both writers’ treatment of the theme of violence, it seems that Native women have easier access to the empowerment that comes from writing as ecosocial medicine—the recognition that we can heal the individual only by healing the entire community—including positive relations with nature and the ”four legged friends”.
The 12th International Sauna Congress. Aachen, 1999
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the links between the Finnish sauna and the Native Sweatl... more The purpose of this paper is to discuss the links between the Finnish sauna and the Native Sweatlodge as rituals of holistic, multidimensional world renewal. The Sauna and the sweatlodge share many features; they belong to the most ancient shamanistic healing institutions and can be related historically and culturally with bear cults. I will contrast ancient and modern attitudes and ideologies towards the sauna or the Native inipi-sweatlodge-in order to provoke a debate about the "loss of vital essence" and the "loss of soul" that I claim has taken place in the context of sweat rituals and holistic sweat healing.
Tässä artikkelissa nostan esiin väkivallan tutkimuksessa piiloisiksi jääneitä ulottuvuuksia, jotk... more Tässä artikkelissa nostan esiin väkivallan tutkimuksessa piiloisiksi jääneitä ulottuvuuksia, jotka yhdistän "kunnian" ja "häpeän" sukupuolistaviin ja sukupuolittuneisiin perinteisiin. Keskityn tarkastelemaan ns. piilosukupuoli- tai yhteiskuntasopimusta osana lokaalin sekä globaalin miesvaltaisen kulttuurin jatkumoa. Kohdennan pohdintani kunnian ja häpeän käsitteisiin sukupuolisopimuksen sisällä, koska ne auttavat tekemään näkyviksi epäsymmetristen patriarkaalisten valtasuhteiden patologisimmat ulottuvuudet ja yhteydet omistusoikeuksiin. Aiheen tutkimisen tekee tärkeäksi myös se huolestuttava seikka, että fundamentalistiset ideologiat ovat vahvistumassa globalisaation myötä kautta maailman ja koska naiset ovat niiden ja niiden sisältämän "kunniankulttuurin" ensisijaisia uhreja.
I wish to focus on the Sami identity from the Sami point of view and the problems inherent in a ... more I wish to focus on the Sami identity from the Sami point of view and the problems inherent in a non-Sami trying to address such a question. In Canada I had a chance to attend many workshops and conferences dealing with Indigenous peoples' understandably angry responses to the celebrations of “C. Columbus’ discovery of America”. My attitude to indigenous identity is a typical third wave feminist perspective on any research that involves non-Indigenous people discussing 5 indigenous matters. I feel that it is as important for me to address the problems within cross-cultural studies involving indigenous populations as it would be for me to use the precious ten minutes actually focusing on Sami identity. To sum up my point before I elaborate on it, I wish to stress that non-Samis cannot do justice to "Sami 9 identity" before they have become conscious of the stereotypes that tend to creep into their discussions about 10 the Sami. This includes myself. Last summer I heard a lot about how offensive it is for the Sami to continue 11 seeing themselves portrayed as sooty-faced, short, bowlegged, drunk and dirty--all stereotypes Finnish children 12 have been conditioned with, starting with the writings of Topelius in the book, Maamme, Our Land. I heard 13 about how offensive it was for them when a Finnish skating duo wore a traditional Norwegian Sami costume, 14 claiming it as a Finnish national costume, imagining that the Sami could be used to represent Finland. 15 Last
IAPH. Knowledge, Power, Gender: Philosophy and the Future of the Female Condition, 2000
The aim of my paper is to discuss healing philosophies in the context of violence vs women which ... more The aim of my paper is to discuss healing philosophies in the context of violence vs women which often merely victimizes wo/men. Among healing philosophies, I include ecomyths like the woman who married the bear. It has been interpreted by many women as expressing female desire beyond patriarchal dualisms of humans/animals, Nature/culture--ursine spirituality.
The purpose of this paper is to bring together marginalized aspects of critical white theory, gre... more The purpose of this paper is to bring together marginalized aspects of critical white theory, green feminist theory and Indigenous epistemes. Such “hemispheric cross-talk” across the boundaries of ethnocultural difference including gender is particularly appropriate at a moment when Europe is seeking to re-invent itself and to identify for itself a more broadly-based transnational identity. Is it possible to move beyond the most divisive “us/them” – debates of postcolonial studies towards an agenda that might unite rather than divide a brave new Europe and why would feminist and green postcolonial perspectives (Tiffin & Huggan 2007) on Europe matter?
Gendered violence has in recent years established itself as one of the most pressing issues of th... more Gendered violence has in recent years established itself as one of the most pressing issues of the international women's movement, now also taken up by the Nordic countries. The purpose of my paper is to expose the roots of multilevel violence in socialization based on monoacculturation and the patriarchal master imaginary. We cannot tackle the psycho-social underpinnings of violence unless we recognize the mechanisms of power and violence in all of their subtlety and discursive manifestations. The relations of domination and subordination at the global, macro and microsocial levels of society make possible the global systems of inequalities in power. Since gendered, ethnocultural and species-related politics of domination and violence go together, it is important to recognize all of the conscious, unconscious, tacit and discursive formations of power.
Property, Gender and the Development of the Socio-Economic Order in Western Societies and the Arab-Islamic World
This paper has as its goal to outline some of the key elements and beliefs behind the neo-libera... more This paper has as its goal to outline some of the key elements and beliefs behind the neo-liberal market economy from the point of view of women's status, rights and roles in the changing global economic order. I focus on the threats to women becoming increasingly nothing less than economically useful corporate and elite male property themselves. My approach is intentionally not country or continent-specific although I provide comparative data as examples of the global trends. The purpose is rather to show what kinds of pressures are flowing from the WTO, World Bank and the EU among the central institutions forcefeeding citizens and decision-makers with their recipies of the new socioeconomic order, and how like-minded "structural restructuring programs" and values are combining around the world to entrench elite male control of the world's resources. My ultimate goal is to trigger more scholarly interest in country-specific analyses of the gender impact of the neo-liberal agenda. This is sorely needed to get a full picture of the backlash that feminist economics claims is taking place in an unprecedented fashion. I believe that this gender-sensitive information is itself lacking or scanty precisely as a result of the mixed rhetoric and agenda of the leading institutions regarding women's role in the new economic order.
My activist effort consists in helping to transform the academic exchange economy or culture whi... more My activist effort consists in helping to transform the academic exchange economy or culture which I see rooted in the same patriarchal values as society and the global/local neoliberalist politics at large. I offer as my paradigm challenge the Gift Imaginary, which is based on Vaughan's writings on the appropriation and abuse of women's logic of mothering and giving. I argue that there are two competing trends in the global village: the dominant and threatening one based on neoliberal corporate agendas, monoacculturation and the patriarchal exchange economy which is bringing us all to the brink of ecocide, femicide and genocides. The other, more hopeful trend, however, consists in the many popular and grassroots, community movements which are undermining the cult of consumerism, the technotrance and the politics of ammunition rather than communion.
From Violence to Care—international Conference on Gendered Violence, org. by Oulu University, 2008
As a case study of how literary works and ecomythologies can be important sources of understandin... more As a case study of how literary works and ecomythologies can be important sources of understanding the roots of gendered and ecological violence, and of finding insights towards collective healing, I contrast the writings of two female writers, Maria Vaara of Northern Finland and Lee Maracle of Native North America (Métis/Cree-Salish). I also add references to other Native writings addressing similar issues. Both selected writers epitomize in their work the most common theme of Northern European and Native North American women’s writings—multilevel cultural and individual violence and ways of overwriting the traumas that are only too common as experiences in Northern communities. The writings represent efforts to put violence to shame by evoking alternative models of human existence and of social, intercultural relations. As I will show, these texts of women writers from different ethnocultural or Indigenous/non-indigenous backgrounds reflect both similarities and affinities, provoking us to consider the extent to which the hegemonic worldview of capitalism is itself gendered.
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Books by Kaarina Kailo
The authors reach back 35,000 years to tease out different threads of Indigenous Woman-Bear traditions, using the lens of bear spirituality to uncover the ancient matriarchies found in rock art, caves, ceremonies, rituals, and traditions. Across cultures, in the earliest known traditions, women and bears are shown to collaborate through star configurations and winter cave-dwelling, symbolized by the spring awakening from hibernation followed by the birth of “cubs.” By the Bronze Age, however, the story of the Woman-Bear marriage had changed: it had become a hunting tale, refocused on the male hunter.
Throughout the book, Mann and Kailo offer interpretations of this earliest known Bear religion in both its original and its later forms. Together, they uncover the maternal cultural symbolism behind the bear marriage and the Original Instructions given by Bear to Woman on sustainable ecology and lifeways free of patriarchy and social stratification.
PREFACE
Introduction
Part 1. The Personal is Political – On Genevieve Vaughan’s Impact
1.1. Genevieve Vaughan and Susan Petrilli in Dialogue. For the Sake of the Other.
1.2. Kaarina Kailo, The Significance of Genevieve Vaughan’s Writings for the Post-Coronial World
1.3. Erella Shadmi, A Letter to Genevieve
1.4. Maria Luisa Di Blasi, Being Outside the Market, to Recover Integrity in the Light of the Gift Economy
Part 2. Indigenous Background to the Gift Economy
2.1. Vandana Shiva, Living in Times of Epidemics and Extinction: Remembering that the Art of Living is the Art of Giving
2.2. Barbara Alice Mann, The Gift of Womb and Breath
2.3. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, The Relationship Between Modern Matriarchal Studies and the Gift Economy
2.4. Patricia Mukhim, Gift Economy - the Essence of Matriarchy
Part 3. Historical Views on the Gift Economy
3.1. Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Gift and Exchange in Historical Perspective, Money, Exchange and the Modern Society
3.2. Rajani Kanth, Matricentric Gift Economy
Part 4. Mothering and the Gift
4.1. Mariam Irene Tazi-Preve, Reversing Matricide
4.2. Darcia Narvaez, Angela M. Kurth and Mary S. Tarsha, The Centrality of Mothering for Human Flourishing
Part 5. Women's Body, Divinity and the Gift
5.1. Vicki Noble, The Gift of Women’s Blood: The Sacred Waters of Life
5.2. Annine Van der Meer, Continuing Marija Gimbutas' Work on Ancient Female Figurines. The Latest World News
5.3. Nané Jordan, Placental Musings for Birthing the Maternal Gift Economy
Part 6. From Theory to Practice
6.1. Alessandra Piccoli & Marco Linardi, Maternal Gift Economy and a Circle of Women and Men on their Way to an Egalitarian Society: a Participatory Action Research
6.2. Miki Kashtan, Attending to Needs without Coercion: Moving Beyond the Patriarchal Limits of Socialism to a Full Gift Economy
6.3. Angela Dolmetsch, The Gifts from Genevieve Vaughan and Nashira Eco-village
6.4. Kirre Koivunen, Women-at-Risk – Gift Economy’s Possibilities and Matriarchal Social Systems Worldwide
Biographies
Endnotes
asuista, emoessuista ja tilkkutöistä, joiden
kautta pyrimme tekemään näkyväksi Suomen
kansan vanhoissa runoissa (SKVR) esiintyvät,
tietoisesti tai muista syistä piiloon jääneet
naishahmot ja niihin liittyvän muinaisen maailmankuvan.
Esittelemme tarina-tekstiiliemme kautta
myös naisen elämänvoiman ja sosiaalisen tehtävän
innoittamaa muinaista ornamentiikkaa
ja sen voimasymboleja.
Papers by Kaarina Kailo
The authors reach back 35,000 years to tease out different threads of Indigenous Woman-Bear traditions, using the lens of bear spirituality to uncover the ancient matriarchies found in rock art, caves, ceremonies, rituals, and traditions. Across cultures, in the earliest known traditions, women and bears are shown to collaborate through star configurations and winter cave-dwelling, symbolized by the spring awakening from hibernation followed by the birth of “cubs.” By the Bronze Age, however, the story of the Woman-Bear marriage had changed: it had become a hunting tale, refocused on the male hunter.
Throughout the book, Mann and Kailo offer interpretations of this earliest known Bear religion in both its original and its later forms. Together, they uncover the maternal cultural symbolism behind the bear marriage and the Original Instructions given by Bear to Woman on sustainable ecology and lifeways free of patriarchy and social stratification.
PREFACE
Introduction
Part 1. The Personal is Political – On Genevieve Vaughan’s Impact
1.1. Genevieve Vaughan and Susan Petrilli in Dialogue. For the Sake of the Other.
1.2. Kaarina Kailo, The Significance of Genevieve Vaughan’s Writings for the Post-Coronial World
1.3. Erella Shadmi, A Letter to Genevieve
1.4. Maria Luisa Di Blasi, Being Outside the Market, to Recover Integrity in the Light of the Gift Economy
Part 2. Indigenous Background to the Gift Economy
2.1. Vandana Shiva, Living in Times of Epidemics and Extinction: Remembering that the Art of Living is the Art of Giving
2.2. Barbara Alice Mann, The Gift of Womb and Breath
2.3. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, The Relationship Between Modern Matriarchal Studies and the Gift Economy
2.4. Patricia Mukhim, Gift Economy - the Essence of Matriarchy
Part 3. Historical Views on the Gift Economy
3.1. Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Gift and Exchange in Historical Perspective, Money, Exchange and the Modern Society
3.2. Rajani Kanth, Matricentric Gift Economy
Part 4. Mothering and the Gift
4.1. Mariam Irene Tazi-Preve, Reversing Matricide
4.2. Darcia Narvaez, Angela M. Kurth and Mary S. Tarsha, The Centrality of Mothering for Human Flourishing
Part 5. Women's Body, Divinity and the Gift
5.1. Vicki Noble, The Gift of Women’s Blood: The Sacred Waters of Life
5.2. Annine Van der Meer, Continuing Marija Gimbutas' Work on Ancient Female Figurines. The Latest World News
5.3. Nané Jordan, Placental Musings for Birthing the Maternal Gift Economy
Part 6. From Theory to Practice
6.1. Alessandra Piccoli & Marco Linardi, Maternal Gift Economy and a Circle of Women and Men on their Way to an Egalitarian Society: a Participatory Action Research
6.2. Miki Kashtan, Attending to Needs without Coercion: Moving Beyond the Patriarchal Limits of Socialism to a Full Gift Economy
6.3. Angela Dolmetsch, The Gifts from Genevieve Vaughan and Nashira Eco-village
6.4. Kirre Koivunen, Women-at-Risk – Gift Economy’s Possibilities and Matriarchal Social Systems Worldwide
Biographies
Endnotes
asuista, emoessuista ja tilkkutöistä, joiden
kautta pyrimme tekemään näkyväksi Suomen
kansan vanhoissa runoissa (SKVR) esiintyvät,
tietoisesti tai muista syistä piiloon jääneet
naishahmot ja niihin liittyvän muinaisen maailmankuvan.
Esittelemme tarina-tekstiiliemme kautta
myös naisen elämänvoiman ja sosiaalisen tehtävän
innoittamaa muinaista ornamentiikkaa
ja sen voimasymboleja.
Finnish “original instructions,” i.e., the shared rules that
one had to respect in order not to anger the spirits, and
to ensure luck and onni (Finnish for happiness). Finns,
like Indigenous peoples in general were shamanistic and
animistic prior to the imposition of Christian patriarchy
in the eleventh century. This article explores how the philosophy of gifting has functioned in the sauna and how the sauna continues to be a multidimensional shrine of healing.
The aim of this article is to describe how I have proceeded in introducing little-known Finnish goddesses and ancestral great mothers to Finns at home and abroad, and how I have tried to give them a new voice and face through quilt art. As I have little academic or financial support for my projects (having retired), I try to encourage other, better funded scholars to delve into the topics that need revisiting and a different approach. The work I am carrying out would ideally be part of a team effort involving gender studies experts, linguists, etymologists, archeologists, religious studies experts with a feminist perspective and ethnographers, as well as historians committed to recovering herstory and its mysteries. Since there is no such team, I see as my mandate to plant seeds and to gather hints and vestiges of another imaginary and land of women – Terra Feminarum, the mythical Kvenland of high antiquity in the North. Pioneers and bioneers tread on thin ice but are needed so new flows of information and wisdom traditions can be uncovered from under the ice age of patriarchal overwriting of our past…My aim here is to scrape off the patriarchal layers of bias and make room for the knowledge brought by archeomythological, modern matriarchal and indigenous studies as well as rock art and ancient figurines.
The creative arts play a crucial role in this expression of Earth Love. Ecofeminst arts ... [are] essential catalysts of change that (re)connect us with nature and spirit. Diamond & G.F. Orenstein
The aim of this article is to describe how I have proceeded in introducing little-known Finnish goddesses and ancestral great mothers to Finns at home and abroad, and how I have tried to give them a new voice and face through quilt art. As I have little academic or financial support for my projects (having retired), I try to encourage other, better funded scholars to delve into the topics that need revisiting and a different approach. The work I am carrying out would ideally be part of a team effort involving gender studies experts, linguists, etymologists, archeologists, religious studies experts with a feminist perspective and ethnographers, as well as historians committed to recovering herstory and its mysteries. Since there is no such team, I see as my mandate to plant seeds and to gather hints and vestiges of another imaginary and land of women – Terra Feminarum, the mythical Kvenland of high antiquity in the North. Pioneers and bioneers tread on thin ice but are needed so new flows of information and wisdom traditions can be uncovered from under the ice age of patriarchal overwriting of our past…My aim here is to scrape off the patriarchal layers of bias and make room for the knowledge brought by archeomythological, modern matriarchal and indigenous studies as well as rock art and ancient figurines
The creative arts play a crucial role in this expression of Earth Love. Ecofeminst arts ... [are] essential catalysts of change that (re)connect us with nature and spirit. Diamond & G.F. Orenstein
The aim of this article is to describe how I have proceeded in introducing little-known Finnish goddesses and ancestral great mothers to Finns at home and abroad, and how I have tried to give them a new voice and face through quilt art. As I have little academic or financial support for my projects (having retired), I try to encourage other, better funded scholars to delve into the topics that need revisiting and a different approach. The work I am carrying out would ideally be part of a team effort involving gender studies experts, linguists, etymologists, archeologists, religious studies experts with a feminist perspective and ethnographers, as well as historians committed to recovering herstory and its mysteries. Since there is no such team, I see as my mandate to plant seeds and to gather hints and vestiges of another imaginary and land of women – Terra Feminarum, the mythical Kvenland of high antiquity in the North. Pioneers and bioneers tread on thin ice but are needed so new flows of information and wisdom traditions can be uncovered from under the ice age of patriarchal overwriting of our past…My aim here is to scrape off the patriarchal layers of bias and make room for the knowledge brought by archeomythological, modern matriarchal and indigenous studies as well as rock art and ancient figurines
d’Eléonore Sioui du point de vue de l’orientalisme arctique. Le défi de l’étude du Nord imaginaire est celui d’une sensibilisation double – liée aux questions de femmes écrivains avec leur altérité sexuelle-textuelle et ethnique. L’étude du Nord et de l’Amérindien imaginaire requiert une autoréflexion sur le possible « orientalisme » de nos catégories et
guides de lecture. Cela exige la reconnaissance de logiques de visions du monde différentes, de même que d’une épistémologie allant au-delà du discours scientifique servant à contrôler l’univers, la femme et la nature.
heal our deep structures. I will also refer not only to western but arctic hysteria as examples of the silent revolution for which we don't have an adequate language. We need more stories as medicine, as our collective talking cure.
L’article explore le mythe de la boîte de Pandora comme source des maux de l’humanité du point de vue gynocentrique. Pan Dora a-t-elle plutôt représenté la déesse ou esprit de don et d’abondance, á l’époque précédant le patriarcat. Après l’analyse et exposition de la notion néolibérale de la nature humaine, l’article introduit l’autre imaginaire dit l’imaginaire du don avec sa philosophie de partage et circulation des dons : celle que je trouve chez les peuples finnois, et dans la mythologie finlandaise. Il faut exposer que la naturalisation de la norme humaine néolibérale n’est qu’une façon historique entre autres de concevoir l’être humain. Du point de vue de l’imaginaire du don, on peut introduire le norme de homo et femina donans, a la place du homo economicus, le modèle actuel.
L'article explore le mythe de la boîte de Pandore comme source des maux de l'humanité du point de vue gynocentrique. Pan Dora at -elle plutôt représenté la déesse ou l'esprit de don et d'abondance, á l'époque précédant le patriarchat ? Après l'analyse et exposition de la conception néolibérale de la nature humaine, l'article introduit l'autre imaginaire dit l'imaginaire du don avec sa philosophie de partage et circulation des dons: celle que je trouve chez les peuples finnois, et dans la mythologie finlandaise. Il faut exposer que la naturalisation du norme humain néolibéral n'est qu'une façon historique entre autres de concevoir l'être humain. Du point de vue de l'imaginaire du don, il se peut que e norme humain ait été representée par femina donans, á la place du homo economicus, le modèle actuel. Pan Dora Revisited-FROM patriarchal WOMAN-BLAMING TO A feminist Gift Imaginary The goal of my engaged research consists in reclaiming gynocentric imaginaries with their implicit ecological economics and sustainable worldview, one that also honors women and nature. In this paper, I will revisit the Greco-Roman myth of Pandora as a cross-cultural motif and its Finnish variant. This master narrative of humanity's creative origins consists in transforming women's gift labor into a woman-blaming narrative of male superiority. I introduce at the same time the Gift imaginary with its philosophical tenets based on giving back to nature the goods it bestows on humans. Both patriarchal and gynocentric variants of Pan Dora as All-Giver, the goddess of Abundance and life-centered values can be found across the world. My discussion of the fate of Pandora in Finnish, and more broadly Nordic mythology is an example of how we can draw on local, situated mythologies to rediscover and make more visible the submerged and symbolically non-masculated (Vaughan l997) ways of relating to and ordering the surrounding world. I call the dominant Western paradigm and world view to do with human nature and values the master imaginary, which echoes aspects of the exchange economy on which Vaughan has elaborated (l997) and what ecofeminist scholars have labelled as either the master identity (Plumwood l993) or consciousness (Warren 1994 (2000, 48), 1992). The concept condenses the artificial and arbitrary dichotomies that have allowed mostly white heterosexual elite men to dominate nature, women, native populations and people of colour as well as men defying the hegemonic gender contracts. The master imaginary refers to the totality of cultural customs, etiquettes, gendered divisions and processes of labour, attitudes, behaviours, activities and gestures that lend legitimacy and inner strength to patriarchy's asymmetrical gender system. Among the central elements of this logic are assumptions and projections of non-egalitarian and hierarchically constructed difference (e.g. men vs. women, humans vs. animals, mind vs. matter or spirit, rationality vs. emotionality). This includes a gendered segregation of "male" and "female" realms of reason, influence, prestige, power or social activities and a relegation of the less prestigious "emotional" labor mostly to women. This imaginary rests also on a perceptual pivot which privileges a worldview of strict boundaries to ground ownership rights, competition and social hierarchies. Establishing society's moral boundaries via the female body is an effect of asymmetrical power relations, not of a categorical logic within social structures. Women can and do, at different locations of power and privilege also embrace the master imaginary and its logic of mastery over the "other." Many women embrace themselves a system of boundaries projected on the (female) body, on territory and society that marks and defines female corporeality in its "open and vulnerable stage" (menses, pregnancy) as polluted and polluting (Douglas 1996 [1966]. However, it is necessary to distinguish between the internalization of patriarchal societal values and conscious, informed consent to sex/gender systems that subjugate women through a misleading politics of idealization/denigration of the "feminine". If one does not grow up knowing of alternatives to a patriarchal social order, one cannot really claim that women willingly embrace asymmetrically constructed social systems. Although the master imaginary in its current, markedly economistic form can be embraced by
myös luonnon sietokykyä.
To sum up my point before I elaborate on it, I wish to stress that non-Samis cannot do justice to "Sami 9 identity" before they have become conscious of the stereotypes that tend to creep into their discussions about 10 the Sami. This includes myself. Last summer I heard a lot about how offensive it is for the Sami to continue 11 seeing themselves portrayed as sooty-faced, short, bowlegged, drunk and dirty--all stereotypes Finnish children 12 have been conditioned with, starting with the writings of Topelius in the book, Maamme, Our Land. I heard 13 about how offensive it was for them when a Finnish skating duo wore a traditional Norwegian Sami costume, 14 claiming it as a Finnish national costume, imagining that the Sami could be used to represent Finland. 15
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