During birth, cells are exchanged between mother and the newborn, we recently learnt. What does that mean for our identities and relationships? We grasped the idea of co-evolution and symbiosis as a prerequisite for life on earth. We know we have to find new ways of multi species living on our planet dangerously close to tipping points of irreversibly changing living conditions. What does that mean for our relationships as mothers, fathers, or others? What is our vision of a co-living society?
We’ve read women authors of many fields: biologists, sociologists, anthropologists and other researchers including artists.
Margulis about multidisciplinary research and life:“I was no more constitutionally inclined to focus monomaniacally on the cell nucleus than I was to be a satellite wife in a nuclear family; my attentions were divided. My friend Mary Catherine Bateson describes modern women as ‘peripheral visionaries’. A woman must be almost octopoid in her attentions if she is to survive. ”
Lynn Margulis (1998) Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution, Sciencewriters, Basic Books, Amherst, Massachusetts.
With these new eyes we want to explore the theme ‚Motherness & Otherness’ in the reading club and in other formats to come. Starting with the idea of ‘Further Feminisms’ by Rebecca Solnit we explicitly include fathers, men and anybody and kind in this discussion. Also concepts such as ecofeminism will be subject of the next sessions.
In ‘Between Us and Nature – A Reading Club’ we read texts together related to natural sciences, art, anthropology, postcolonialism, and (post)anthropocene, chosen from a female perspective looking beyond disciplines. Those who would like to attend the reading session, please rsvp via email to betweenusnature@gmail.com
