Nature 5

Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

Genesis, The Bible. URL: BBC

This quote is from Genesis, the creation story of the Bible’s Old Testament. The Bible’s texts can be dated back to about 1200 BC was canonised until 135 CE. Christianity took all the books of the Tanakh, rearranged them, and set them out as the Old Testament (OT) which came before the New Testament (NT).

It was only from the late 18th century onwards that the extensive and evident long-term effects of industrialisation and urbanisation became apparent in Central Europe. Colonial conquest and “discovery” were shaped by an understanding of nature informed by domination. Hence this quote’s biblical command guided these kinds of actions which were, at the same time, inspired by an interest in scientific and Enlightenment knowledge and in securing economic advantage. The well-known Enlightenment figure René Descartes also described humans as ‘rulers and owners of nature’ (Descartes, 1637, Discours de la méthode, VI, 2). In colonial history, dominion over nature was linked with dominion over people who lived close to nature and who were, in the eyes of colonisers, “primitive” (Müller 2017).

*Franziska Müller (2017): Von grüner Hölle und grünem Gold. (Post)Koloniale gesellschaftliche Naturverhältnisse. In glokal: Connecting the dots. Lernen aus Geschichte(n) von Unterdrückung und Widerstand. Berlin. *Franziska Müller (2020) “Can the Subaltern Protect Forests? REDD+ Compliance, Depoliticisation and Indigenous Subjectivities“ Journal of Political Ecology 27(1), p.419-435.

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