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A movement is always a reaction against the preceding one.
Posthumanism is a major European continental philosophy that started
around the late twentieth century. Posthumanism is different
from classical humanism in that it decentralizes the role of man. The focus is
on man not destroying nature, or on his realizing that he cannot set himself
above nature. Man's knowledge is reduced to a less controlling position. The
limitation and fallibility of human intelligence are accepted, and many scientists
and techno-savvy people have publicly declared their return to a socially
committed and spiritual life. Techno-scientific knowledge cannot be accepted as
foolproof. The posthumanist is an enlightened one who takes full responsibility for
his deeds. It is only when one takes full responsibility for the consequences
of one's action that one can be called enlightened. Paula Gunn Allen relies on
her matrilineal lineage because she finds the white mainstream belief
systems unacceptable and unenlightened. So, Allen's move from humanism
to posthumanism is a new definition where new boundaries are being remapped.
Native Indians in the past practiced a kind of animism, as per the
white man's observations. So they were labeled primitive and savage. But much
to her chagrin, Allen found the white think culture more uncivilized and
heathen. Anglo-Americans were erasing cultures through conquest,
coerced acculturation, and misrepresentations through texts. Allen is a
bicultural Laguna Native American writer, brought up in the white mainstream
patriarchy. Her Native Indian mother and grandmother instilled in her Indian
traditions and cultural values which are deep-rooted in her. Like Indians who regard
the earth as Bhoomidevi (Earth goddess), for Native Indians the earth is
something very sacred and is another link in the sacred wheel of life. Native Indians
do not have a laddered sense of space. For them all space is cyclic, and man,
god (all spirits), and nature have equal significance. |
