2 of 4 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Anderlini's Gaia - Student Reports: Alissa's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio's Gaia and the New Politics of Love was one of three cultural theory books.  We got four responses: from Michael, Alissa, John, and Alexandra.  

Here's Alissa's take:

Response to Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio's Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet

 

One line that particularly stood out to me was “As a woman who loves her body in all its parts, and claims jurisdiction over them and the consensual pleasures in which they become engaged, I whole heartedly agree with today’s cultural constructionists that biology is not destiny.” This sentence was of importance to be because it brings up the concept of nature vs. nurture. Our biological make up doesn’t decide who we are. It may define us physically and create limits on certain activities we can participate in, but it does not create the whole person, it’s only a piece of the puzzle. Biology creates the person, but it’s what we do with what we are given that creates an identity. This coincides with the chart that lists “the seed must control reproductive organ” with its listed consequences as “reproduction as destiny” and “excessive population growth.” This portion focuses on the idea that sex is solely used for having children and spreading one’s genes onto an offspring (survival of the fittest). The average person can also relate with this preconceived belief because as a person gets older and has a partner their families, parents, friends will ask the question, when are you having kids? In society’s eyes getting married and having children are steps in the equation and people are looked down upon if they choose otherwise. “Reproduction as destiny” is not a reasonable belief because some people are infertile, or sterile making it difficult to have children, other people choose to focus on a career rather than a have children. In the other books we read the concept of symbiosis been explained over and over again, but a unique perspective that was brought to my attention was that nothing is just a resource. Everything benefits from another piece of Gaia. We humans benefit from the other pieces of Gaia and things such as trees benefit from the air we breathe in and out.

            Something brought to my attention that I never gave too much thought to was the idea that the men’s sperm is what fertilizes the woman’s egg. Something as simple as that seems just like a fact, but this can be considered where the whole concept of patriarchal beliefs came from; the idea that sperm (the male form) has power over the ovum (the female form).  The man impregnates the woman making him superior and the woman more susceptible to his control. Males dominating created the concept of history. History can be seen as a subject area students study in school but it can also been seen as a gendered view on society. History is told from a male perspective, through the male gaze. Women have recently been given a voice, but those years of suppression cannot be taken back. Men’s point of views has been given a greater importance and they are highlighted for their achievements more than women.

Why do you think men were giving superiority to begin with, was it because of natural selection and physical traits or biological factors like impregnating women?

Alissa Maus
Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports scheduled every other Thursday.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

 

1 of 4 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Anderlini's Gaia - Student Responses: Michael's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio's Gaia and the New Politics of Love was one of three cultural theory books.  We got four responses: from Michael, Alissa, John, and Alexandra.  

Here's Michaels's take:

Response to Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio's Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet

 

In the book’s initial discussion of the Gaia hypothesis, a comparison is made to Galileo’s discovery of the heliocentric solar system and the discovery’s role in helping to reshape the dogma of the scientific community. I found this comparison, particularly with the references to the works of Thomas Kuhn and Ludwik Fleck very interesting because I think this is certainly a problem that science has never really been able to avoid. I think there’s evidence of this within every generation, as seen with Einstein’s rejection of quantum mechanics because of his belief that the universe couldn’t be so random.

In addition to the scientific community’s ability to become rooted in dogma, I think an additional problem has a risen vis-à-vis how the proliferation of modern media has encouraged such bad behavior among scientists. While such paradigm shifts are often generational, there is now also an element that every discovery is amplified and given significance beyond its actual findings. This makes it that much harder to shift the paradigm because public perception and its bias has been added to the field in addition to the biases of the scientists themselves.

I also found the discussion of abortion rights and the religion’s role interesting. As a supporter of abortion I had always thought of it in the manner described in the book as supporting the principle but simultaneously wanting to avoid it happening still. I had never really thought about why this might be problematic in a different way from a fundamentally pro-life perspective and am glad this was raised by the book.

Does the use of Gaia Theory as a philosophy behind changing human society necessitate the acknowledgement that human-centric thinking as being top of the ‘food chain’ must be abandoned?

Michael Maranets
Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports to be scheduled soon, every other Thursday.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

 

5 of 5 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Margulis and Sagan's Mystery Dance - Student Response: Michael's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's Mystery Dance was one of two theory-of-science books.  We got four responses: from John, Alissa, Rhiann, Adam, and Michael.  

Here's Michael's take:

Response to Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality

 

An issue that arises for me when reading Mystery Dance and the other books assigned by Lynn Marguiles is that I feel I at times focus too much on the trees and miss the broader forest of her points. Having said that, I really enjoyed this book as it presented a nice synthesis of philosophy, zoological evolution and microbiology all of which I like. I did however have some issues with some of the evidence she presents and manner in which she argues for her points. On page 27 when she talks about the idea of a sexual bacterial ‘super-organism’, I find this idea very intriguing because research that has occurred in the 20 years since this book was published has only added evidence supporting the notion of cooperation and altruism between various certain bacterial species that goes beyond her basic examples of their ability to recycle each-other’s metabolites for their own use. I think this if anything is how I view the idea of Gaia, and while the DNA exchanges that occur are the prototype upon which sexual reproduction evolved I think Marguiles should also have mentioned the antagonistic relationship that these organisms share as well. While cooperation does occur, many of these bacteria are also at war with each-other, particularly if they share the same metabolites so there is a degree of antagonism that occurs as well. I think this should have mentioned because it paints a fuller picture of this ‘super-organism’ and because it provides an interesting analogy to the antagonistic war of the sexes in the reproduction of various animals that she documents subsequently. I found she often engaged in the same kind of chauvinistic use of biological evidence that she addressed as what was wrong with how Social Darwinists and others utilized biology in the past. This occurs problematically, in my mind at least, throughout the book, but is most egregious in her discussion of the rise of the patriarchy and phallocracy on page 54 as a consequence of the evolution of Homo sapiens. Earlier she references the descent of Homo erectus as the beginning of our abandonment of chimpanzee-like promiscuity towards monogamy and the protection of females due to the physical power of men which she again references here via her examples of early hunting by males and gathering by females. Based on my experiences taking some anthropology classes on early man and reading the book Born to Run, I would disagree with her use of evolutionary biology to place the origins of the patriarchy at this point in humanity’s existence. Homo erectus differentiated himself from the last common ancestor we share with chimpanzees and other apes because of his ability to run. This is the primary method humanity used throughout the bulk of its history over the last 50,000 years to procure food. There is a greater discrepancy between the sizes of male and female apes like gorillas than between male and female early humans because the physical size of males was actually counterproductive for running and males began shrinking via the selective pressure of these long distance hunts. Born to Run also presents a myriad of evidence of the fact that as you increase the distance of an endurance run the difference between male and female competitors disappears. Ultra-marathoning of the kind ancient tribes utilized to hunt created an equal playing field between the sexes’ roles in survival unlike any seen prior to that point in primates. Similarly, the archaeological evidence of shamanistic rituals I encountered within anthropology also painted a picture of shared shaman roles between the sexes, if not a slant towards female shamans. I’d instead argue that the rise of the patriarchy began much later in human history, only at the dawn of organized agriculture and with it organized religion, within the last 10,000 years, where the larger physical strength of males would present an advantage that they did not necessarily have earlier in hunting by running animals to death.

Question: At a point in the first Chapter, Marguiles uses her arguments about ritualistic violence inherent in males and sperm competition to offer an explanation for gang rapes. Do you agree with her perspective or not? Why?

Michael Maranets
Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports to be scheduled soon, every other Thursday.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

 

4 of 5 - EcoSex @ U Conn - Margulis and Sagan's Mystery Dance - Student Reports: Adam's Take

Dear Earthlings:

The EcoSex course at U Conn is in process.  It's a great experience.  We are reading amazing books.  Thinking out of the box and across disciplines.  Students are sending their responses in, with discussion questions.  In class, we connect the dots: a holograph of what we've read together, the "required readings."  Multiple perspectives and good synergy.  Here, we offer a glimpse.  Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's Mystery Dance was one of two theory-of-science books.  We got four responses: from John, Alissa, Rhiann, Adam, and Michael.  

Here's Adam's take:

Response to Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's Mystery Dance: On the Evolution of Human Sexuality

 

I thoroughly enjoyed “Mystery Dance” by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan. These women proved to me, once again, that they are competent, brilliant story-tellers, as well as scientists. I was captivated from the start; the interdisciplinary nature of the book, touching on biology, feminist perspectives, paleontology, microbiology, psychology, etc. appealed to my intellect and made it impossible to label the book as too one-sided or bland.

            As an evolutionary biology major, I am fascinated by any news or information on evolution and all the process entails. “Mystery Dance” took an approach to the concept of evolution that I had not deeply considered before; the ‘stripper’ motive endowed the concept of evolution with an air of sexuality and, just as importantly, layers. As a child, I viewed evolution like links in a chain – mutations that resulted in the beginning or end of a species. As I have grown, I have learned that evolution if far less cut and dry than that, and this book articulates that superbly.

            Another thing I loved about this book was how Margulis and Sagan focus on the human sex organs, and their relation, in comparison, to our fellow primates and, more broadly, to the other species in the various kingdoms and phylum. I had a decent understanding of these concepts before my reading of this book; I had done my own novice research because of interest on the subject. However, “Mystery Dance” took what I already knew and vastly expanded upon it. Why female Homo sapiens have permanently distended breasts after puberty, why male Homo sapiens generally have much larger genitalia than those of our fellow primates, how we associate sex with the primal, and therefore uncontrollable, dirty parts of our bodies – all are questions that I did not even know I had, now answered.

            My question: Looking at current trends, can one predict how human sexual physiology will change in the future, assuming we continue existing as a species?

Adam Kocurek
Published with permission

WGSS 3998 - Ecosexuality and the Ecology of Love

Prof. Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio

U Conn, Storrs, Spring 2013

Course Announcement and Description

Dear Earthlings:

Let "nature" be your teacher in the arts of love.  Education is the heart of democracy, education to love.  Come back for more wonders: Students Responses to appear every Tuesday.  Book Reports to be scheduled soon, every other Thursday.  Check out our summer offerings:  Ecosexuality in Portland, OR, July 17-21.  Info and Registration here! 

Namaste,
 

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia, Eros, and many other books about love
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: 
http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Be Appraised of Ecosex Community Project PostaHouse 
Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: 

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini