The Dictionary of Human Geography (47 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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domestication
The process by which plant or ANiMAL species are reshaped through the social and economic uses to which they are put by human societies in particular cultural and historical contexts. As this implies, human societies have altered the genetic composition of plants and animals by influencing their reproduction and life histories so as to make them better fitted to human needs and designs (see Clutton Brock, 1999). In his theory of evolution, Darwin (1998 [1868]) called this process ?artificial? (as opposed to ?natural?) selection and illustrated it with the example of pigeon fanciers (see Darwinism). Some domesticated species and organisms can become adapted to the point of dependency on human relations for example, garden plants and companion animals or agricultural crops and livestock and would have difficulty surviving outside of that domesticated context. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Domestication is strongly bound up with the centrality of cultivation to Western ideas of civilization and the advancement of human societies from the state of nature. Here, the process of domestication is understood as con sequential not only in terms of altering the physiognomy of plants and animals, but also the sociocultural practices of what is taken to define human beings (Anderson, 1997). The historical realization of these ideas in the political and legal practices of colonialism finds echoes in those of the post colonial present through the persistent imperatives of the scientific management and technological improvement in the efficiency and productivity of natural resources. In an era of biotech nology, this historical legacy informs new geopolitical investments in the meaning and practice of domestication. In forums such as the Food and Agriculture Organization and the world trade organization, for example, Western countries have asserted claims to intellectual property rights in biological resources on the basis of scientific interven tions in what are presented as previously ?nat ural? materials (see patenting). By contrast, countries in the global south have sought to assert the claims of farmers and indigenous peoples to equivalent rights in recognition of their transformative ecological relations with plants and animals time out of mind. sw (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Harlan (1995). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
domesticity
Home life and home making practices within and beyond the household and/or family. Closely tied to understandings of home, house and household, domesticity encompasses paid and unpaid domestic work (including cooking, cleaning and caring; see domestic labour), the home life of people who live alone or with others, and a wider sense of what is familiar and homely rather than ?foreign? and unhomely. The study of domesticity dates back to attempts to formal ize, rationalize and teach its principles from the mid nineteenth century. Within geog raphy, the work of feminist geographers has been particularly influential in studying domesticity since the 1970s (see feminist geographies). In their analysis of social reproduction within the domestic sphere, socialist feminists have explored the ways in which domesticity, as a site of contested and unequal gender relations, is inseparably bound up with capitalism and patriarchy (Gregson and Lowe, 1994). Feminist geographers have studied the gender, class and racialized power relations of paid and unpaid domestic work, and the ways in which the transnational migra tion of domestic workers, particularly women, binds household to global economies and inequalities (including Pratt, 2004). A wide range of other geographical research has explored domestic technologies and rational ities, domestic interiors, embodied domestic practices and domestic material cultures (for an overview, see Blunt and Dowling, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . Important themes include the ways in which domestic practices reproduce, recast and resist ideas about the home and/or family and the ways in which domesticity is closely bound up with modernity, power and identity. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Geographies of domesticity also extend far beyond the household. As Amy Kaplan (2002) observes, the term ?domestic? has a double meaning, referring both to the space of the nation and to the space of the household. Both of these meanings are closely bound up with shifting ideas about the ?foreign,? and are imagined and materialized through a range of domestic politics and practices. Rather than view domesticity as confined to a private sphere of influence, it is a crucial site of repro duction and resistance that is intimately bound up with the world beyond, as well as within, the household. Historical studies reveal the ways in which domesticity was explicitly and intimately tied to wider national and imperial politics through, for example, discourses and practices concerning mater nity, consumption and child rearing (includ ing Stoler, 2002). Other research has shown the importance of domesticity in anti imperial nationalist politics, often focusing on the politicization of women within and beyond the home (including Legg, 2003). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Studies of domesticity in both historical and contemporary contexts usually focus on the material and symbolic importance of women. Whilst a wide range of research documents the oppression of women through domestic work and domestic violence, other research explores domesticity as a site of potential cre ativity, power and resistance. Other researchers have begun to investigate the domestic lives of men and the relationships between domesticity and masculinity (see, e.g., Tosh, 1999). ab (NEW PARAGRAPH)
domination
The physical or cultural asser tion of power over an individual, social group or territory. The term refers to the practice and manifestation of power relationships, especially in terms of the construction of terri tory and spaces as a means of control (NEW PARAGRAPH) Domination was originally perceived in a classical geopolitical sense of territorial control. In the late nineteenth and early twen tieth centuries, geopolitical theories advocat ing the expansion of state borders at the expense of ?inferior? cultures were the basis for the frontier expansion of the USA and Russia, Germany?s desire for territory in eastern Europe, and the establishment of European empires. In this period, domination was viewed as the ability of a state to control territory and hence its residents on the basis of cultural superiority. In the cold war period, domination was also seen as a matter of the power of states to define and attain their own self interests. (NEW PARAGRAPH) However, critical scholarship began to define other forms of domination. The Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1971 [1929 35]) noted that the ideas of the ruling class are mainly accepted by the whole of society, producing acquies cence in national projects of capital accumula tion that benefit a few (cf. hegemony). Edward Said?s (2003 [1978]) exposition of oriental ism illustrated the cultural practices by which colonial powers created a sense of superiority over their subjects through literature and the arts. The practices of cultural domination have been addressed by geographers at a num ber of scales, from the construction of empire to the normative understanding of places that exclude particular people, groups and behav iours (Cresswell, 1996). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Feminist and queer studies (see feminist geographies; queer theory) have empha sized the heteronormative and patriarchal character of spaces ranging from the household to the nation state (Staeheli, Kofman and Peake, 2004). In addition, the racial domination of whites is gaining increasing attention (see white ness). However, criticism remains that many human geography studies tend to ignore ques tions of race, gender and sexuality (Staeheli, Kofman and Peake, 2004). Still, the emphasis placed upon cultural domination has been connected to the creation of material spaces of racial segregation in the city, hate crime activity in gay neighbourhoods and patri archal practices. In a separate vein of work, the role of the USA as hegemonic power has attracted the attention of geographers, espe cially its role in dominating the global political agenda and its massive military power. cf (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Flint (2004); Staeheli, Kofman and Peake (2004). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
domino theory
A theory of geopolitics orig inally proposed by the USA in the 1950s, claim ing that if one country joined or was forced to join the Soviet Union?s sphere of influence, then its neighbours would inevitably follow. The theory rested upon an analogy of toppling dominoes and was used to justify the military and political involvement of the USA in other countries, especially in South East Asia, in the 1950s and 1960s, but also in Central America in the 1990s (see also cold war). O?Sullivan (1982) critiques the theory for ignoring the unique history and internal politics of different countries (the dominoes). cf (NEW PARAGRAPH)
dry farming
A set of farming techniques for crop cultivation without irrigation, used in areas with variable or little rainfall (Heathcote, 1983). Dry farming requires both water and soil conservation measures, such as mulching, frequent weeding and summer fallowing in alternate years. A long established practice in the Near East, North Africa and north west India, dry farming can only produce a narrow range of crops and low yields. These methods were instrumental in the extension of crop cultivation into the semi arid areas of the americas and australia by European settlers in the nineteenth century. Dry farming is see ing a minor resurgence among followers of sustainable agriculture. jgu (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Hargreaves (1992). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
dual economy
An economy made up of two supposedly distinct parts: the modern econ omy and the pre modern economy. The term was probably first used by Dutch economist J.H. Boeke, in his account of Indonesia as a dual society (Boeke, 1953). Boeke maintained that parts of Indonesian society had already become modern: some urban enterprises were organized according to recognizably scientific and capitalist principles, and were situated in neighbourhoods that seemed ?Western? to Boeke. Most of Indonesia, however, was ?Eastern? or pre modern: life and work here were loosely organized and geared to the pro duction of things for household consumption or local exchange. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Boeke?s work on Indonesia was meant to contribute to public policy debates. The question he raised was the classic mid twenti eth century question of how to get from A to B, or from a traditional society to a modern society (see modernization). As in many of these models, cultural change was thought to be driven by economic development. This was certainly the case in W. Arthur Lewis? (1954) account of ?economic development with unlimited supplies of labour?. Lewis argued that vast pools of unproductive rural labour could be decanted to the urban indus trial sector without affecting levels of food production. Scarce resources could then be channelled into the ?commanding heights of the economy?, much as the Indian government tried to do in its Second and Third Five Year Plan periods (1956 66). Even better, urban real wage rates would not rise in the short run. Rural urban migration served an equili brating function, and helped to ensure that the modern economy would slowly take the place of the pre modern economy. (NEW PARAGRAPH) In the 1960s and 1970s, the logic of this version of the dual economy model was turned upside down. Michael Lipton (1977) famously argued that most of the poverty of the third world was in the countryside, along with most of the low cost sources of economic advance. To neglect the rural sector in the name of an abstract model of economic modernity was inequitable and inefficient. It installed urban bias as public policy and stalled the process of human development. Other critics sympa thized with some parts of Lipton?s critique noting also the growth of urban slums and shanties while challenging the dual economy model to which he still subscribed. Recent thinking has focused on the complicated ways in which ?rur urban households? put together livelihood strategies across the town/country divide. Such thinking is focused on the eco nomic costs of barriers to mobility, rather than on the presumed integrity of the urban or rural sectors (Ellis and Harris, 2004). Still other critics have gone further. Radical development theorists argued that the production of pre capitalist spaces in an economy was a legacy of colonialism, rather than a state of original sin (see dependency theory). In any case, the two sectors were linked to the advantage of the ?modern? sector. Finally, and perhaps most pertinently, recent work has emphasized that modernity is not a singular condition. There are many forms of modernity, all of which are structured by a high degree of path depend ence. It is a fantasy to suppose that ?Eastern? parts of a dual economy can be made ?Western? in the sense of the mid twentieth century USA, and a fantastical abuse of public policy to push for this. sco (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Ellis and Harris (2004); Hart (2001). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
ecofeminism
An umbrella term for a wide variety of environmental concerns and ap proaches that integrate diverse feminist and environmentalist perspectives. Ecofeminism is both theory and praxis, building on the intel lectual foundations of ecological and feminist political movements where these intersect as, for example, in popular mobilizations in the name of peace and nuclear disarmament (Seagar, 1993), animal welfare (Gaard, 1993) or environmental justice (Shiva, 1988). There are different accounts of the ori gin of the term itself, but it is most frequently attributed to the 1980 work of the French author Francois D?Eaubonne. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The thematic connection linking diverse eco feminist currents is the notion that women are closer to nature. This putative connection is woven into the mainstream intellectual, religious and social fabric of many cultures, and has been an important focus of feminist critique (see femi nism). For several decades, feminists sought to distance the analysis of women?s position in society from any bodily or biological referent, labelling any such reference ?essentialist? and, thereby, unspeakable (see Fuss, 1989). As a consequence, ecofeminist concerns and argu ments were cold shouldered by the feminist academy for some years when they found their most powerful expression in works of the imagination as, for example, in the science fic tion writing of Ursula le Guin or Marge Piercy. (NEW PARAGRAPH) While ecofeminism?s conservative tenden cies to reduce the heterogeneity of women?s experience to the singular figure of Woman and the mutability of nature to an unchanging primordial Nature remain, since the late 1980s ecofeminist work has found new consonance with developments in feminist philosophy and social theory (see, e.g., Plumwood, 1993). These developments centre on con cerns with (i) the materialism of social life and its connectedness beyond the human (see also biophilosophy) and (ii) the situated ness of knowledge production associated with the rise of feminist science studies. As Donna Haraway, one of the leading proponents of this latter project, has argued, ?Ecofeminists have perhaps been the most insistent on some version of the world (nature/body) as active subjects, not as resources to be mapped or appropriated in bourgeois, Marxist or masculinist projects? (1991, p. 199). sw (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Fuss (1989); Gaard (1993); Haraway (1991c); Plumwood (1993); Seagar (1993); Shiva (1988). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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