The nature-culture dichotomy justified policing elite and common women alike

Evidence

In early modern Europe, the assumption of a nature-culture dichotomy was used as a justification for keeping women in their place in the established hierarchical order of nature, where they were placed below the men of their status group. The reaction against the disorder in nature symbolized by women was directed not only at lower-class witches, but at the queens and noblewomen who during the Protestant Reformation seemed to be overturning the order of nature. — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 592

Categorization

• XREF: Connects the witch persecutions to the political reaction against reforming queens, tying misogyny to order-of-nature ideology. — connects to: The mechanistic worldview sanctioned domination of both nature and women — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 64; Nature’s figuration as submissive female gave scientific exploitation normative sanction — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 755; A logic of domination justifies ruling nature via culture-nature hierarchy. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 511 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Nature’s figuration as submissive female gave scientific exploitation normative sanction #expands (0.90) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 755
• A logic of domination justifies ruling nature via culture-nature hierarchy. #expands (0.85) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 511
• Woman’s subjugation symbolizes the mastery of nature that defines civilization #corroborates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 255
• Ecofeminism revalues a women-nature connection the west historically devalued to oppress women #expands (0.80) — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 60
• Women-nature identifications are historical constructions, not biological essences #qualifies (0.75) — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature, 49