Woman Studies Leaders

African Hall, located in the American Natural History Museum, evolved out of period of increasing capitalist growth within the United States. From this extensive growth of capitalism in American society a fear of "decadence" arose. This spoiling effect of "the city, civilization, [and] machine" (Harraway 27) threatened the "manhood" of white, American, Protestant boys, the target audience of the museum's educational agenda.

Ackley and the other (white) men involved in the creation of African Hall sought to cure "the sick vision of the civilized man" through the recreation of physical Africa, the ultimate representation of nature. The actual preservation of nature through taxidermy, art, and sculpture depended on not life, but death; however Ackley believed that with the death of the magnificent animals deemed worthy of his shot, their ultimate preservation in time would be secured. In countries colonized by European nations, such as India, industrial capitalism posed another threat to the indigenous farmers, peasants, and women of the countryside, that of the Westernized notion of "progress".

To these people Western progress represented "a science, a development which destroys life and threatens survival" (Shiva 303), through the reductionist methods of deforestation and aforestation. The properties of India's forests, which sustained the life and livelihood of its indigenous peoples, were destroyed for the industrial value of the dead product, wood. The American Museum of Natural History and reductionist forestry in India superficially contradict each other in the area of purpose: one hopes to educate and protect white men from the perils of capitalist decadence through the inspiring effects of a permanently "preserved" nature, while the other intends to exploit the resources of nature for capitalist gain. However, on closer inspection one can see that the methods of each are intensely related as they operate on the assumption of Western patriarchal dominion and exist upon the paradoxes of preservation /death and progress/destruction, respectively.

The notion of patriarchal dominion was an essential concept to the propagation of African Hall and the American Museum of Natural History as well as reductionist forestry in India because it allowed white, civilized men to actively exploit the land, nature, and peoples of both India and Africa for political, economic, and personal agendas. Harraway states that to Western, industrialized societies, "Nature is a mystery and a resource, a critical union in the history of civilization" (28). By nature being a mystery it is rendered exotic and hidden, a call to the big game hunter or explorer, to "discover", demystify, and dominate. In the Western, patriarchal mindset a resource is not a life-giving assurance of survival, but a commodity whose primary use is for economic gain; in turn the pulp of a tree is turned into a pencil. A belief in patriarchal dominion ensures white, civilized men the access to the mysteries of nature and the resources it abounds. Christian ethos proclaims man has dominion over plants, animals, anything of a lesser order than man. Colonialism in India and Africa and the teachings of eugenics within the Natural History Museum proves that in the psyche of white men "anything of a lesser order" not only included plants and animals, but people of color as well. Exploitation of the labor and resources of indigenous people was not a morally repugnant act, but a God given right of white, civilized men.

The process of gaining specimens for African Hall involved many long and exhausting safaris to Africa for Ackley, his wife, and team of assistants. "Authorship", the authority to tell the story of the "hunt", and credit for various contributions was awarded to the white men and women who participated in the safaris. However, there is a large party who is literally cut out of the picture. In the American Natural History Museum there is a photo displayed of Mrs. Ackley standing underneath two tusks of the elephant that she has just killed and "cut off at the edge of the picture are four black arms; the hands come from the framing peripheral space to encircle the tusks arching over the triumphant white woman" (51). Ackley relied heavily on the native Africans in every aspect of the hunt; yet their names and faces are mysteriously absent from the walls of the museum. Ackley continually referred to them as "boys" unless they had killed some wild game deemed a worthy opponent; only then were they men. However, Ackeley would not let the black men kill game on the hunt unless he was in imminent danger; therefore they could remain his "boys". (53) Ackeley's treatment of the black men in his hunting parties, their absence from the museum's walls and their denial of authorship reinforces how the concept of patriarchal dominion was present not only in the methods of Ackley's work but in fulfilling the larger agenda of the museum: the restoration and protection of threatened white manhood. Harraway writes, "The African could not be permitted to hunt independently with a gun in the presence of a white man. The entire logic of restoring threatened white manhood depended on that rule" (53). On a continent where patriarchal dominion was institutionalized through colonization and its nature was exploited for the amusement of the white man (made manifest in the American Museum of Natural History) the safari was:

A social organism ordered by the principles of organic form: hierarchical division of labor called cooperation and coordination. The safari was an icon of the whole enterprise in its logic of mind and body, in its scientific making of the body for functional efficiency. In western inscriptions of race, Africans were written into the script of the story of life-and written out of authorship. (52-53)

The "organic hierarchy" that existed as a social network in the setting of the safari can be paralleled to the organic hierarchy that resided in reductionist forestry in India, with Western ideals of patriarchy, dominion, and progress delegating rank. Vendana Shiva writes:

Commercial forestry…is reductionist in intellectual content and ecological impact, and generated poverty at the socio-economic level for those whose livelihood and productivity depends on the forest. Within the forest ecosystem it has reduced the diversity of life to a dead product, wood, and wood in turn to commercially valuable wood only. (308)

The people guiding commercial forestry reside at the top of the hierarchy, this includes the World Bank and forest officials (314), while the people whose "livelihood and productivity depend on the forest" are shoved into the bottom ranks. This subjugation and marginalization of the indigenous peoples of India affects women the most due to their role as the keeper of the forest within their communities. Women's knowledge of forestry is in direct opposition to that of the patriarchal, Western ideals of "scientific" forestry, which in turn leads to the total subjugation of their wisdom. Commercial forestry and the life-giving forestry of the women of India have two completely different agendas, with the agenda of industrial "progress" replacing that of preservation and survival. The farmers and peasants of India embrace the belief that "forests are food not in death but in life"(309); whereas "scientific" forestry officials only value the "dead product, wood" for its commercial value. The constructed patriarchal hierarchy regarding the systems of "progress" in forestry and agriculture is further assembled with the life giving propertied of the forests of India's being classified as "weeds" and placed at the bottom of the chain, while the dead product of wood gathered from the destructive, non-native eucalyptus tree are raised to the all-important level of industrial value (314). Euro-American ideals of progress with reductionist forestry in India represent the utmost utilization of patriarchal dominion, as the most marginalized group and the most oppressed wisdom was that of the indigenous woman of India, who in every light represents the opposite of the westernized concept of progress through destruction, marginalization, and domination.

The reductionist paradox of progress through destruction mirrors that of Ackeley's paradox of preservation through death. Deforestation and aforestation with non-native eucalyptus trees invite the western notion of economic process and gain, but not without the destruction of India's natural forests and therefore the livelihood of its native peoples. Forestry conducted by the women of India is a utilization of all aspects of the forests for a multitude of life-sustaining resources, without the threat of destruction and depletion of the world's organisms. However, economic gain and "progress" cannot come from simple sustenance, so species are destroyed and the logical wisdoms of the women are ignored. Ultimately, the loss related to progress is much greater than the gain. This seems to correlate completely with Ackeley's belief that if he shot, killed, and stuffed the very animals he revered in Africa their preservation could be ensured. On one level they would forever reside in the great African Hall to inspire the sense of "manhood" to all the white boys who passed through the museum. For this was the ultimate goal of the museum's "preservation", to protect (preserve) the patriarchal power of America's future: white, Protestant boys. Ackley might have hoped that his displays of the great African wilderness would inspire people to not want to hunt the gorilla or elephant or the other "worthy" opponents of Africa's wildlife; however the museum was funded by New York's wealthy big game hunters-not a likely group to give up their hobby. These methods of progress and preservation through destruction and death are counter-intuitive and evident of political and economic agendas. Subjugation and exploitation, death and destruction are the methods of Western patriarchy, progress, and preservation.

Works Cited

Donna Harraway, "Teddy Bear Patriarchy," in Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nation in the World of Modern Science (Routledge, 1989), 26-58

Vandana Shiva, "Colonialism and the Evolustion of Masculinist Forestry," in The Racial Economy of Science, 303-314