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Ehe .ye of the 7rocodile

Ehe .ye of the 7rocodile

-al :lumwood .dited by (orraine 'hannon :ublished by 5)N . :ress

Ehe 5ustralian )ational Nniversity

7anberra 57E hkhhc 5ustralia

.maila anuepress4anudedudau Ehis title is also available online at httpaTTepressdanudedudau )ational (ibrary of 5ustralia 7ataloguingSinS:ublication entry

5uthora :lumwoodc -ald

Eitlea Ehe .ye of the crocodile T -al :lumwood 1 edited by (orraine 'hannond

8'6)a fxPAfkkAllAml Fpbkdi fxPAfkkAllAxA Febooki

)otes 8ncludes bibliographical references and indexd 'ubjectsa :redation F6iologyi :hilosophy of natured bther 5uthorsT7ontributorsa 'hannonc (orrained

9ewey )umbera gfAdgw

5ll rights reservedd )o part of this publication may be reproducedc stored in a retrieval system

or transmitted in any form or by any meansc electronicc mechanicalc photocopying or otherwisec without the prior permission of the publisherd

7over design and layout by 5)N . :ress

7over image supplied by Yary Yontague of Yontague (eong 9esigns :ty (tdd

httpaTTwwwdmontagueleongdcomdau :rinted by pri v n :ress

Ehis edition © khAk 5)N . :ress

v

Contents

Acknowledgements .................................vii Preface .........................................ix Introduction ......................................1

Freya Mathews, Kate Rigby, Deborah Rose

First section

1. Meeting the predator ..............................9

2. Dry season (Yegge) in the stone country ...............23

3. The wisdom of the balanced rock:

The parallel universe and the prey perspective ...........35

Second section

4. A wombat wake: In memoriam Birubi ..................49

5. 'Babe': The tale of the speaking meat .................55

Third section

6. Animals and ecology: Towards a better integration ........77

7. Tasteless: Towards a food-based approach to death .......91

Works cited .....................................97 vii

Acknowledgements

Ehe editor wishes to thank the following for permission to use previously published materiala

5 version of 7hapter bne was published as Ô6eing :reyÕ in Eerra )ovac -old Ac

)od w 'ummerc Affmc ppd wkSlld Ô5nimals and .cologya Eowards a 6etter 8ntegrationÕ reprinted by permission of Mood for Ehoughtc edd 'd 'apontzisc :rometheus 6ooksc )ew Uorkc khhlc ppd wllSwgPd ÔEastelessÕ reprinted by permission of .nvironmental -aluesc -old Axc 8ssue wc khhPc ppd wkwSwwhd Ehe publisher acknowledges the grateful assistance of 9rd 9enise 'ussellc editor of 5nimal 8ssuesc for permission to reproduce material postSpublicationa Ô6iribic in Yemoriama 5 ?ombat ?akeÕ reprinted by permission of 5nimal

8ssuesc -old lc )od Ac khhhc ppd kASkf and Ô6abec the Eale of the 'peaking YeatÕ in

5nimal 8ssuesc -old Ac )od Ac Affxc ppd kASwg and -old Ac )od kc Affxc ppd kASwhd

ix

Preface

Ehe late -al :lumwood was a feminist writer and scholarc the author of three books and o ver Ph published papersd 0er major books c Meminism and the mastery of naturec and .nvironmental culturea Ehe crisis of reason published by 'outledgec (ondonc in 9ecember Affwc were major contributions to feminist and environmental philosophyd 0aving deliberated profoundly on her experience of surviving a crocodile attack in Mebruary AfPg in 5ustraliaÕs magni C cent yakadu )ational :ark Fthe setting of 7rocodile 9undeec C lmed there a few months after the attackic -al :lumwood was equipped to write an account which is much more than an adventure storyc one which addresses the meaning of our lives and major philosophical issues of our timed Nnfortunately this account was un C nished at the time of her death and Ehe .ye of the 7rocodile combines the three completed chapters of this book with earlier writings on the themes of animalsc death and predationd -al understood the crocodile as it was seen in both 8ndigenous 5ustralian and ancient .gyptian narrativec as a trickster C gurec a deliverer of judgement on the errant humand 8n biblical metaphorc the crocodile delivers adverse judgement on human pretensions to master a malleable worldd Ehe crocodile is now one of the last remaining major predators of human beingsc a creature which perceives us not in the in o ated terms in which we tend to view ourselvesc as cyberSmasters or technoSgods transcending the merely animal realmc but simply as another palatable item of foodd 7rocodile predation on humans still has a unique ability to recall to us something uncomfortable and un o attering about who we arec to teach a lesson from the past we forget at our peril about the unconquerability of the world we think we masterd Ehese opening tense chapters are a story of struggle and survival set in the pow erful landscape of 5ustraliaÕs Eop .ndd 5s a feminist writer and environmental philosopher -al :lumwood looked into the eye of the crocodile and re o ected on the meaning of her experience of being crocodile preyd Ehis was an experience which changed her view of selfhoodc human life and human freedomd Ehe master story of ?estern culture places at the centre of the human story an invulnerablec heroic rational consciousnessc struggling to reduce the energyc excess and otherness of nature to a humanised and moralised order which will do his bidding and re o ect back his own conception of his desertsd -al :lumwood shows how the crocodile as trickster can help us reshape the old humanScentred master narrative into a more modest tale appropriate for new timesd Mew people have survived three death rolls from the 'altwater 7rocodilec perhaps the most formidable remaining predator of humansc and lived to tell the taled

The Eye of the Crocodile

x Ehe .ye of the 7rocodile is not only a survival talec but a unique reoection on the meaning of human identityc human struggle and human death from a narrator who was also a major environmental philosopherd 1

Introduction

Freya Mathews, Kate Rigby, Deborah Rose

-al :lumwood was one the great philosophersc activistsc feministsc teachersc and everyday naturalists of the late kh th and early kA st centuriesd 8n the course of her productive life she wrote two great philosophical monographs which became key texts in the emerging C elds of environmental philosophy and ecofeminismd

0er stature as a thinker of power and in

o uence was re o ected in the fact that she was included in the khhA book gh yey Ehinkers on the .nvironment A along with luminaries such as 6uddhac pandhic and 5rne )aessd -al died of a stroke in khhP at the age of mPd 'he was not only an in o uential environmental thinkerc whose book Meminism and the mastery of nature has become a classic of environmental philosophy1 she was also a woman who fearlessly lived life on her own deeply considered termsc often in opposition to prevailing normsd -alÕs philosophy had its origins inc and vigorously contributed toc a pivotal moment in ?estern thoughtd 8n the Afxhs a radical critique of traditional ?estern conceptions of nature emerged simultaneously at opposite ends of the ?estern worldc in 5ustralia and in )orwayd Ehe )orwegian critique emanated from philosopherc 5rne )aessc who became the founder of the deep ecology movementd Ehe less wellSknown but just as trenchant 5ustralian critique emanated from a small group of philosophers centred on Ehe 5ustralian )ational Nniversity in 7anberrad -alc who was then known as -al 'outleyc and her partnerc 'ichard 'outley Flater to become 'ichard 'ylvani were key members of this groupd Eheyc like 5rne )aessc recognised that the environmental problems that were coming into view at that time were the result not merely of faulty policies and technolo gies but of underlying attitudes to the natural world that were built into the very foundations of ?estern thoughtd 5ccording to the 'outleysc these attitudes were the expression of human chauvinismc the groundless beliefc amounting to nothing more than prejudicec that only human beings matteredc morally speaking1 to the extent that anything else mattered at allc according to this attitudec it mattered only because it had some kind of utility for usd Eogether the 'outleys challenged this assumption1 together they posed the pivotal questionc Ôis there a need for a newc an environmentalc ethicÕc an ethic of nature3 k A Dd :almerc edd gh yey Ehinkers on the .nvironmentc (ondonc 'outledgec khhAd

k 'ichard 'outleyc Ô8s there a need for newc an environmental ethic3Õ 'ophiac -old A Fproceedings of the Agth

?orld 7ongress of :hilosophyc Afxwid 5lthough the original paper was published in 'ichardÕs namec it was

greatly elaborated by 'ichard and -al jointlyc and reSpublished several years laterc as Ô0uman chauvinism

and environmental ethicscÕ in 9on Yannisonc Yichael Yc'obbie and 'ichard 'outleyc edsc .nvironmental

:hilosophyc 7anberrac Ehe 5ustralian )ational Nniversityc AfPkd

The Eye of the Crocodile

2 Ehe questions the 'outleys and their colleagues unearthed and tackled in the Afxhs were questions that would help to set the agenda for environmental philosophyd 8n those early days they were mainly writing for other philosophersc and being logicians as well as environmental thinkersc their papers drew heavily on the vocabulary of logical and semantic theoryd Ehis background in logic gave both the 'outleys prodigious intellectual musclec and laterc in Meminism and the mastery of naturec -al was to turn her training in logical theory to advantage with her impressive analysis of the logic of dualistic thinkingd 6ut the technical register of the early writing also meant thatc unlike )aessÕ deep ecologyc the 'outleysÕ version of radical environmentalism failed to gain the currency it deserved outside the academyd

0oweverc the 'outleys were forest activists as well as philosophersc and in Afxg

they published a seminal activist book which did reach a more general audienced Ehis was Ehe vght for the forestsc a comprehensive economicc scientiCcc socioS political and philosophical critique of the 5ustralian forestry industryd 5s 9avid brton pointed out in a memorial essay on 'ichard 'ylvan after 'ylvanÕs death in Affmc the book was pioneering not only in its comprehensive approach to an environmental issuec but in its insistence that the most fundamental con o icts in forestry were over valuesc not factsd w

9uring the Afxhsc -al and 'ichard built a remote stone house in a rainforest on

:lumwood Yountain south of 7anberrad Ehey constructed the house themselvesc out of stones found on the propertyc and as they built they also wrote some of the key articles which were to shape environmental philosophyd Ehe amazingly creative 'outley partnership broke up in the early AfPhsc and divorce followedd -al stayed on at the mountainc taking the name of the magni C cent plumwood tree that was the signature species of the local rainforest ecosystemd F8t was at this time that 'ichard also changed his name to 'ylvandi 8t remained important to -al to live the ecological values she was dedicated to theorisingc the ÔthinkingÕ o owing naturally from ÔbuildingÕ and ÔdwellingÕ in the heart of her mountainc as

0eidegger might have put itd

Ehe question that continued to preoccupy -al throughout this period was that of anthropocentrismd 5long with othersc she saw that anthropocentrismc as a value systemc rests on the assumption that there is a categorical distinction between humanity and naturea human beings are endowed with something the rest of nature lacksd Ehis ÔsomethingÕ is of course assumed to be mindd Dust like plants and animals and rocksc we are made of matterc but in addition to our material bodiesc we possess mindsc and minds are somehow categorically di n erent from bodies and su perior to themd Nnderlying the conceptual division between humanity and nature thenc is a deep conceptual opposition between mind and w 9d brtonc Ô8n memory of 'ichard 'ylvancÕ Ehe Erumpeterc -old Al )od Ac Affxd

Introduction

3 matterc which becomes re C nedc in the ?estern traditionc into an opposition between reason and natured 8n her doctoral thesisc which was published in Affk as Meminism and the mastery of naturec -al provided a comprehensive analysis of how this division between reason and nature had historically been constructed and how it informs many of the ongoing foundational categories of ?estern thoughtd 0ers was by no means the C rst analysis of such dualismc or binary thinking1 but it was the most comprehensive within the environmental literatured 'he showed brilliantly how this dualistic system of thought created value hierarchies that systematically rendered inferior all the terms that came to be associated with nature rather than reasona womenc the working classc the colonisedc the 8ndigenousc as well as the otherSthanShuman worldd 'he thereby demonstrated that the ideology underpinning the domination of nature in the contemporary ?est is simultaneously an ideology legitimating and naturalising the domination of many subjugated social groupsd Ehe implication was that environmentalism and struggles for social justice cannot be separated out from one anotherd Yoreoverc as long as the assumptions underlying our social and environmental thinking remain unexaminedc these pervasive patterns of oppression will remain inescapabled ?e need new understandings of the human and of nature that close the conceptual gulf between themd Ehis means putting mind back into mattera restoring intelligence to bodyc and agency to natured

8n her bookc .nvironmental culture Fkhhkic -al elaborated her original analysis

of dualismc and especially of reasonc and applied this analytical framework in an upStoStheSminute way to questions of sciencec politicsc economicsc ethicsc spirituality and ecology itselfd 'he argued for a form of ecological rationality that would replace the instrumentalising rationalism that has characterised the ?estern tradition and that has reached its apogee in the modernity of the contemporary global marketd 5fter this bookc -al began writing essays that increasingly drew stories into philosophical argumentd 0aving developed a pow erful analytic frameworkc she wanted to C nd wa ys to continue to communicate her lifeÕs passionc and to have an impact on readers outside the academic worldd 5s she wrote in her beautiful essay ÔDourney to the 0eart of 'toneÕc Ôcreative writing can also play an important part by making visible new possibilities for radically open and nonSreductive ways to experience the worlddÕ l

7learlyc -al had come to believe that diagnosing the problems was not enoughd 8t

had been decades since she and 'ichard had asked that crucial questiona is there a need for a newc an environmentalc ethic3 8n turning toward the imaginationc and the creativec she was making a cultural and political pointa Ô8f our species does not survive the ecological crisisc it will probably be due to our failure to

l -al :lumwoodc ÔDourney to the heart of stonecÕ in 7ulturec creativity and environmenta )ew environmentalist

criticismc edsd Md 6eckett and Ed pinordc 5msterdamc 'odopic khhxc pd Axd

The Eye of the Crocodile

4 imagine and work out new ways to live with the earthc to rework ourselves and our high energ yc highSconsumptionc and hyperSinstrumental societies adaptivelyd Ehe time of 0omo reCectusc the selfScritical and selfSrevising onec has surely comed 0omo faberc the thoughtless tinkererc is clearly not going to make itd ?e will go onwards in a di n erent mode of humanityc or not at alldÕ g

5long with

her continuing work as a forest activistc she was making a turn toward stories in her writingc and developing an interest in the new C eld of ecologically oriented literary and cultural studiesc or ecocriticismd 8n khhkc she was invited to present a keynote lecture at the biannual conference of the 5ssociation for the 'tudy of (iterature and .nvironment FNyic which led her to venture into a more lyrical mode of philosophical writingc as can be seen from her beautiful homage to stone in the volume that arose from this gathering Fkhhxid 8n her wordsc Ôwriters are amongst the foremost of those who can help us to think di n erentlyÕ1 by writers she meant storyStellersc poetsc and other creative communicators who could produce enlivened or reSanimated accounts of the agency and creativity of natured m

5lthoughc in her later writingc -al was beginning to relate her philosophical

re o ections more explicitly to salient personal experiencesc she was dismissive of the idea that she should write a memoir of her own lifed 8t was clear to those who were close to herc howeverc that she had been no stranger to hardship and heartbreakd -al was born on the eve of ?orld ?ar 88 into a relatively poorc but wellSeducated family living on a small land grant at the edge of 'ydneyd

0er mother homeSschooled her for a whilec which allowed her plenty of time

to explore the local bushland and bond with the familyÕs chooksc the sale of whose eggs supplemented her fatherÕs meagre incomed 'ubsequently excelling at schoolc she received a scholarship to study at 'ydney Nniversityc where she majored in :hilosophyc graduating with Mirst 7lass 0onours in Afmgd 9uring this timec she fell pregnant to a f ellow studentc Dohn Yacraec whom she subsequently marriedd Eheir son was born in AfgPc and a daughter followed in

Afmhd 0oweverc the emotional and

C nancial di v culties of supporting two small children was overwhelming for two such young parentsc and -al felt obliged to give up their baby girl for adoption in order to continue with her studiesd Eragicallyc their daughterc whom they had already lost oncec was murdered in her teensc while their son died of a degenerative illness in his khsd 5lthough she never wrote about the pain of these terrible lossesc she has described her struggle to maintain the little rural cemetery in which her son is buried as a place where death can be folded back into life by allowing native vegetation to o ourish on and around the gravesd x

g -al :lumwoodc Ô'eview of 9eborah 6ird 'oseÕs 'eports from a wild countrycÕ 5ustralian humanities reviewc

-old lkc khhxd

m -al :lumwoodc Ô)ature in the active voicecÕ 5ustralian humanities reviewc -old lmc khhfc ppd AAwSAkfd

x -al :lumwoodc ÔEhe cem etery warsa 7emeteries c biodiver sity and the sacredc Õ (ocalSplobala identity c

security and communityc -old wd 'pecial issuea .xploring the legacy of Dudith ?rightc edsd Yartin Yulligan

and Uaso )adarajahc khhxc ppd glSxAd

Introduction

5 bne of the most famous events in her life was the crocodile attack that occurred in AfPgc and it was this event that she was writing about when she diedd ?hile kayaking alone in yakadu )ational :ark in northern 5ustralia at the onset of the ?et seasonc she was seized by a large crocodilec and deathSrolled not oncec but three timesd F7rocodiles drown their prey by holding them under waterdi Nnaccountably released from the crocÕs jaws after the third rollc she crawled for hoursc with appalling injuries and stunning couragec through tropical swampsc never far from further crocodilesc in search of safetyd .ventuallyc somewhat miraculouslyc she was rescuedc b y a par k rangerd Ehis epic experience of course made her uniquely credentialedc as an environmental thinkerc to write about death and its place in naturec and she proceeded to do this in a series of beautiful and widely read essaysc on the human as prey and as food for natured 'he was much preoccupied in latter years with reSvisioning death and revisingc in appropriately ecological termsc the rituals that accompany it in our societyd Ehe essays included in this book are divided into three sectionsa the C rst three comprise the beginning of the book she was working on at the time of her deathd 5rising from her own nearSdeath experience in yakaduc these chaptersquotesdbs_dbs27.pdfusesText_33

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