Preaching to the Choir

The Bioneers Conference and the Communitas of Power

Eli Tenzin Rothschild Utne Senior Thesis

Submitted April 30, 2014 In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of Graduation

Department of Anthropology, Willamette University

Supervisor: Professor Bahram Tavakolian

 

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PREACHING TO THE CHOIR: THE BIONEERS CONFERENCE AND THE COMMUNITAS OF POWER

Eli Tenzin Rothschild Utne

This project concerns the origin, evolution, and contemporary significance of the Bioneers conference through an examination of the roles of habitus and communitas in relation to power and the exclusion of marginalized populations from the conference. Through a close examination of original content and an historical analysis of the organization, the paper argues for the deconstruction of the current model of the Bioneers conference, leadership structure, and programming. Ultimately, this project advocates for a collaborative project that asserts the centrality of marginalized voices and includes a complete restructuring of the organization to create an open and accessible model for future conferences, outreach, and education.  

 

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Dedication

This work is dedicated to the marginalized voices whose words may never rest on these

pages, whose toil goes unnoticed by so many, and for whom the fight continues.

 

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge my mother and father (Nina Rothschild Utne and Eric

Utne) for their undying support, for their willingness to listen to me no matter my

delusions, and for continuing to feed and encourage my insatiable hunger for adventure.

The very same goes for my three older brothers (Oliver, Sam, Leif): Your guidance fills

my life with light and shows me the way towards beauty and virtue.

This project would not have been possible were it not for the patience and intelligence of

my advisor, Professor Bahram Tavakolian; your wisdom astounds and humbles me. I

hope to read a fraction of the books you have read, if only to have a glimpse at the

wonder that inhabits your cerebrum…

A special thanks to the wonderful women of my Senior Seminar in Anthropology

(Hannah, Taylor, Kelly-Rose, Heather, Mariah, and Maxine): Your tolerance of my

ramblings and your encouragement and criticism of my project have made this dream a

beautiful, 30-page reality…

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!!!

 

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Preface

I would like to preface this project by asserting that it is incomplete.

By nature of the fact that the material contained herein is only the beginning of a larger

exploration of the intricate relationships circulating throughout the environmental and

social justice movements. This project only scratches the surface of the intersectionality

of the issues of power, structure, and agency as they relate to the Bioneers organization,

let alone the many thousands upon thousands upon millions of other organizations

working for justice in an unjust world.

When I decided to take on this project in November of last year (2013), I had no idea

what I was getting myself into. Now, as I stand at the precipice of my final day of

classes, last exams, and graduation, I feel that I know even less than I did five months

ago. At the time, I thought this project would work itself out smoothly by the simple

virtue of it being an organization and a topic that I have a personal investment in and

deep concern for. However, I now know that the future continues to hold unknowable

discoveries and beautiful evolutions for Bioneers and for the countless communities

dedicated to the fight for social and environmental justice for all things on this precious

planet of ours. And, I know that I want to be a part of it, no matter what the cost.

 

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Contents

Introduction 2 The Preacher and the Choir 4 Who are the Bioneers? 7 Methodology 8 Theoretical Framework: Capital, Communitas, Habitus, Structure 11

Review of Literature 11 Context and Catalysts of the Bioneers Conference 18 The Intersections of Biological Diversity and Cultural Diversity: 28 Toward Integration (Case Study) Metamorphoses: Working Towards Transformation 30 Conclusion and Contribution 34 Bibliography 36

***

 

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“Life is occupied in both perpetuating itself and in surpassing itself; if all it does is maintain itself, then living is only not dying” – Simone de Beauvoir (Elgin 1993).

Introduction:

At first glance, Bioneers presents itself as an accessible, dynamic, and

“innovative nonprofit educational organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for

restoring people and planet” (www.bioneers.org). However, one finds that, with a closer

look into the structure and functions of the organization, the reality is that numerous

barriers exist to the access of the conference by marginalized populations. Additionally,

the Bioneers conference consists of a mostly homogeneous, predominantly Caucasian,

upper-class community who return annually to replenish and reify their exceptional

power and agency under the guise of social and environmental justice activism. What

follows is an anthropological analysis of the power, structure, and agency of the

Bioneers community, as well as suggestions for alternatives to the present model.

***

The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct and examine the narrative of the

Bioneers conference as a nexus for the environmental and social justice communities

through historical analyses of: (1) economic and cultural capital in the origins of the

organization, (2) communitas in the practice and reproduction of the habitus of power,

and (3) structure as a barrier to the agency of marginalized populations. 1

This paper argues that in order for the Bioneers conference to provide a truly

inclusive and evolutionary model of convening, a collaborative project must be

undertaken that includes historically marginalized populations, elders and youth from

                                                                                                               1  These terms will be defined in the Methods section of the paper.  

 

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various communities, scholars seeking to escape the academic echo-chamber, and social

artists and activists working to change ethnic, gendered, and economic systems of

oppression. My goal in working alongside the Bioneers community to confront the

issues of power, structure, agency is to develop a more accessible template for gathering

and sharing essential environmental and social justice knowledge, tools, and actions

rooted in a commitment to serve marginalized populations where the need for change is

most urgent.

***

In order to address the issues of power, structure, agency, as they relate to the

Bioneers community and conference, it is necessary to examine the constituent aspects

of my thesis as they relate to the following lines of inquiry.

This paper asks four primary, related questions:

(1) How and why did Bioneers come to be? (2) What role does power play in the

communitas, habitus, and structure of Bioneers? (3) Is the Bioneers conference

efficacious in practicing the intentions and ideologies that it promotes? And, (4) In what

ways can Bioneers evolve to meet the needs of marginalized populations who currently

do not have access to the conference?

The first question concerns the contexts and catalysts of Bioneers. To answer it,

we begin with an overview of some major socio-economic, cultural, and spiritual themes

dominant in the context of Bioneers inception, with particular attention directed towards

the ways in which power provided the fertile ground in which to plant the seeds of the

organization. The catalysts of the burgeoning organization are accounted for in an

 

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exploration of the major publications, events, and figures of influence to the Bioneers at

the time of its foundation.

Then, having formed a cohesive overview of the context and catalysts of the

Bioneers’ germinating stage, we proceed into the core of the inquiry: the development

and maintenance of power within the Bioneers conference as it relates to the

anthropological concepts of communitas, habitus, and structure. We will then explore

the efficacy of the organization, drawing on the available data about Bioneers and their

current programming, outreach, and articulation of their work. At this point, a

comparison is drawn as a means of contrasting Bioneers with other conferences to look

critically at what barriers and opportunities may exist for the transformation of Bioneers

into a more accessible conference. Finally, we explore alternatives to the current model

of the conference and provide suggestions as to how best to proceed in the evolution and

reimagining of Bioneers for the future resilience and diversity of the organization.

***

The following story is presented to provide an emplaced narrative as a

metaphorical starting point for our subsequent investigations:

The Preacher and the Choir

I walk into the auditorium of the Marin Civic Center and the first thing I see is

the stage. It’s beautiful: set with large sculptures strewn about and paintings adorning

its walls, frozen images of nature. The wooden backdrop, carved with ornate details of

undulating waves and swirls, catches my eye; it is a brilliantly colorful and inspiring

frame, full of natural imagery on which to feast one’s eyes. The stage is surreal in its

 

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beauty and is an astonishingly appropriate backdrop for the many speakers who would

take to the stage on that October weekend in 2005.

I turn from the stage, away from the brilliant variety of colors and creatures and

plants and I am struck by what I see next: The crowd. They were so happy to be there, to

be listening to leaders of the social and environmental justice movements, seated among

peers, among the countless stories of growth and decay, triumph and failure. However,

what I recall about the crowd at Bioneers is not their joviality or their kindness, but

rather the overwhelming homogeneity of the attendees; the vast majority of the crowd at

the Bioneers Conference in 2005 was white, appeared to be financially comfortable

(assuming they paid the $395 ticket price), and (I assume) had some form of higher

education degree. I remember seeing an ocean of white haired, like-minded, men and

women conversing like they were old friends. It was, at once, both the friendliest and

most homogeneous group of people I have ever seen in one space.

Here is a screenshot taken from Paul Hawken’s 2012 Bioneers speech to

illustrate the homogeneity of the crowd described above:

 

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At the 2005 Bioneers, I was hard-pressed to see or meet anyone who was there

without some financial means of their own. The few young people I met had been invited

or were supported by a scholarship fund. And, as a youth, I felt somewhat lost in the sea

of elders. I was more interested in meeting new people and looking for free handouts

from vendors than I was in sitting in an auditorium with a bunch of people who looked

like my parents listening to something I didn’t understand, let alone care about…

The community was settled into their seats, comfortably chatting among

themselves, when the day’s program began. I, fifteen at that time, do not remember the

specific speaker or the topic, but I do recall how the crowd would nod and smile, clap

and cheer eagerly alongside the speaker’s remarks. There was a surreal calmness about

the auditorium at Bioneers, an underlying sense of reassurance that the presentations,

despite their heavy and often unsettling subject matter, would go unchallenged by the

attendees. As if the each speaker was a preacher and the audience was their choir, I saw

in that circumstance both the paradox and the promise of the Bioneers community; I felt

the supportiveness of the community as I simultaneously sensed an underlying

passiveness implicit in the so-called activism of the conference.

***

 

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There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Philospher.

Who Are the Bioneers? What do they do?

Bioneers is a non-profit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is an

imprint of the Collective Heritage Foundation, founded by Nina Simons and Kenney

Ausubel in 1990. While the first of the Bioneers conferences were held in Santa Fe, the

national conference is now held annually in San Rafael, California at the Marin County

Civic Center. In addition to the national conference in San Rafael, there are 18

“satellite” Bioneers conferences that, in 2008, attracted a total of more than 18,000

people. According to their website, “Bioneers fosters connection, cross-pollination

and collaboration by bringing together diverse people and projects. We link strategic

networks at the local, regional, national and international levels” (www.bioneers.org).

On top of the conference itself, Bioneers offers a wide range of other initiatives,

including Indigenous Knowledge (Indigeneity), Every Woman’s Leadership, Restorative

Food Systems, and the Bioneers Resilient Communities Network. Bioneers also

produces their radio program and other media for educational purposes.

However, a search of their media programming quickly shows that their content

is not viewed or listened to very often; all of their content on YouTube (a total of 57

videos of all lengths) was released within the last four months of my search and their

most viewed video (of multi-talented group Poetree) has a total of 767 views. Although

they have over 140 uploads on the site, their account on the audio-platform Soundcloud

has just 20 followers, an average of between 3 and 15 listens and a (unique) maximum

 

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of 273. This illustrates a discrepancy between their so-called “extensive media outreach

including an award-winning radio series, book series, and role in media projects…” and

the reality that their media is, at best, infrequently consumed by the general public. To

illustrate this further, below is a screenshot from the social-media platform of their

homepage, showing their exceptionally low number of “Likes” and “Followers”:

Though it may seem petty to illuminate these numbers in connection to the focus

of the paper, the reality is that, despite their articulation of themselves as a “leading

source of innovative solutions,” the reality is that Bioneers has very little to show in the

way of popular recognition beyond the confines of their community. It is worth noting

that many of the Bioneers are people of elite social status who retain significant respect

on national stages through their various lines of work; this fact starkly contrasts with the

lack of general public awareness of the organization and its poor popularity on social

media. From this perspective we may begin to understand some of the paradoxes of the

organization as it relates to the discrepancies between their articulated appearance of

acceptance and the reality of insularity. Before we delve into the core of our historical

critique of Bioneers, however, it is necessary to articulate the methodological and

theoretical bases upon which our analyses will are to be built.

Anthropological Methods

In order to analyze the history and significance of the Bioneers conference, it is

necessary to explain to methodological approach with which to address the lines of

inquiry mentioned above. In order to provide context to the catalysts of the organization,

this paper provides a close analysis of the historical origins of the organization, from the

 

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personal writings and speeches of its founders, Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons (in the

form of books, essays, blogs, and presentations), to major writings concerning the

burgeoning environmental movement in mid-20th Century America. This includes an

overview of the major political, economic, and spiritual issues at that time. Additionally,

the paper then explores how environmental and philanthropic communities provided an

emic, emplaced form of power that served as the fertile germination period necessary to

start the conference.

In order to address the second question (What role does power play in the

communitas, habitus, and structure of Bioneers?), the current iteration of the conference

is described as it seeks to maintain an increasingly valuable and informative role in the

social and environmental justice movements. Before we continue, however, it is

necessary to define the aforementioned terms as they relate to our analyses.

As is apparent in the title, the concept of communitas is of primary importance to

this project. Communitas is an anthropological concept developed by the theorist Victor

Turner in the mid-20th century and is defined as: the sense of sharing and intimacy that

develops among persons who experience liminality as a group. Liminality refers in this

case to the threshold status or the in-between state of a group like Bioneers (between

individual/society, activism/ passivism, planetary destruction/solution, etc.). While the

term itself is not central to this analysis, “Liminality [upon which our definition of

communitas is based] implies that the high could not be high unless the low existed, and

he who is who is high must experience what it is like to be low” (Turner 1969: 97).

According to Turner, he prefers “the Latin term “communitas” to “community,” to

distinguish this modality of social relationship from an “area of common living” (Turner

 

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1969: 96). Additionally, this term is of interest in this project because it refers to, as

Turner explains, “the ties organized in terms either of caste, class, or rank hierarchies…”

and “a ‘moment in and out of time,’ and in and out of secular social structure” (Turner

1969).

In contrast to communitas, structure in this project refers to the colloquial usage

of the term, as opposed to its formal definitions. Habitus, a concept developed by Pierre

Bourdieu in 1980, refers to an acquired system of generative schemes that make possible

the free production of all the thoughts, perceptions and actions inherent in the particular

conditions of its production – and only those (Bourdieu 2012:495). This definition will

suffice for our purposes of describing the habitus of the Bioneers conference and the

ways in which communitas forms the framework for the creation of habitus. In addition

to his concept of habitus, Bourdieu’s framework of cultural capital will provide a lens

through which to view the foundation of Bioneers. Cultural Capital is defined as any

resource that allows one access to position and the ability to benefit within any field

(microcosms with their own rules, regularities, and forms of authority)(Bourdieu

1980:200). Finally, we will build on the concepts of communitas, habitus, structure, and

cultural capital with an analysis of the various intersecting forces (-scapes) that define

what the anthropologist Arjun Appadurai calls the imagination.

According to Appadurai, in Modernity at Large, “The imagination is now central

to all forms of agency, is itself a social fact, and is the key component of the new global

order” (Appadurai 1996:31). What he means by the imagination is that, in an

increasingly connected world, the relationships between seemingly disparate groups,

ideas, technologies, and economies are becoming more closely connected by

 

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globalization, resulting in a collectivized imagination, of sorts (Appadurai 1996:33). As

a means of dislodging the broad notion of globalization, Appadurai developed his model

of landscapes (ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, financescapes, and ideoscapes)

to illustrate what he saw as the five major forms of cultural flow between nations across

the planet.

Theoretical Framework

In terms of theoretical framework, Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital

and habitus are used to describe the foundation of the organization as it relates to

individual power and privilege. Next, we suggest that Turner’s communitas functions as

an ingrained spiritual identity that emplaces Bioneers in the liminal space between

efficacy (in terms of their ability to distribute information and engage their attendees)

and insularity (in terms of the socio-cultural and ethnic barriers to broader community

engagement). Finally, we integrate the terminology and approach of Arjun Appadurai in

Modernity at Large to explain the role of media and agency in limiting both the agency

of the organization as a credible source of information and the agency of marginalized

populations without the time, money, or knowledge to access Bioneers content in a

meaningful way.

*** Review of Literature

While there is no singular moment that marks the beginning of the modern

environmental movement, there are signposts that mark the impact and significance of

environmentalism in a variety of ways. Depending on the ways in which we as readers,

 

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writers, and activists choose to articulate the human response to our environmental

impact, we may see the evidence of human impact in very different ways.

Some cite “Earthrise,” the first photograph of Planet Earth from space, taken on

December 24th, 1968 during the Apollo 8 mission as the moment when humans became

aware of the preciousness of our planetary residence. Others may look towards the

consciousness revolution of the 1960s as a type of ‘incubation decade’ in which

environmental awareness became a national movement. To begin, it is necessary to

review some the major “revelations” of early environmental writing: Rachel Carson’s

analysis of the impact of environmental pollutants in Silent Spring (1962), Paul

Ehrlich’s call for the control of population growth in The Population Bomb (1968), E.F.

Schumacher’s treatise, Small is Beautiful: Economics as is People Mattered (1972), and

the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth (1972).

In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson details the effects of the chemical pesticide

industry in the destruction of natural habitats and ecosystems. Speaking broadly about

the manufacturing of industrial chemicals Carson says, “The rapidity of change and the

speed with which new situations are created follow the impetuous and heedless pace of

man rather than the deliberate pace of nature” (1962: 7). This major revelation holds at

its core the assertion that, as a result of man’s manipulation of nature’s chemical

balance, he has let loose an arsenal of untested, potentially lethal poisons. I will return to

Carson throughout my analysis because at the core of the Bioneers history and mission

lies a commitment to model human systems and innovations after natural systems.

In The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich lays out the facts about population growth

and its implications, if left uncontrolled, for the future of human life on Earth. He says in

 

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the prologue, “The birth rate must be brought into the balance with the death rate or

mankind will breed itself into oblivion. We can no longer afford merely to treat the

symptoms of the cancer of population growth; the cancer itself must be cut out”

(Ehrlich, 1968:xii). This revelatory, if not incendiary, work brought into the collective

consciousness a fact that, for a species driven to reproduce, is entirely paradoxical:

Given the finite resources that modern humans depend upon heavily and the pollution of

our air, water, and soil, our planet does not have the capacity for endless population

growth (and resultant consumption) – and yet – we continue to reproduce.

Following the theme of overpopulation introduced by Erlich, E.F. Schumacher

focused on the economics of sustainability and, in the first chapter of Small is Beautiful,

writes:

That things are not going as well as they ought to be going must be due to human wickedness. We must therefore construct a political system so perfect that human wickedness disappears and everybody behaves well, no matter how much wickedness there may be in him or her.

(Schumacher 1972:13)

He builds this argument on the belief of the modern age (in his time) that “the

problem of production” has been solved (ibid), and proceeds to share the many ways in

which our economic systems reflect an attitude towards nature that evolved over the

centuries to assume man’s superiority and entitled exploitation over natural systems.

Schumacher’s revelation posits that the role of the modern economist, if it is to remain a

sustainable discipline, must take into account the social and environmental costs of

human ingenuity. Schumacher synthesizes the contributions of Carson and Ehrlich by

critiquing the role of economics in the destruction of man’s relationship to nature. What

 

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this distinction provides us is a basic understanding of the role of economic thought in

the construction of the environmental movement.

Published in the same year as Small is Beautiful, the Club of Rome’s Limits to

Growth was a book funded by the Volkswagen Foundation about computer models used

to predict exponential population and economic growth with finite natural resources. In

total, Limits to Growth focused on five variables: human population, resource depletion,

industrialization, pollution, and food production. A concept of key importance in their

analysis emphasized that if the rate of resource extraction and use increases, then the

amount of reserves cannot be calculated as a static (unmoving) index (1971: 54). The

study acknowledged that with the exponential growth of population and demand,

reserves of extractable materials remain fixed and do not change over time. Moreover,

Limits to Growth put to words the revelatory linkage between the growth of human

systems and the fragility of the planet itself.

For Ausubel and Simons and the other Bioneers founders, the work of these

pioneering authors set the stage for a new articulation of the man/nature binary and

provided essential tools for a potential synthesis of those opposing forces through the

activism of the environmental and social justice movements. The habitus of

environmentalists (like Kenny and Nina, among many others) was imbued from this

point on with a deeply rooted motivation to reverse the human destruction of the planet.

The first book published by Kenny Ausubel in regards to his work with Bioneers

was Restoring The Earth (1997). While the book itself shares some of the earliest

presentations at the Bioneers Conference, Ausubel also reflects on the days of the

organization’s founding and how his formative experiences with health and agriculture

 

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shaped the story of how Bioneers would come about. In the preface to Restoring the

Earth, Ausubel writes, “This book is intended to scan the emerging horizon for the relief

map of the positive future that beckons us, when as human beings we will learn to

weave our lives in harmony with the natural world and embrace the spirit of the earth”

(1997:x). Here, we see the intricacies of the spiritual and emotional motivation behind

the work emerging through a window into the formation of the Bioneers community.

Next, Ausubel wrote a book called Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True

Biotechnologies (2004), which is the second of three in the Bioneers Series after

Restoring the Earth. Ausubel draws deeply from the community of speakers and friends

of Bioneers in the second installment of the series and showcases a litany of pieces that

reflect both practical and spiritual aspects of the Bioneers community 15 years after its

founding.

Third in the Bioneers series by Ausubel is Dreaming the Future: Reimagining

Covilization in the Age of Nature (2012). Here, Aususbel reflects on the future,

“dreaming” a world in which his new grandchild (to whom the book is dedicated) will

face unavoidable environmental collapse, social disruption, and more. In his

introduction to Dreaming the Future, the Environmental Studies professor David Orr,

describes the book as, “one part global salon between like-minded but otherwise isolated

visionaries, and one part catalytic organization that takes the conversations up to a

higher level and down to Main Street.” This book, unlike the other two, is entirely

written by Ausubel and provides a comprehensive overview of the Bioneers community

and the extensive writing of one of its founders. While she has not published any books,

Nina Simons’ role is integral to the formation of the organization. However, very little

 

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material is available about her role in the organization besides her help in founding and

running the program alongside Kenny for over 20 years. The decision to refrain from

detailing her role is predicated on the lack of information and space available.

The materials mentioned above provide the ideological bases of the Bioneers and

help to highlight the ways in which the articulation of the Bioneers’ goals as an

organization are tied directly to the historical underpinnings of the social and

environmental justice movements, in particular. Building from there, however, it is

necessary to highlight some of the ideas and players who emerge subsequently as

integral to the formation of Bioneers’ structure and the communitas surrounding it.

Paul Hawken, writing in his introduction to Ausubel’s second book says (quoting

Sven Lindqvist), ”It is not knowledge that we lack. What is missing is the courage to

understand what we know and to draw conclusions” (Ausubel 2003:viii). Hawken adds

to this beautiful articulation that, “for the first time in history, meaningful numbers of

people are trying to resist this slide and understand how to live on earth. This is a

watershed in human existence” (ibid). Paul Hawken’s role as a leading voice within the

Bioneers community is reflected in those passages of Ausubel’s book, showing clarity of

mind and the ability to articulate the critical points of how Bioneers might fit into the

milieu of the environmental movement. Moreover, Paul Hawken’s own writing is

central to the articulation of the Bioneers as an organization that is on the cutting edge

modern activism. Hawken is well known for his writing on alternative business practices

and especially for his 2007 book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in

History is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World, in which he details the

countless stories of global resistance to environmental and social injustice. Hawken’s

 

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writing and speaking come up frequently in exploring the Bioneers’ literature and

exemplifies the centrality of certain voices within Bioneers.

For the sake of saving space in this section and to demonstrate the variety of

speakers and supporters within the Bioneers community with brevity, the following is a

short list of the primary characters in the literature and articulation of the Bioneers’

work: Janine Benyus (Biomimicry Institute, coined the term “Biomimicry”), Paul

Stemets (renowned mycologist, founder of Fungi Perfecti), Van Jones (former advisor to

President Obama for Green Jobs, founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights,

Green for All, Rebuild the Dream), Winona LaDuke (Anashinabe, Native American

activist, founder of Honor the Earth), and many, many more. Were it necessary (or

possible) to explore the intricacies of the work that these people have done and are

doing, this project would not be finished anytime soon. This rough tracing of the early

influences, original articulation, and contemporary collaborators of the Bioneers

provides a basic roadmap to the intricate literary history that underlies their story.

Finally, as a means of separating the literature of the Bioneers themselves (and

their influences) from the critiques to be formed in the final section of the paper, the

supplemental literature and foci of the conclusion will be referred to as they emerge in

the analysis and critique that follows, as necessary to the argument of the paper. Now, to

situate the reader within the paradigm of Bioneers’ inception, let us recount the creation

story, the story of the seed, of the contexts and catalysts that gave way to Bioneers.

***

 

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“Essentially, communitas is a relationship between concrete, historical, idiosyncratic individuals”

-Victor Turner (1969:131)

Contexts, Catalysts, and Criticisms of the Bioneers Conference

Origin

Kenny Ausubel woke up one day when he was 19 paralyzed on the left side of

his body; the cause was a massive exposure to the environmental pollutant dioxin. He

decided soon thereafter to move from his home in New York City to New Mexico.

Having escaped the pollution of New York, Ausubel eventually moved from Santa Fe to

a small farm where he learned from back-to-the-landers how to grow organic food, how

to build with natural materials, and how to use traditional medicine to cure illnesses,

including his own. Just six months after his own recovery from the effects of the dioxin

exposure, Ausubel’s father died of cancer. These experiences with traditional health

catalyzed Ausubel’s search for authentic alternatives to western biomedicine, at which

point he began to look into herbal cancer treatments. Empowered by the community in

which he was working and living, Ausubel continued to develop the habitus of the

hippie lifestyle and began to develop alongside the communitas of the back-to-the-

lander with whom he was living. The language, laws (or lack thereof), and the customs

of his lifestyle during this influential period can be seen throughout his work and the

communitas he adopted would have been shaped greatly by those experiences.

According to Turner,

The hippie emphasis on spontaneity, immediacy, and “existence” throws into relief one of the senses in which communitas contrasts with structure. Communitas is of the now; structure us rooted in the past and extends into the future through language, law, and custom (Turner 1969:113).

 

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In his book Restoring the Earth (1997), Kenny Ausubel begins the preface with a

story about seeds, though the seeds in question were very special because they were

seeds of a Native American farmer from the San Juan Pueblo in the Rocky Mountains of

New Mexico, “unearthed from a clay pot embedded in the wall of his adobe home”

(1997:viii); No one in the village had seen the seeds in over forty years. According to

Ausubel, “In that farmer’s hands, I saw the profound interconnectedness of human

beings with the Earth” (1997:viii). In 1985, Ausubel was in San Juan Pueblo, ostensibly,

to make a film (Hoxsey: When Healing Becomes a Crime) about herbal treatment for

cancer, following his father’s death. However, when he saw the ancient seeds in the

farmer’s hand, Ausubel’s life changed completely. He remarks, in reaction to seeing the

interconnectedness of human civilization’s strains on nature in the form of the farmer’s

seeds: “Biology is indeed destiny” (1997:viii). Within a short while, Ausubel cofounded

Seeds of Change, a company “devoted to conserving the world’s ark of agricultural

seeds,” and began to sell seeds commercially (1997:ix). The company did well and soon

thereafter, Ausubel says, “I initiated the Bioneers Conference to, galvanizing a budding

but disparate culture around the ‘biological model’ of interconnectedness” (1997:ix).

While the Bioneers conference is the focus of this analysis, the story of Kenny

Ausubel and the seeds brings to front the community and context that Ausubel occupied

at Bioneers outset; it is an emic (inside) perspective that helps to contextualize the

origins of the organization. With the confidence of his partner and Bioneers cofounder,

Nina Simons, Ausubel then reached out for financial help to fund the conference and

received support from other like-minded entrepreneurs.

 

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The seed story is followed by Kenny’s acknowledgements of the people who

made Bioneers possible from the beginning. About halfway down the page, Ausubel

writes, ”Special thanks to Josh Mailman, the godfather of the Bioneers Conference who

shared the birth of the vision” (1997:xi). The reason this name is of importance is

because Josh Mailman is deeply connected to various people within the social and

environmental justice communities. This connection brings with it two important themes

that we will return to throughout the analyses of power and communitas in Bioneers:

The first connection is wealth, and the second connection is social good. Besides having

invested his wealth in Stonyfield Yogurt and Bioneers (among many others), Mailman

also helped to start two organizations of significance. The purpose of the two

organizations (the Threshold Foundation and the Social Venture Network), roughly

speaking, is to empower those with wealth to invest in socially responsible businesses

and to develop networks of social-good-driven philanthropists seeking to make a

difference with their wealth, instead of sitting on it or investing in destructive (yet

lucrative) industries.

While this seems tangential now, it helps us to illustrate how one’s own

relationship to wealth and social-good has evolves as a result of their experiences within

the communities they occupy. More importantly in this project, however, is the critical

perspective of an anthropological training towards the relationships to power,

communitas, and habitus and how to proceed in the deconstruction of the narratives,

power structures, and efficacy of the organizations and forces within the environmental

and social justice communities.

 

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Evolution and Iterations

With the ever-clearer image of Bioneers as an organization suspended within the

liminal limbo of power and social justice, it is necessary now to delve into the intricacies

of the conference itself, and to deconstruct the ways in which the organization

perpetuates the marginalization of certain populations as a result of the barriers formed

around the communitas of power.

According to their website, Bioneers are:

Social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic "nature's operating instructions" to serve human ends without harming the web of life (www.bioneers.com).

Because Bioneers is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, they “provide a forum and social

hub for education about solutions” through the conference and programs. On their

website, the Bioneers “Creation Story” includes the following description of how and

why the ‘biological model’ (or archetype) is at the core of the organization:

Nature's principles—kinship, cooperation, diversity, symbiosis and cycles of continuous creation absent of waste—can also serve as metaphoric guideposts for organizing an equitable, compassionate and democratic society. (Bioneers.org)

While the above statement provides a clear articulation of the ways in which the

biological archetype serves the overall goals of the organization, it is helpful to examine

the ways in which this subtle usage of the ‘natural’ as a mode of identification for the

Bioneers implies an appropriation of symbolism in a way that might deter or ostracize

populations for whom the biological model may be an essential part of their livelihoods.

That is, when examining the Bioneers’ usage of the biological archetype from an etic

 

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(researcher’s) perspective, the romanticized notion of nature as a source of principles

from which to borrow becomes an issue that lends itself to discussions of power and

ownership when it comes to exploring the notion of ownership.

Michael Brown, in his book, Who Owns Native Culture? (2003), criticizes the

tendency of “activists and academic theorists [to] set the terms of debate about cultural

ownership… ruled by proprietary passions” (Brown 2003:252). In his case, Brown seeks

to articulate some of the ways in which the ownership of traditional Native American

and Indigenous cultural artifacts by non-native people sparked a global campaign to

“assert control over elements of culture that they consider part of their patrimony: art,

music, folklore, even landscapes regarded as sacred” (Brown 2003: 3). Moreover, he

describes the intensification of the rhetoric surrounding these controversies, progressing

from “the clinical ‘cultural appropriation’ to ‘biopiracy’ and ‘ethnocide’”(ibid). He

continues, “Growing disquiet about the unauthorized use of elements of native cultures

implicitly challenges influential academic work that celebrates the creative mixing of

cultures” (Brown 2003:5). In discussing the role of an intellectual commons, Brown

cites the legal scholar Lawrence Lessig who “argues that the resources of the public

domain should be considered ‘nonrivalrous’ because they are inherently inexhaustible”

(ibid). In the case of the biological archetype as perceived by Bioneers, it seems that

none of the Indigenous leaders with whom they collaborate (from Oren Lyons to

Winona LaDuke to Clayton Thomas-Muller) have objected publicly to their usage of the

terms “Indigeneous” and “native.” However, as these leaders of the indigenous

community are paid for their time at Bioneers, their consultant-status to the conference

 

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does not empower their participation in the decisions that perpetuate the organization

itself.

When it comes to effectively communicating their intentions for diversity within

the Bioneers organization and conference, Ausubel clearly sums up the apparent

perspective of the organization in this passage from his latest book:

In nature, diversity is the very fabric of life, an article of faith. It's nature's fail-safe mechanism against extinction – "diversify your portfolio" is a biological strategy. Diversity is also the sacred tree of life with intrinsic value independent of its use value to people (2012:xvii).

Ironically, given the intersections of power and habitus (connections, community,

support, etc.) embodied by Ausubel, the comparison of the value of diversity to a

portfolio monetizes his statement in such as way that the ethnic diversity of the Bioneers

conference and leadership remains a secondary concern. This reality is realized in a very

literal and shocking way in that the vast majority of the executive board on the Bioneers

website consists of white people. This sad and startling fact brings to mind a cartoon

from the New Yorker that sums up the sentiment above:

 

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Its as if, by virtue of starting an organization that promotes diversity, tolerance, and

post-colonial sentiment, Bioneers has somehow exceptionalized itself from the confines

of the structural racism and system oppression that dominate todays society. One might

ask how Ausubel can promote such an image of diversity writ large in his latest book

without actualizing it within the organization he runs? Well, there is no way to answer

that question objectively without asking him or another member of the executive board,

and that we, sadly, were unable to do. However, the core analysis here of the

communitas of power provides a unique perspective from which to examine the

insularity of the Bioneers organization as a whole and the specific features of the

conference. To ground the critique in Turner’s words:

An in-group preserves its identity against members of out-groups, protects itself against threats to its way of life, and renews the will to maintain the norms on which the routine behavior necessary for its social life depends (Turner 1969:111).

 

  25  

In the case of Bioneers, Turner suggests that the in-group identity is preserved

against outside threats by the structural barriers that prevent marginalized populations

from accessing the conference. Among those barriers are the cost of the three day

conference ($395 for most attendees + food + housing), the geographical constraints

based on transportation needs, the inaccessibility of Bioneers content given the paywall

placed on the official plenary videos and other media content, and the time commitment

that necessitates the freedom to take time away from a job. Therefore, the structure of

the Bioneers conference privileges those whose schedules, lifestyles, and financial

stability predispose them to taking time away from home, spending money, and

generally participating in the many freedoms of the leisure class.

In terms of geography, if the attendees do happen to live near the Marin County

Civic Center (as do many of the presenters and organizers of the national conference),

chances are they contribute to and benefit from the fact that Marin County has the 17th

highest per-capita income in the U.S. Or if, for example, they are residents of Whidbey

Island, Washington and they attend the Bioneers at the Whidbey Institute, Island County

is the sixth wealthiest county in Washington State. By this reasoning, the constraints

placed on populations without access to the exclusive communities in which many

Bioneers conferences are held provides the organization with the unsettling assurance

that marginalized populations, no matter how eagerly they may want to attend, will face

many barrier. Turner helps us to examine how the exaggeration of the structure (in this

case geography and cost, especially) causes detriment to the communitas, itself:

Exaggeration of structure may well lead to pathological manifestations of communitas outside or against the “law.” Exaggeration of communitas in certain religious or political movements of the leveling type may be

 

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speedily followed by despotism, over-bureaucratization, or other modes of structural rigidification (Turner 1969:129).

The insularity of the Bioneers conference is compounded by the preventative

barriers placed on populations whose lives may benefit greatly from exposure to the

information being shared at a given conference; which, in turn, reifies the feeling that, as

a result of the above “rigidification,” the conference becomes a tautology unto itself; a

choir that is being preached to by its own pastor. And those who could stand to benefit

the most are left outside with no feasible way in.

So, how does this relate to the habitus we mentioned earlier?

By Bourdieu’s reasoning, “habitus makes possible the free production of all the

thoughts, perceptions and actions inherent in the particular conditions of its production–

–and only those,” and so the habitus inherent in the Bioneers’ communitas is shaped and

defined by the insularity and the closeness with which a given community of Bioneers

operates and so reflects those thinking patterns, perceptions, and actions (Bourdieu

1980:495). By extension (according to Bourdieu) habitus is the product of its structure

(Bourdieu 1980), and is therefore directly tied to the formation and maintenance of a

particular communitas. According to Turner, “Communitas breaks in through the

interstices of structure, in liminality” (Turner 1969: 128) and so the insularity of the

Bioneers communitas of power rests on the liminality of its own being. That is, the

communitas of power (defined by the ability to surmount the financial costs, time

commitments, geographic location, physical spaces, media pay walls, etc.) breaks

through the structures that Bioneers has adopted, in the form of liminality. By extension,

the liminality that the communitas of power is predicated upon is the liminal space

 

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between passivism and activism, between power and inferiority, and between insularity

and openness.

How is this liminal space (the home of the communitas of power) defined?

Enter the Imagination and cultural flows of Appadurai: In particular, the ways in

which the mediascape plays into the modern experience (the daily rhythms) of today’s

society. “What is most important about mediascapes” says Appadurai, “is that they

provide large and complex repertoires of images, narratives, and ethnoscapes to viewers

throughout the world, in which the world of commodities and the world of news and

politics are profoundly mixed” (Appadurai 1996:35). In this sense, the consumer of the

mediascape (of which most everyone is, if they have a computer, a smart phone, or read

the newspaper/listen to the radio) is defined by the repertoires of images, narratives, and

ethnoscapes that pass through their daily lives. Moreover, when considering a space and

the people who occupy that space (for example, the Collective Heritage Institute

headquarters in Santa, Fe or the Marin Civic Center during Bioneers), this notion of

mediascape allows us to envision the intricate and multi-faceted characteristics of the

types of images, narratives, and ethnoscapes that shape the identities of those

communities. By extension, we can now see that the communitas of power and the

habitus that defines it exist in concert with (and as a result of) the mediascapes formed

within those spaces. Returning to the lack of accessible media provided by Bioneers and

the mediocre public reception of their content that is widely available, we can see that

the insularity of the conference and the discrepancies between the appearance and reality

of the organization is directly tied to their mediascape as it relates to the insularity of the

conference and the content.

 

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Finally, there exists a clear connection, as demonstrated above, between the

barriers implicit in the structures of the Bioneers conferences and the lack of efficacy in

the organization. We have examined the ways in which the communitas of power has

been developed through the habitus of the Bioneers conferences, through a largely-

inaccessible format that privileges consultant roles for the few diverse populations that

are able to attend the conferences. While this analysis applies very generally to the

conferences referenced herein, it does not negate the fact that Bioneers are actively

engaged in meaningful work that seeks to build a thriving community of social and

environmental justice activists.

***

Moving beyond the conclusions of the above section as to the contexts and

catalysts of Bioneers, the causes and effects of the organization’s current model, it is

necessary now to begin entertaining an alternative to the current model of the Bioneers

conference. The goal if this final section is to provide an overview of a relevant case

study and concrete recommendations for new, open models of “Bioneering”.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

– Arundhati Roy (quoted in Blessed Unrest)

Case Study

The Intersections of Biological Diversity and Cultural Diversity:

Toward Integration Pretty, Adams, and Berkes

In order to bolster the argument of this paper for the inclusion of marginalized

populations in the Bioneers community and to augment our articulation of the

contemporary significance of cultural diversity in the environmental and social justice

 

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movements, it is necessary to examine the contemporary academic literature concerning

these issues. To begin, let us examine the findings of the chosen case study.

This case study positions the relationship between humans and nature at its core

and, unlike much of the environmental writing we have examined, it centers on the

intersection between biological and cultural diversity. From the beginning, the author’s

provide clear suggestions as to how we might navigate the intricacies of the issues at

hand, as well as offer explanations for why some parts of the world are less predisposed

to the essentiality of diversity:

It has been suggested that the ongoing difference in the cultural cosmologies of nature, between pre- or non-industrialized and industrialized communities, stems from a difference in need and purpose. The former are more likely to view themselves as interdependent components of nature, whereas the latter tend to view themselves as separate from and even dominant over nature (Pretty et al. 2009:102).

In the case of the Bioneers organization, there seems to be a third category in which one

might place the organization as they exist within the context of the changing socio-

cultural conception of interdependence between all living things (as touted by

biomimicry and the imagery and identity of the organization). Additionally, the study

shares the idea that a dependence upon nature predisposes people to the cycles and

rhythms of the natural world. Moreover, the study cites “recent evidence showing that

exposure to nature has a positive effect on physical and mental health” (Pretty & Berkes

2009:103). The article goes on to warn the reader about how “the degradation of

ecosystems is related to the loss of food security, the spread of human pathogens and the

emergence and resurgence of infectious disease and psychological ills (Pretty & Berkes

2009:106). Ultimately, the authors provide a succinct analysis of how and why the U.S.

would benefit from a significant shift in the national ethos to think about global diversity

 

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where cultural and biological diversity are united as one. In the very end of their

analysis, the authors offer the following statement to sum up their observations:

While conserving nature alongside human cultures presents unique challenges, we suggest that any hope for saving biological diversity is predicated on a concomitant effort to appreciate and protect cultural diversity (Pretty & Berkes 2009:100).

Taking into consideration the recommendations of the case study, we may now outline

some of the alternatives to the current model of the Bioneers conference, exploring the

various approaches that deconstruct the insular model of the conference in a way that

would make the Bioneers accessible to any population, regardless of socio-economic,

geographic, electronic or any other impediment. What follows in the final section is an

examination of the various metamorphoses and transformation of the current model of

the conference that centralizes the necessity for inclusion of marginalized populations

from diverse backgrounds in every aspect of the organization, from the participants to

the leadership and every position in between.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have discovered your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And at last you’ll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth.

And that is not speaking. - Audre Lorde (poet, radical feminist and civil-rights activist) Metamorphoses: Towards Transforming Bioneers

In a spring 2014 article, the social theorist Alain Touraine wrote, “The question

today is: What is the main form of power and who are the main social actors in

opposition to that power? The outcome of this struggle will shape the new cultural

pattern” (Touraine 2014:1). In response to this question, though not directly, the Native

American activist and author (currently fighting to end the Keystone XL pipeline)

Winona LaDuke writes, “Power is in the Earth. It is in your relationship to the Earth.”

 

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So, by extension of LaDuke’s statement, the power that is central to this paper is

enmeshed with place, within the land around each of us. In order to speak truth to the

challenge of mitigating the destructive and divisive nature of oppression, we must

entertain and seriously examine the potential alternatives to the current Bioneers model

such that the power of the organization no longer lies in the hands of the white, upper

class. Rather, the task at hand is to empower those whose voices have been stifled by the

systems that privilege the power of money and the power of control. Building from his

question earlier, Touraine says, “In the Information Age, those with the means to define

society’s image of itself have the central power” (Touraine 2014). With this in mind,

what are some of the ways that the Bioneers organization can use the power it already

has to define society’s image of itself in the Information Age?

According to Victor Turner, “communitas breaks in at the edges of structure, in

marginality; and from beneath structure, in inferiority” (Turner 1969:128). Given the

marginalization of populations of color, of diverse groups of people from all walks of

life whose energy and intellect are necessary for the creation of a new, inclusive

Bioneers, the necessary extension of Turner’s statement sees the communitas of

marginality and the communitas of inferiority taking this opportunity to collaborate with

the founders of Bioneers to imagine a new communitas that is inclusive. However, given

that liminality is central to the conceptualization of communitas, the deconstructivist,

collaborative, non-violent model of a new Bioneers necessitates the formation of a new

community beyond the confines of liminality. After all, this challenge is really about

who has the power to define what that liminality is:

“They are saying that marginalized people are ‘over-policing’ language and infringing upon other people's inherent right to speak freely … What I

 

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think the political correctness debate is really about is the power to be able to define. The definers want the power to name. And the defined are now taking that power away from them.”-Toni Morrison

Building from Morrison’s brilliant remarks on the power to define, it is of utmost

importance to explore ways in which the power structure of Bioneers could be

deconstructed completely and rebuilt from the ground. However, with many vested

interests in maintaining the functionality of the organization, a collaborative model must

be undertaken that respects the opinions and perspectives of all parties involved.

Ultimately, the debate concerns the ways in which community can continue to function

within the confines of structures that decentralize the narrative of the Bioneers as the

“dreamers of the future” and places the focus of available resources on developing a

model that encourages people everywhere to dream their future and to give them the

tools to do so. Again, Turner has some wisdom as to how maximization of communitas

can aid in the revolutionary acts of rebellion, destruction, and reconstruction:

Communitas cannot stand alone if the material and organizational needs of human beings are to be adequately met. Maximization of communitas provokes maximization of structure, which in turn produces revolutionary strivings for renewed communitas (Turner 1969:129).

Building from this understanding that maximization of communitas provokes the

maximization of structure, it follow that, under a collaborative model, the structures

necessary for the creation of an inclusive and revolutionary model would be transformed

to support a whole new set of ideals: racial, gendered, class equity and empowerment and

requirement that marginalized populations lead the organization itself in as many ways as

possible. Additionally, this new model would move the geographical location of the

conference completely, exploring the possibility of multiple, moneyless models for

gathering. It would include the development of an open-source, user-driven media model

 

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that allows for free access from anywhere by anyone and that also gives those with the

means an opportunity to financially support the organization. It would include an open-

space model of gathering and sharing information that allows anyone from anywhere to

present their work. All interpersonal processes would be handled using non-violent

communication models and language that is respectful gender identities, sexual

identification, physical abilities and spiritual or religious beliefs.

Collaboration 1. United labor, co-operation; esp. in literary, artistic, or scientific work. 2. Traitorous cooperation with the enemy.

The anthropologist Anna Tsing, in her book Friction about her work in the

Indonesian rainforests, asks, “Can any cause for common justice emerge across

differences? To ask this question well, we must move beyond the common-sense

assumption that solidarity means homogeneity. Differences engage social mobilizations”

(Tsing 2005:245). What Tsing shows us is that, in order to reach a collaborative model,

sacrifice of assumption is essential. We must discover a combination of what Victor

Turner’s widow Edith Turner calls The Communitas of Nonviolence and The Communitas

of Nature, built on a vision of hope for the future where humans are seen within nature

itself (Turner 2012:165). In the words of a dear friend and the organizer of the upcoming

Whidbey Island Bioneers conference (from his Facebook wall, nonetheless),

It is becoming clear to me that, in order to begin to transform the systems of injustice that are so pervasive in society, those of us with disproportionate power and privilege must set aside the dream of a "peaceful world where everyone gets along" and be willing to sit with the difficult truths of the injustices that we continue to perpetuate. We must be willing to do so from a place of empathy and humility, rather than guilt or problem solving.

Knowing that this friend is going to be organizing a Bioneers conference this coming

fall helps to dissuade the fears that arise as a result of confronting the issues of power

 

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and oppression within what is already a very progressive organization. Moving forward

into the next phase of the project, the words of Victor Turner continue to inform the

motivation and articulation of this paper. He says,

In closed or structured societies, it is the marginal or “inferior” person or the outsider who often comes to symbolize the “sentiment for humanity” which in turn relates to the model termed “communitas” (ibid).

Building on the work of Turner and honoring the immense knowledge shared with the

Bioneers community, this project continues beyond the confines of the written page.

***

It is a more arduous task to honor the memory of anonymous beings than that of famous persons. The construction of history is consecrated to the memory of those who have no name. - Walter Benjamin, German philosopher (1892-1940) Contribution and Conclusion

In early March, I messaged Paul Hawken to ask if he could help me with this

project in any capacity, or if he’d be interested in contributing some of his current work.

He responded to my Facebook message with a comment that exemplifies both the

predicament and the ultimate goal of this project. He writes:

I confess also to finding academic parsing of movements deadening. I read a lot of that stuff when I wrote Blessed Unrest. I was surprised how it creates a language that talks only to itself. And so that line of thinking, though I understand and am familiar with it, does not interest me because it is not accessible or helpful to what are the problems at hand.

I hope that, despite the many challenges I have faced in writing this paper, that the

language and propositions herein reflect an attempt to move beyond what I’ve called the

‘academic echo-chamber’. I hope that, for Paul and Kenny and Nina and all the other

Bioneers who have forged the way for the next (my own) generation of activists, this

 

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project helps to catalyze deeper, more meaningful change within the ever-expanding

community of which Bioneers is only a small part.

This project contributes a significant analysis of the role of power in the creation

of a prominent environmental and social justice organization to the ongoing

anthropological conversation around systems of power and oppression. Additionally, I

have thoroughly examined and redefined the ways in which communitas, habitus,

structure and landscapes interact within the social and environmental justice movements

to establish communities that are both exclusive and emblematic of the evolution of

those movements today. Moving forward, this project aims to establish a collaboration

among interested parties who are willing to confront the issue of power in

environmentalism.

In conclusion, this paper has demonstrated that the Bioneers organization and its

conferences function to meet the expressed needs of its attendant population, but, it has

also shown that Bioneers is not meeting the needs of the populations that stand to gain

the most from the their work, i.e. historically marginalized populations. Transformation

of the Bioneers’ model through the promotion and support of alternative forms of

“conferencing,” oriented towards the inclusion of historically marginalized populations

is essential to the survival and relevance of the organization. What does this look like? a

collaborative project that includes historically marginalized populations, elders and

youth from various communities, scholars seeking to escape the academic echo-

chamber, and social artists and activists working to change ethnic, gendered, and

economic systems of oppression.

***

 

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References: Books

Appadurai, Arjun

1996 Modernity at Large. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

1990 Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. In Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, Fifth Edition. McGee, Jon R. and Richard L. Warms. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Ausubel, Kenny

1997 Restoring the Earth: Visionary Solutions from the Bioneers. Tiburon, CA: Hal and Linda Kramer, Publishers. 2004 Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

2012 Dreaming the Future: Reimagining Civilization in the Age of Nature White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishers

Bourdieu, Pierre

1980 Structures, Habitus, Practices. In Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History, Fifth Edition. McGee, Jon R. and Richard L. Warms. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Brown, Michael F.

2003 Who Owns Native Culture? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Carson, Rachel

1962 Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Eisenstein, Charles

2012 Sacred Economics. Berkeley: Evolver Editions, North Atlantic Press.

Elgin, Duane

1981 Voluntary Simplicity. New York: Harper Collins.

Erlich, Paul

1968 The Population Bomb.

 

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New York: Ballantine Books. Hawken, Paul Foreword

In 2004 Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

2007 Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.

London: Penguin Books. LaDuke, Winona

1999 All Our Relations: Native Struggle for Land and Life. Cambridge, Mass: South End Press.

Lorde, Audre “The Masters Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House.” 2003 in Feminist Postcolonial Theory: A Reader. New York, NY: Routledge.

“The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action.” 2001 in Identity Politics in the Women’s Movement. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Meadows, Donella H., Dennis L Meadows, Jorgen Randers and William W. Behrens III

1972 Limits to Growth. New York: New American Library

Morrison, Denton E. and Riley E. Dunlap

1986 Environmentalism and Elitism: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis. Environmental Management 10(5):581-589.

Ortner, Sherry

2006 Anthropology and Social Theory: Culture, Power, and the Acting Subject. Durham: Duke University Press.

Pretty, Jules, Bill Adams, Fikret Berkes

2009 Intersections of Biological Diversity and Cultural Diversity: Towards Integration. Conservation and Society 7(2): 100-112.

Schumacher, E.F. 1973 Small is Beautiful London: Blond & Briggs.

Touraine, Alain

2014 Neo-Modern Ecology.

 

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New Perspectives Quarterly: Vol 31 #1 (Winter 2014).

Tsing, Anna 2005 Friction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Turner, Edith 2012 Communitas: The Anthropology of Collective Joy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Turner, Victor

1969 The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure Ithaca, New York: Cornell Paperbacks.

Websites

• http://www.bioneers.org/

 

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! General information about Bioneers, their programs, and their leadership. • http://e360.yale.edu/feature/network_theory_a_key_to_unraveling_how_nature_

works/2233/ ! An explanation of the complex systems in nature and a groundwork for my

analysis of the biological model of Bioneers as it relates to natural systems. • http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/mar/14/nasa-

civilisation-irreversible-collapse-study-scientists ! An article summing up the NASA study about the potential for civilization

collapse as a result of human-caused climate change. • http://www.fastcompany.com/1707100/doughnuts-dollars-how-business-scions-

son-went-burning-man-angel-investing ! This article details some of the philanthropic work of the original investor in

the Bioneers conference and helps to show the intricate network of relationships between Bioneers and the larger community of social and environmental justice activists across the US.

• http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/24/voices-spirit-bioneers-national-conference-keynote-speaker-tom-goldtooth-articulates ! This article shares the perspective of Native American activist and

environmentalist Tom Goldtooth on the Bioneers conference and helps to give voice to his experience as a keynote speaker at the conference. His organization has been working with Bioneers for the last 15 years.