Los límites de lo social: naturaleza, jerarquía y teoría de género

Abstract

Social limits: nature, hierarchy and genderThis article reviews the ability of gender theory to appraise how the difference between nature and society has been understood. This duality is assumed in our modern Western society as antagonistic and exclusionary. Revising this opposition appears crucial, not to deny differences between humanity and nature, but because in the development of modern knowledge, this differentiation took form in terms that imply hierarchies and domination logics. This paper aims to investigate what is considered nature and what is considered human. The purpose is to make more in depth studies about strategies adopted to configure the nature/society distinction, which reveals new dimensions when studied from a gender theory perspective. In this analysis, a paternalistic basis is exposed, which molds a way of understanding the world that implies asymmetric relationships. In this manner, gender theory becomes particularly relevant for rethinking both the antagonistic nature/society dichotomy and the knowledge that is produced in the natural and social sciences.