An Unnatural Order: Uncovering the Roots of Our Domination of Nature and Each Other

An exploration of the basic beliefs and traditions of Western culture that have propagated racism, sexism, animal cruelty, and other forms of subjugation discusses how our nature-alienated culture oppresses nature and powerless people.

Coauthor with Peter Singer of Animal Factories , the classic expose of the cruelty of mechanized animal farming and slaughter, Mason here writes an eloquent, important plea for a total rethinking of our relationship to the animal world. He analyzes the West's "dominionist" worldview which exalts humans as overlords and owners of other life, an outlook that he believes is rooted in millennia of animal husbandry. Speculating that dominionism arose with the transition from ancient mother-goddess religions to patriarchy, he ambitiously links our current exploitation and domination of nature to fears of our own animal nature, repressive antisexual attitudes, misogyny, curtailment of women's power, racism and colonialism. Human brains and thought processes evolved through close contact with animals, Mason argues, and restoring our kinship with animals is central to bridging the rift between humanity and nature. His powerfully argued manifesto will change many readers' attitudes toward hamburgers, animal experimentation, hunting and circuses.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Throw a brick, suggests attorney Mason (coauthor, Animal Factories, 1980), and chances are good that you'll hit a ``dominionist''--someone convinced of the natural superiority of human beings and of their right to exploit all other living things. Since the time of early herding societies and the genesis of the man-the-mighty-hunter myth, Mason says, we have crafted an ethic that finds us alienated from, and arrogant toward, the rest of the living world. If primal people saw the earth as consisting of beings, souls, and powers, we now see it as consisting of resources and pests. Not only has patriarchal society rained violence, hunger, poverty, and other hatreds down on our heads but, in its efforts to legitimize its chauvinistic, hierarchical, and warlike behavior--and this is particularly important to Mason--it has broken the ancient bonds we have with animals, portraying them as wild, vicious threats in order to assuage our primal guilt for killing them in the first place. But we need animals for a host of reasons, Mason contends: ``As companions, as exercisers of human empathy and nurturing, as kindred beings in the unity of creation, as feeders and informers of the psyche.'' Our dominionist, utilitarian mentality, he argues, sees animals as having value only as resources and tools, and has led to a spiritually impoverished worldview that has replaced compassion with neglect, responsibility with swollen self-regard, and sensuality with violence. What now? Mason advises that we drop the idea of our uniqueness, get off our high horse, and come down to earth, taking our rightful place as creatures who must live in kinship with other living things. Above all, we must give the whole notion of patriarchy its walking papers. Although stronger in explaining how we got into the current mess than what's to be done about it, Masons's slant on history-- the human-animal orbit--is clever and subversive. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This is one of a number of recent books that trace both environmental destruction and social oppression to the Western world view that sets humankind outside of, above, and in conflict with nature. What makes this work unique is the emphasis he places on the relationship between human beings and other animals as both explaining and symbolizing our dysfunctional way of life with its built-in patriarchy, misogyny, and racism. "Dominionism" justifies merciless exploitation of the earth and its creatures for human wealth and pleasure, but it has left a deep psychic wound. In pursuing his argument Mason (coauthor with Peter Singer of Animal Factories , LJ 6/1/80) piles up powerful and provocative examples and insights. He is less successful in convincing the reader of the sufficiency of his overall thesis. Recommended for libraries with patron interest in animal rights, feminism, or environmental ethics.
- Joan S. Elbers, formerly with Montgomery Coll., Rock ville, MD
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.