Revista Estudos Feministas
Print version ISSN 0104-026XOn-line version ISSN 1806-9584
Abstract
AGUAYO, Eugenia Cid and HINRICHS, Javiera Soledad. Seed healers: between empowerment and strategic essentialism. Rev. Estud. Fem. [online]. 2015, vol.23, n.2, pp.347-370. ISSN 1806-9584. https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-026X2015v23n2p347.
Women's networks of central-south Chile have taken the challenge of caring for native seeds against the homogenizing and predator agri-food regime. To do so, they declare themselves as reproducers of life, and privileged keepers of agrobiodiversity, from a strongly essentialist language. Is it really an empowering choice? What costs and possibilities does this essentialism involve? We believe it is possible to state that the essentialism represented by the seed healers is not only politically strategic, but contraessentialist in its results, contributing significantly to deconstruct traditional sex roles and hegemonic developmentalism
Keywords : Peasant feminism; Seeds; Essentialism.