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Technology and the Polytheistic Mind: From Global to Planetary Theologies
Author(s) -
Bauman Whitney A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
dialog
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.114
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1540-6385
pISSN - 0012-2033
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6385.2011.00635.x
Subject(s) - globe , globalization , face (sociological concept) , natural (archaeology) , sociology , environmental ethics , epistemology , process (computing) , homo sapiens , aesthetics , philosophy , social science , anthropology , political science , psychology , history , law , computer science , archaeology , neuroscience , operating system
Assuming that human beings are, among other things, techno‐sapiens, natural‐cultural; and that technology‐nature‐culture are a part of the same emergent process of life (e.g., Martin Heidegger, Donna Haraway, Phil Hefner), this paper argues for a move from global to planetary technologies. According to Gayatri Spivak, the process of globalization is the imposition of sameness over the face of the globe. In contrast, she argues, what we need is a planetary vision of the world: one that pays attention to multi‐perspectivalism and difference; and connects peoples, places, and things through those differences rather than in spite of them. In this article I argue that theological technologies of monotheism have tended to support globalization. As such, I explore the possibilities for polytheistic (or at least) polydox theological technologies of planetary becoming.