The writings of Foucault are complex and hard to understand when you read them for the first time. Through out the term we have analyzed and identified two of the notions of power found in Foucault’s writing, power over and power relations.  These two notions of power are as different as day and night.  One notion is very easy to identify and the other is not so easily seen.  Power over is dominance or conquering by physical force, as power relations is not so harsh, it is not obvious.  It is power as a form of social discipline.  Carolyn Merchant depicts women as nature, and through my paper I will try to identify the two notions of power discovered by Foucault in Carolyn Merchant and her depiction of women and nature.  I will use examples given by Carolyn Merchant and show how one or the other form of power is related to the example.
             In one of Carolyn Merchant’s work “The Death of Nature” she wrote something that really didn’t make sense.  “Women and nature have an age-old association” (1980. pg. 268) this phrase was new to me and after we analyzed in class how women are associated with nature, I realized that it could be true.  When women are associated with nature it shows a form of power relations.  The connection that I see between women and nature, is the body.  We have discussed in class how women are associated with nature through there bodies.  Since women give birth to children, they reproduce.  So does nature, and so women are associated with nature.  When the ground is ready to produce we call that fertile.  When women are ready to reproduce we also call that fertile.  When the ground can not give forth good fruit we call that barren.  When women are not able to give birth we also call that barren.  There are many associations in our culture between women and nature.
            Power relations is being normalized through the body of women.  When we associate nature and women we have to have a transaction point which is the body.  Since women give birth, we shall say that that is what they should do and nothing else.  Since men are the head of the family they should take care of all the problems and the ones making the money.  The reason that is, is because men are associated with culture.  And culture is civilized, reasonable, paid, and is male, or that is what we think anyways.  Now this is where we can see power relations.  No one says to the women “you are a women you have to stay home and cook and clean and produce babies, but that is what we think they should do.  So power relations is being played out in this example.  Now when a man says to his wife this is what you are going to do and I will make the money and you will do what I say and you will stay home, then power over is taking place.
Ever since the world was created we have associated women with nature.  For example: nature is female, nature is nurturing, and nature is wild, and so are females.  One example is that we call earth “Mother Earth.”  Why?. Because earth reproduces, it nurtures, and it cares, and so do females in our society.  All of these characteristics are associated with female because of the body which is a transition point between females, and nature.
            Written in Carolyn Merchant’s work is a phrase that seemed quite interesting to me “In society, the ruling head must be a man, for a woman’s rule creates a monster.”  This phrase caught my eye because it seems that she is saying that only men are capable of making rational decisions.  Which is definitely not true, there are many single mothers that are able to raise a family by themselves and be a leader in society.  The reason I think this phrase is important is because we automatically assume that women are not capable of being leaders.  By automatically assuming that are not capable is a form of power relations because we put them in a lower bracket.
            In a family the man and the wife should be on equal levels.  Or that is the way that I seem to see it.  But men that are more ancient should I say or more traditional don’t seem to see it like that.  Men are much better then women because men are civilized, reasonable and so on.  And since women give birth through there bodies, they are associated with nature which is much lower than culture.
            “Due to the Fall from the Garden of Eden (caused by the temptations of woman), the human race lost its ‘dominion over creation’” (Merchant 1980: pg. 273).  Because women were first deceived in the Garden of Eden, God made women the child bearer and that is what associated her with earth.  Up until the Fall of man there was no need for man or women to have power over one another because they were all equal.  But since women are the first bite, God gave Adam, the man, power over the women.  God gave Adam the intelligence to be the head since he did not eat until the women offered it to him.  So this is how men became the head and when were below.
            As women and nature are associated through the bodies of women, men are associated with culture, because of the ideas, and mentality.  I have realized that many things that are in this world are not true.  I think that both men and women when they come together as a family should be on the same level.  Not one higher then the other, or smarter.  They are both one.  It says in the Bible that when man and woman shall leave their parents they shall cling together and become one.  When women have babies it is not because she wanted to.  It is because both the man and the woman wanted to.  And that child that is created from both of them is both of them in one.  And that is why man and woman are on the same level.
             Power, nature, and women, these are the topics that I have tried to identify and analyze in my paper.  I showed my ability to analyze them in the articles of Carolyn Merchant.  The notions of Foucault are as I stated in the beginning, power over and power relations.  These two notions show up in the articles of Carolyn Merchant, and I tried to identify them to the best of my ability.  I hope it is enough to show my understanding of these topics.
 

                                                Works Cited

Lawrence D. Kritzman (2001). Michel Foucault, On Power 101-106. Routledge
Chapman and Hall, Inc.

Carolyn Merchant (1980). Death of Nature, The, Women as Nature 268-283.  Harper
Collins Publishers, Inc.

Carolyn Merchant (1983). Death of Nature, The, Nature as Disorder 126-149, 310-313.
Harper Collins Publishers, Inc.