semi-automatic waffle

Across literature, philosophy, and political discourse, oppressed groups are frequently symbolically associated with animals, wilderness, or “nature”. This usually serves one of two purposes:

to justify domination (by portraying them as primitive, wild, or less-than-human), or
to express solidarity with nature (especially in environmental or anti-colonial thought).

Here are several clear examples across different contexts.

1. Colonial depictions of Indigenous peoples as “part of nature”

European colonial narratives often portrayed Indigenous peoples as extensions of the wilderness rather than members of civilization.

In colonial travel writing and anthropology, Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians, and African societies were described as “closer to nature” or “children of the forest.”
The idea of the “noble savage” suggested Indigenous people were pure because they lived in harmony with nature, but it also implied they were less civilized and more primitive.

Example in literature:

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe portrays the character Friday as someone tied to the natural world and in need of “civilizing.”

This symbolic merging of Indigenous people with the landscape often helped justify colonial land seizure: if people are part of nature rather than political subjects, the land can be claimed.

2. Enslaved Africans described using animal or agricultural metaphors

During the transatlantic slave trade, enslaved people were frequently represented as livestock or agricultural resources.

Examples include:

Being referred to as “stock,” “breeding,” or “cargo.”
Plantation ideology describing enslaved laborers as productive natural resources, similar to soil or crops.

This rhetoric supported the economic logic of slavery by placing enslaved people within the category of exploitable nature rather than human society.

3. Women associated with nature in patriarchal philosophy

Western philosophy often symbolically linked women with nature and men with culture or reason.

For example:

Jean-Jacques Rousseau described women as closer to natural instinct and domestic life.
Enlightenment and later thinkers often contrasted female emotion and fertility with male rationality and civilization.

Ecofeminist scholars later critiqued this tradition:

Vandana Shiva and Carolyn Merchant argued that the domination of women and the domination of nature historically developed together.

4. Racial dehumanization through animal imagery

Oppressed racial groups have often been portrayed as animals or wild creatures.

Examples:

Antisemitic propaganda in Nazi Germany depicted Jews as rats or vermin during the lead-up to the The Holocaust.
Racist caricatures in the U.S. depicted Black people as apes or beasts to argue they were biologically closer to animals than Europeans.

These metaphors explicitly collapsed the boundary between oppressed humans and nonhuman animals.

5. Peasants or rural poor portrayed as “earth” or “soil”

In some political rhetoric, peasants are portrayed as organic parts of the land.

For example:

Russian populist thought sometimes romanticized peasants as the “soil” of the nation.
In literature like The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, migrant farmers are symbolically tied to the earth—both sustaining it and being treated as expendable like the land itself.

This metaphor can be sympathetic but still reduces people to natural forces rather than political agents.

6. Environmental justice and positive identification with nature

Sometimes oppressed groups embrace identification with nature rather than having it imposed on them.

Examples:

Indigenous environmental movements frame their communities as relatives of the land and animals rather than separate from them.
The Chipko Movement in India involved rural villagers (many women) physically protecting trees by hugging them.

In these cases, the merging with nature becomes a source of resistance, not dehumanization.

✅ Key idea:
Equating oppressed groups with nature often serves ideological functions. It can:

justify exploitation (“they are part of nature”)
romanticize purity (“they live naturally”)
deny political agency (“they belong to the land”)
or become a tool for resistance (“we are guardians of the land”).

If you want, I can also show examples from specific theorists (e.g., postcolonial theory, ecofeminism, or critical race theory) who analyze this pattern in depth.

Several major theorists have examined the pattern where oppressed groups are symbolically merged with nature while dominant groups are associated with reason, culture, and civilization. Here are some influential thinkers and how they analyze it.

1. Ecofeminism: domination of women and nature

Ecofeminist scholars argue that Western thought historically linked women with nature and men with culture, which justified domination over both.

Carolyn Merchant

In her book The Death of Nature, Merchant shows that early modern science reframed nature from a living, nurturing mother into a mechanical system to be controlled. She argues that:

Women and nature were both historically described using fertility and reproduction metaphors.
As scientific and industrial thinking developed, both became objects to be managed or exploited.

Vandana Shiva

In works like Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development, Shiva argues that colonial development and industrial agriculture simultaneously:

exploit the environment
marginalize rural and Indigenous women

She suggests these groups are often portrayed as “closer to nature” in ways that both romanticize and marginalize them.

2. Postcolonial theory: colonial subjects as “natural”

Postcolonial theorists analyze how imperial powers depicted colonized peoples as part of the natural landscape rather than political actors.

Frantz Fanon

In The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon describes how colonial ideology frames colonized people as:

instinctual
irrational
physically tied to land and body

Meanwhile colonizers portray themselves as rational and civilizing.

Edward Said

In Orientalism, Said shows how Western representations of the “Orient” often depict Eastern societies as:

exotic
sensual
natural or timeless

This contrasts with Europe’s self-image as modern, rational, and progressive.

3. Critical race theory and racial animalization

Scholars studying racism emphasize the role of animal metaphors in dehumanization.

Sylvia Wynter

Wynter argues that modern Western thought defined “Man” as the rational European subject. Groups outside that category were placed closer to nature or biology, making their domination appear natural.

Achille Mbembe

In Necropolitics, Mbembe discusses how colonial power reduces certain populations to bare life, treating them like expendable natural resources.

4. Environmental justice theory

Environmental justice scholars note that marginalized communities are often treated as disposable landscapes.

Rob Nixon

In Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, Nixon shows how:

pollution
resource extraction
environmental destruction

are frequently imposed on poor or colonized communities whose lives are treated as part of the environment rather than fully protected human populations.

Core pattern these thinkers identify

Across these theories, a recurring symbolic hierarchy appears:

Dominant group	Oppressed group
culture	nature
reason	instinct
mind	body
civilization	wilderness

Placing oppressed people on the “nature” side of the divide historically made it easier to justify:

slavery
colonialism
patriarchy
environmental exploitation.