Words, names, are important. Sometimes they suggest more than we consciously intend, because like a myth, they contain the past in the present. So looking at the etymology, the history or family tree, of a word can be revealing. In the days leading up to the Bioneers Conference last weekend, which I attended, I thought about the word "bioneer."
"Bioneer" is a deliberately created term and it obviously refers to "pioneer," a central image of the West and the American mythology of the individual. We've heard a lot lately about pioneers and mavericks, about today's down to earth, hardy individuals (soccer moms and Joe six-packs) and elites (Eastern carpetbaggers). We've seen pictures from the moose hunt. Frankly, the titanic energy of our Western mythology, the genocide and rapacious use of the land in the name of "freedom," and the fantasy of self-reliance, is a problem.
So I was gratified when Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons addressed the significance of the word in her opening comments. Simons outlined three crucial differences between a "bioneer" and a "pioneer." A pioneer she said, moves into new territory as if it were empty and kills others off. In the pioneer mind (something I experience here in the Mojave Desert with some regularity), history begins with his arrival. The frontier is a blank slate, a "no place" that he puts on the map by virtue of his discovery. A bioneer on the other hand, recognizes that the earth is already fully peopled.
A pioneer has no respect for limits; a bioneer knows that limits are the first law of nature. A pioneer sees hierarchy in diversity---this one is superior to that one, more valuable or important, that one less so. A bioneer is non-hierarchical and respects the role that each being plays in the creation of the whole.
Given the mission of the Bioneers --- the promotion of sustainable technologies and ecological ways of living---this seems kind of obvious once you've heard it, a marriage between innovation and the interconnected "web" imagery of ecology. But I think the differences Simons highlights are very insightful, especially her emphasis on violence, an aspect of pioneer life and the settling of the West that is often omitted, downplayed, or romanticized. Fittingly, the word "pioneer" comes from peon, or foot soldier. "Bioneer," like biology, is derived from the Greek bios, meaning life.
But there is another angle worth consideration. The etymology of pioneer or peon includes the Medieval Latin pedon, or pawn. A pawn is the piece in the chess game with the least amount of power, something or someone used by others, a hostage,or something exchanged for money. The courageous, self-sufficient, self-made pioneer as pawn. What can be made of this contradiction?
I think of the many Western settlers bamboozled into moving into harsh dry lands by lying speculators (with the active complicity of the federal government), the machinations of the railroad tycoons who plotted towns and lives along with the tracks, the dustbowl refugees with no place else to turn, the Mormons, and many other pioneers who were refugees of one sort or another. Certainly there were and are exceptions. But other side of this tale of golden opportunity is hardship and necessity. Which raises the question of who or what drives it.
