Constructing a civilized wilderness. An intersectional discourse analysis of the Sierra Club 1893-1910

Sammanfattning: This study investigates if and how the Sierra Club adapted complex and contradictory rationalizations to legitimize their authority in wilderness and civilization. The study aims thereby to enhance our understanding of the origin narrative of the American preservation and conservation movement at the turn of the twentieth century which depicted white male heroes as discoverers and protectors of a pristine wilderness. As the origin narrative continues to influence perceptions of American wilderness and by extension the environmental movement it needs to be deconstructed and historized. Previous studies questioning the origin narrative have focused on gender, class, race and ethnicity separately and have focused on text production of specific individuals. In contrast this study departs from an intersectional perspective and a discourse analysis on all written material 1893-1910 in the organizational journal of the Sierra Club. The study concludes complex and contradictory rationalizations to legitimize authority over the past, present and future of wilderness in the internal debate in Sierra Club were anchored in a site-specific norm, the idealized mountaineer. This norm was produced and sustained in connection to the movement of the white educated body of men and women in the wilderness who had the ability to extract knowledge due to their superior moral, intellectual and physical abilities. The Sierra Club being a collective of individuals who embodied the norm gained authority as a guardian of the Sierras and by extension their position as an influential stakeholder in the preservation and conservation movement. The idealized mountaineer as a norm was manifested in the themes of legacy, science, expertise and emotions but was developed, changed and contested over time. The norm was based on male attributes demonstrated in heroic courage, rational decision-making, physical capabilities and scientific endeavors. The time in wilderness were transformative emotionally, intellectually and physically as each undertaking got the individual closer to the norm. The wilderness was constructed as pristine, monumental and in need of saving from everyone but them. As some women could embody the norm it indicated a site specific gender equality however certain constructions signaled how women were different without tainting the characteristics and acts of the idealized mountaineer which women generally embodied just as well as men. Legacy, science, expertise and emotions were likewise used to construct others as unworthy, unknowledgeable and uncivilized to reject their claim to authority in the wilderness. Native Americans and Chinese were constructed as racially incapable to embody the norm as uncivilized but no threat to wilderness. In contrast sheepherders were constructed as greedy, unworthy and uncivilized with reference to their class and ethnicity. Both they and their economic production were a threat as their knowledge stemmed from physical experience of wilderness which could be seen to undermine the authority of the idealized mountaineer and Sierra Club and thus sheepherders had to be removed. Others like white workers in the service industry and white educated men whose opinion differed on the future of the wilderness were constructed as unknowledgeable but redeemable. The rationalizations in the internal debate changed as the Sierra Club developed into the commercial invasion their main purpose had been to keep out. The organized outings, increased infrastructure, successful expulsion of sheep, the transfer of Yosemite National Park to federal management and the elimination of unknown terrain in the Sierra Nevada meant that the Sierra Club in a few years had inadvertently civilized and tamed the wilderness of Sierra.