How seeds make (and unmake) relations: Affect and power in the farming world (southern Chile) (original) (raw)

What relations are established by and through seeds in everyday rural life? The significance of this question is not immediately clear. In a present historical time, defined by the marginalization of farmers’ issues from the political arena and the emergence of new forms of seed proprietorship capitalized transnational companies, asking about relatedness seems futile to say the least. Yet, the idea of relatedness can help us in attempting to understanding the sensorial and public manifestations of today human engagement with seeds. The ability of seeds to make and unmake relations across different borders (political, economic, social and ontological) is a key process in the ongoing constitution of the farming world, a term that I use to refer to the lived world created through farming practices.