Restoration - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 1

1 Restoration

Philosophical and
Political Contexts

Elizabeth V. Spelman

The restoration projects of human beings are not limited to natural habitats such
as the marshlands of southern Iraq and other wetlands around the globe. Even
the most cursory glance at newspaper headlines reminds us of frequent efforts to
restore human artifacts such as valuable works of art (Michelangelo's David , to take
a recent and controversial example) and historically significant buildings (such as
the British Museum). There is an almost daily recitation of attempts to restore bro-
ken ties between individuals or peoples (think, for example, of South Africa's Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, to take another recent and controversial example).
Indeed, so numerous and ubiquitous are the repair and restoration activities of
human beings that it seems quite fitting to think of Homo sapiens as Homo reparans
(Spelman 2002, 2007): to the venerable and captivating portraits of Homo sapi-
ens as the rational animal, the political animal, the social animal, the animal that
really-and-not-just-apparently uses language, the only thinking thing that also has
emotions, the only thinking thing that worries about whether it is the only thinking
thing, we should add the portrait of the human being as the repairing animal (or, in
any event, a repairing animal). And the human as repairing animal, Homo reparans ,
is called upon to develop and exercise not only the technical skills to carry out repair,
but also the capacity to judge what is reparable and what is not, and also to decide,
among those things judged reparable, what is worth fixing and what is not.
The English language, among others, is generously stocked with words for the
many preoccupations and occupations of that bipedal tinkerer, H. reparans : repair,
restore, rehabilitate, renovate, rebuild, recreate, reconstruct, regenerate, reconcile,
redeem, heal, fix, and mend—to name a few. Such linguistic variety is not gratu-
itous. These are distinctions that make a difference. Do you want the car simply to
be repaired, so that you can use it again to get where you need to go? Or do you want
it restored to the bright shininess it had as it left the factory floor? Is a bold patch on
your jacket adequate, or do you insist on invisible mending, on having it look as if
there never were a rip to begin with? Should the work of art be restored, or simply
conserved? Why do some ecologists want to preserve an environment rather than try
to repair the damage done to it? Does forgiveness necessarily restore a ruptured rela-
tionship, or simply allow a resumption of it? What does an apology achieve that mon-
etary reparations cannot—and vice versa? What was thought to be at stake for citizens

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