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- Aug 24, 2003
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I started to reply again to the Camp Craft / Field Craft thread with the post below because of the direction of that thread, primitive skills in modern time. Then I thought that Primitive Skills deserved its own. Its almost funny how we hear that terminology, Primitive Skills, and we immediately think of the past; however, it is just a matter of perspective.
A couple excerpts from Thomas J Elpels book, Participating in Nature:
I reach into the brush for the aluminum can. I place it on the trail, smash it, and put it in my pocket to haul it away. Animals I realize, do not judge their environment. From ants to mice to deer, the creatures accept their environment without questioning it. They do not look at the litter of humankind and frown at our negligence. They do no have beliefs about what is right or wrong. They only operate in terms of their own immediate security: Is this particular element safe or hostile? Is it useful?
Primitive cultures too tend not to judge their environment in terms of right or wrong, but only in terms of usefulness
the driving force of belief is and was economics. To survive and prosper, primitive peoples had to harvest more calories of energy than they expended. They had to adapt and make economical decisions to enable them to harvest more calories with less effort, just as we do today. They would not resist a glass bottle as a source of arrowhead material any more than you or I would pass up a twenty-dollar bill lying on the sidewalk.
Our ancestors were incredibly attuned to the natural world, but not necessarily sentient. They were connected to the world like the jaguar, able to stalk and kill and live in great attunement with the natural world, but not exactly aware that they existed. They lived in harmony with nature only because they never realized they were separate from it
Many people today are drawn back to Stone Age living precisely because they are sentient. They are aware that we exist. They are aware that our species is destroying the natural world. They are aware that their peers live by nonconsciously mimicking the Jones in the constant pursuit of meaningless material wealth without thought or guilt. They see that we are largely a society of nonconscious automatons, consuming the planet only because wealth and status is favored in our culture and mimicked from generation to generation. They are drawn to this life because they have glimpsed something beyond the wallpaper of nature. They feel disconnected from the earth, yet recognize our ancestral ties to the land. They seek to restore a lost relationship with the natural world, to become one with nature. But they also come looking for something they can use in the contemporary world. They are searching to find a bit of wisdom, new personal strength, or a philosophy for living to take home with them. They want to fulfill something in their personal lives that is missing from the contemporary world.
Primitive living is not a matter of replicating the past. The past no longer exists. We cannot torch the forest to drive out game because we have to make shared management decisions with other users. Primitive living today has to reflect the realities of todays world, and maybe that is not so bad. Some old opportunities may be gone, but opportunities abound.
We journey into the world of primitive stone-age skills, and we return with knowledge, wisdom, and strength to enrich our lives in contemporary society.
Your thoughts
A couple excerpts from Thomas J Elpels book, Participating in Nature:
I reach into the brush for the aluminum can. I place it on the trail, smash it, and put it in my pocket to haul it away. Animals I realize, do not judge their environment. From ants to mice to deer, the creatures accept their environment without questioning it. They do not look at the litter of humankind and frown at our negligence. They do no have beliefs about what is right or wrong. They only operate in terms of their own immediate security: Is this particular element safe or hostile? Is it useful?
Primitive cultures too tend not to judge their environment in terms of right or wrong, but only in terms of usefulness
the driving force of belief is and was economics. To survive and prosper, primitive peoples had to harvest more calories of energy than they expended. They had to adapt and make economical decisions to enable them to harvest more calories with less effort, just as we do today. They would not resist a glass bottle as a source of arrowhead material any more than you or I would pass up a twenty-dollar bill lying on the sidewalk.
Our ancestors were incredibly attuned to the natural world, but not necessarily sentient. They were connected to the world like the jaguar, able to stalk and kill and live in great attunement with the natural world, but not exactly aware that they existed. They lived in harmony with nature only because they never realized they were separate from it
Many people today are drawn back to Stone Age living precisely because they are sentient. They are aware that we exist. They are aware that our species is destroying the natural world. They are aware that their peers live by nonconsciously mimicking the Jones in the constant pursuit of meaningless material wealth without thought or guilt. They see that we are largely a society of nonconscious automatons, consuming the planet only because wealth and status is favored in our culture and mimicked from generation to generation. They are drawn to this life because they have glimpsed something beyond the wallpaper of nature. They feel disconnected from the earth, yet recognize our ancestral ties to the land. They seek to restore a lost relationship with the natural world, to become one with nature. But they also come looking for something they can use in the contemporary world. They are searching to find a bit of wisdom, new personal strength, or a philosophy for living to take home with them. They want to fulfill something in their personal lives that is missing from the contemporary world.
Primitive living is not a matter of replicating the past. The past no longer exists. We cannot torch the forest to drive out game because we have to make shared management decisions with other users. Primitive living today has to reflect the realities of todays world, and maybe that is not so bad. Some old opportunities may be gone, but opportunities abound.
We journey into the world of primitive stone-age skills, and we return with knowledge, wisdom, and strength to enrich our lives in contemporary society.
Your thoughts