Primitive Skills Vs. Rewilding
I have always used the term primitive skills to refer to things like making hand-made tools such as the bow and arrow or the the social systems such as tribal organization or educational systems such as mentoring or body skills such as heightening senses or rituals such as giving thanks to the landbase. After spending several days at the oldest primitive skills gathering in the country, I figured out why I get a funny feeling when I tell people that I practice “primitive skills.”
Most people use the term primitive skills to refer specifically to the making of hand-made arts and crafts of “stone age” peoples. With a little digging I find it easy to determine how this definition came about; looking through most of my “primitive skills” books I see that none of them speak of social-political-educational technology used by indigenous peoples (except maybe Tom Brown Jr.). Why? Because most of the authors as well as the creators of this gathering work as experimental archeologist’s. Scientists who focus on “stone age” hand-made tool replication. Not anthropologists or mythologists or theologists, but archeologists. Those who study the physical artifacts of primitive peoples. Unfortunately this definition of primitive skills excludes the social-systems that make indigenous societies uniquely different than civilization. Anyone can yield “stone age” hand-made tools including “stone age” civilizationists.
Looking at the diversity of people who attend, from the dirty earth-loving hippies to the sexist, racist homophobes who care nothing for the ecology of the planet, let alone their own bioregion, exemplifies how un-indigenous the gathering felt. When you start to examine indigenous systems, you begin to realize the socio-political prejudice that exists within the minds of civilizationists. For example, if you begin to teach “indigenous mentoring,” you can’t help but clash with civilizations compulsory schooling model. This can make teachers and supporters of modern schooling (both liberals and conservatives) very upset. If you begin to teach team-building and awareness of the land you began to rub civilized people (who believe the world as dead or put here for “Man” to consume) the wrong way. Basically, when you examine social-systems it causes a lot of controversy. A great example of this exists on the paleoplanet forum; a forum dedicated to discussing the replication of primitive tools. They recently created a category called “Primitive Living Experiences” which the head moderator shut down after people began to argue over the how and why.
Though, no one censored me at the gathering, when I did talk about civilization’s collapse (in fact, a lot of like-minded folks chimed in). But similarly, no one will censor the redneck who voices their hatred of illegal immigrants for no apparent reason. You’ll find the slang word “abo” (short for aboriginal) thrown around and the stupid caveman jokes feel ever present. I can’t help but feel sad and angry as I see some of these archeologists and laymen perpetuating the racist stereotype of civilizations caveman mythology of grunting white people with scraggly hair and badly tailored buckskin clothes found in movies such as “Quest for Fire” or “Encino Man.” White, “stone age” cavemen had only bioregonal differences to other “stone age” indigenous peoples such as Native Americans. To make these jokes about how stupid and shabbily our ancestors must have lived implies that all “stone age” peoples had little intellect. Which obviously shows us why they all didn’t build civilizations, right? (One of my favorite civilized thoughts involves archeologist’s saying that “early humans” must have “discovered fire by accident.” Just as I imagine modern astronauts must have “accidentally” built a space ship and flew it to the moon.)
Since humans make up the systems they live in, when you begin to examine and show other systems that work better, you come up against cultural prejudices and mythology that those systems have in place to prevent people from seeing or wanting to use another one, even if you can prove with physical evidence that the other system works better. Primitive skills, as defined as replicating physical artifacts, does not push any real civilized buttons or encourage any kind of social change.
From a rewilding perspective, the how and why lie at the heart of these skills; if you want to live sustainably you cannot separate tool-making from cultural systems (aka politics) and the sense of place (aka religion). Take away the how and why and these tools become weapons of destruction. For example, anyone can harvest anything anywhere at any time. Know what berries to eat? Great. Eat them. But do you know when works best to harvest them? You made a bow and some arrows? Cool. But do you know which deer to kill to strengthen the ecosystem? You can’t separate ecology from hand-made tools. Do you know the best places to gather in your area during the right seasons? Do you have a tribe of people to efficiently gather those plants? Does that group have songs and customs that make the tedious work of gathering more fun? Does your group have a system to distribute the berries equally among the people? You can’t just don buckskin clothes, make a bow and arrow, pick some berries and live they way hunter-gatherers did.
I have found that many people do not understand how hunter-gatherers blend into the ecology of their place. Hunting and gathering does not mean killing whatever, whenever. A lion does not kill just anything whenever it wants. It does not hunt down the strongest buck, but takes the sick and the weak. Its instincts tell it to thin the herd. Nomadic hunter-gatherers did not simply wander the landscape aimlessly in search of food, taking what they knew they could eat, whenever and however they pleased. Humans have externalized their instincts of what to take, when appropriate and why, into cultural mythology and storytelling (aka spirituality and religion). They moved through the same seasonal circuits, the same places year after year, tending them the same way any other wild animal would. They kept these routines alive through stories, adapting and changing them with the landscape.
As a bioregional extremist, I feel like the gathering works as a non-bioregion specific hand-made-tools gathering and job fair. For those who dream of a culture of rewilding, Rabbitstick does not look like the place. To make it clear, I don’t think of these gatherings as “good” or “bad.” To normal, civilized folk who could care less about rewilding, it works just fine. It merely serves a function; a place to learn hand-made primitive arts and crafts from highly-skilled practitioners and to meet other people who love these crafts. Sure you may find a rewilding friend wedged between a Mormon and a Rainbow Child, but you won’t find the group intention of learning the skills from the holistic sense and purpose that rewilding encompasses.
…For that we need to start our own bioregion specific rewilding gatherings, where people don’t have to waste time arguing with right wing religious nuts about whether or not civilization will collapse, but start building communities of people aware of, and no longer in denial of, civilization’s collapse.
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you summed it up really, well, scout. rewilding can’t just encompass the physical primitive technologies, it has to encompass the invisible ones as well.
i understand why paleoplanet has their rules about no politics and no religion, but i feel really glad that we don’t have the same kind of rules at REWILD.info. we need to focus on all those things to really rewild.
i started a thread on the rewild.info boards along these lines.
Scout, I agree wholeheartedly.
If you are interested in a place where the focus is learning the social,political,
religous, aspects neccessary to a native lifeway,
Check out teachingdrum.org .
Or you can email ty@teachingdrum.org . He is a friend of mine, and would be happy to share with you.
I’m not sure if its TY or ty at the begining of that address.
please check it out.
ofthewood
Hi Peter,
It was good to see you at Rabbitstick this week, I am glad we made the connection. I have been tossing and turning for the last day or so after reading this post, though, and thought perhaps I had better respond for my own sake.
The community at Rabbitstick is my family more than any others have been in my life. It hurts me to hear them misunderstood, especially the folks at Rabbitstick that I consider my elders. I am a person who does not enjoy controversy and conflict very much, so it is difficult for me to write here. Maybe this can begin a conversation that we can have in person.
I’ve been going to Rabbitstick and Wintercount for nearly seven years now, and though it’s not been all that long, it has been long enough for me to see how Rabbitstick has evolved over time and how conflict has been resolved and community maintained.
I would like to respectfully address some of your comments, pardon my lack of eloquence.
1. “…Exemplifies how un-indigenous Rabbitstick feels”.
The structure and environment feels very much like a native community to me, in the experiences that I have had at Celilo Village, Old Masset Haida community, and a few others. The elders make decisions invisibly, things are done slowly and methodically, and there is an evolution to the way Rabbitstick is run. Rabbitstick is very decentralized, with no charismatic leaders, many cultural rules that remain unwritten. Respect is earned by a person’s actions, value to the community, and dedication to the community. Most of the elders have spent a significant portion of their lives living under the wing of native elders in their own communities. It is true that Rabbitstick’s origins are from anthropologists and has been academic. However, the academics at Rabbitstick are another breed and anthropologists today are very different than they once were.
Elder Margaret Matthewson apprenticed with Pomo weaver Mabel McKay. David Wescott lived in the Arctic in several Inuit and Y’upik villages. David Holliday is a highly respected part of the Tar’hu’mara community in Copper Canyon Mexico. Robin Blankenship regularly visits native communities all over Central/South America, and even old Eastern European communities. Lynx Vilden has lived with the Sami of northern Europe. Sunny Baba lived during walkabout with an aboriginal band in Western Australia for six months. The list goes on and on. These are my elders, and I have nothing but great respect for their collective experiences and understandings of remaining aboriginal cultures.
In addition, many of the younger people at Rabbitstick have traveled extensively and lived with native peoples in their own functioning communities. Tycho Holcombe and Miguel Arrevalo have lived with the Warani hunter-gatherers of Ecuador for fifteen months now, and Miguel lives there still. Jose Amoedo lives right on the border of an Athabascan village in Yukon and fishes salmon with them. Patrick Farneman is a counselor for the Spokane tribe.
Before I get carried away here, I just wanted to demonstrate that the core group at Rabbitstick are people who are very dedicated to learning about and understanding native and aboriginal cultures wherever they are, and many have spent the majority of their lives putting the lessons they have learned from those communities into practice in their own communities. Indeed, folks from Rabbitstick are some of the only people I have know that have gone out of their ways to get to know the existing native people and communities in their own hometowns.
In addition, I have seen David Holladay give a Tarahumara man the literal shirt off his back. David Wescott has participated extensively in creating programs to help Alaskan Native youth continue to learn their traditional ways. Patrick has literally saved the lives of a few Spokane youth from suicide.
Rabbitstick on the surface does not look like a native village. There are RVs parked next to teepees, and tarps flying in the wind. Even so, it is my village. I live by its rules, and its culture. I trust and respect the elders, who make decisions so carefully and wisely that the way the community functions is invisible. That did not happen overnight, it happened over twenty years with an immense amount of effort on many peoples’ parts. If there is a community anywhere that actually functions in a way feels like an indigenous community, I would call it the Rabbitstick Rendezvous.
2. “Primitive skills, as defined as replicating physical artifacts, does not push any real civilized buttons or encourage any kind of social change.”
Within your definition, I would agree. I disagree with your definition, however. For me, primitive skills encompasses the entire range of tools and techniques that humans utilized prior to bronze. This includes such things as language, community-building, trade, resource harvesting, getting along with your neighbors, foraging, herbal medicine, diet, spirituality. Each one of these things was addressed at Rabbitstick directly through a workshop or discussion, except for language, which has not had a workshop for two or three years (and is a gap I would like to fill myself next year).
Lynx Vilden and her students talked about community building a great deal when talking about her primitive living projects this year. The Rabbitstick trade blanket deals with trade, as well as direct trading of hand-harvested materials all week long. Willows, cattails and tules were collected all week from the Rabbitstick site, with Kyle speaking extensively about how to harvest tules without damaging the area. Patrick spoke about connecting with native neighbors this year, and about some of the insights that native people have given him over the years. I taught a small game hunting and coastal foraging class. Cat Farneman taught medicinal harvesting, tincture making all week long. Steve Watts came and had a long discussion about his exceptional experiences with a paleolithic diet during Lynx’s presentation. Star addressed cosmology and spirituality of several Central American groups, I had an unofficial group discussion about animism all week long.
Sunny Baba spent an entire day dedicated to working with people individually to help them learn how to overcome their own personal challenges to live their lives more locally and sustainably. You yourself, Peter, had an excellent discussion about social change in an urban environment. Woniya and Patrick hosted a Social Change Forum, and ironed out many details about specific actions taken on both personal levels and in a larger Pacific Northwest context.
I would say that Rabbitstick lends itself to opportunities and acts a catalyst for direct personal and community social change on an action (rather than talk) level than any other single gathering in the United States.
3. “You made a bow and some arrows? Cool. But do you know which deer to kill to strengthen the ecosystem? You can’t separate ecology from hand-made tools.”
In the world we live in today, most nearly everyone has not grown up in a native cultural context with the old wisdom. We are forced to relearn and reinvent our relationship to the land, and a new land at that, and the people at Rabbitstick are people that are actually pursuing that relationship directly.
I would have to say that knowing which deer to take requires actually spending time watching deer through the seasons on one’s stomach and in the trees. The only people I know that actually are out there and are close enough to watch the deer and their patterns are actually hunters. Most nearly every bowhunter I have ever met actually knows their quarry well. They know where the deer go, where the weak ones are, which ones the wolves will take away. That kind of understanding in my experience has only come from the passion of hunting, and particularly from bowhunting with primitive weapons.
The only people i have ever met that have been successful primitive hunters have been at Rabbitstick. Even at Rabbitstick, there are not enough with a lot of experience. When I teach Small Game Hunting at Rabbitstick, I encourage people to do everything they can to actually get out there and hunt. I encourage them to learn how to cook game well, how to marinate their meat. Those are the things that make them get out there. I encourage them to work hard on their bows and make them fast, because their pride in their weapons gets them out there.
Any of the things I have learned about harvesting animals in my years that have not come from directly watching deer themselves, has come from other people at Rabbitstick. I have learned that there are many places in the continental U.S. where as much as a third of the deer don’t make it through the winter, dying from starvation.
I been learning how to harvest cattails by harvesting extensively from several areas and watching the effects. I then carry that information with me and pass it down wherever it is appropriate, sharing and learning from other primitive skills practitioners for whom cattail harvesting is not about theory, but about a way of life.
Indeed, there are article in the Society of Primitive Technologies Bulletin about proper harvesting techniques, both as observed in the past and through direct experience today. We have so much to learn, which we will never master in our lifetimes, but I watch the young ones that have grown up in the Rabbitstick family and know that they will be standing on our shoulders when their own families are living close to their land.
4. “For those who dream of a culture of rewilding, Rabbitstick does not look like the place.”
This may well be true depending on what is meant by rewilding, of course. I do know that the only rewilders I have met that have actually had experience rewilding and living close to the land have all come through Rabbitstick, learned as much as they could, and come back and shared their experiences. Lynx’s program brings many of the dedicated, as does Wildroots in North Carolina, both associated with Rabbitstick and Wintercount.
Rabbitstick is one of the only primitive skills gatherings that is less bioregional specific. This is mostly due to history– Rabbitstick began the primitive skills movement more than twenty years ago, and without it, none of the other bio-region specific gathering would exist. Here are some bioregional specific gatherings, all founded and maintained by either long time Rabbitstick or Rivercane (East Coast Rabbitstick equivalent) core members: Echoes in Time, in Oregon, NativeWays in Minnesota, Falling Leaves in Georgia, Northern Lights in B.C., Rain’s End in Oregon, Rattlesnake Rendezvous in California, WinterCount in Arizona.
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I think that one of the major differences between the rewilding movement and the primitive skills movement might be that rewilding is a culture based on ideology, and primitive skills is a culture based ways of life.
There is less philosophical discussion in primitive skills circle precisely because primitive skills exists as different things to different people– it is a way to learn the tools and techniques of living in close relationship to the land. Most folks involved in primitive skills are less inclined to speak about a philosophy of living close to the land, because they have already made their decision. They are looking for the how, and sharing their experiences.
I would have to agree with you Peter, in that the way the primitive skills movement is today, there is a need for more emphasis on the invisible skills of cultural change, especially in terms of language, storytelling, social structure. It is my hope that rather than looking at the Rabbitstick Rendezvous as a place where gaps in a larger context are lacking, you see an opportunity to bring your own expertise into a rapidly growing culture and that together we might make something our children can grow into with pride.
Respectfully, Kiliii
ancestralways.net
dancinghawk.com
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Kiliii,
A Rendezvous does not work the same way as a community. A rendezvous implies people temporarily leaving their home communities to share and trade and meet with other communities. Indigenous, by definition means native to a place. Rabbitstick Rendezvous could happen anywhere. It has no bioregional ties because it merely acts as a location for trade.
You have conflated my critique of the Rendezvous itself, with your personal connections made and sustained out side of and during the rendezvous.
Rendezvous
1. an agreement between two or more persons to meet at a certain time and place.
2. the meeting itself.
Community
A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually prec. by the): the business community; the community of scholars.
The Rabbitstick “Community” (which you are a part of and I am not) is distinct in respect to the larger Rabbitstick “Rendezvous” (which you and I are both attendees) within which it exists.
If your goal involves rewilding (undoing domestication), as mine does, than that also means abandoning civilizations mythologies such as Christianity, Mormonism, Atheism, Scientology, etc. Do to their “other-worldly” dis-associations from the land. Animism, the religion practiced by all indigenous peoples, holds within its mythology a “how-to” manual for using primitive skills to live sustainably. Civilizations mythologies do not. Therefore, anyone subscribing to civilized mythologies will use the tools unsustainably. If you teach primitive skills in a way that does not center around animism, than you are not teaching how to use the skills in a sustainable, indigenous way. Therefore, a “non-religious,” a-political event simply means that people will come and learn the skills and use them however the mythology they have tells them to.
Here’s the catch; civilization’s mythology is killing this fucking planet.
Some people may discover animism by learning some of these skills. But all would discover it if the rendezvous had the intention of creating new cultures that do. But it does not serve that purpose… AND THAT’S OKAY!!!
It has a function; share, teach and learn hand-made arts and crafts of stone age peoples. Some people are animists, some are not. That’s fine. It’s dandy… but its not an intentionally rewilding culture; it’s a first step towards animism for some, not for others.
Because I believe we’re headed for serious trouble, and I know that animism is a manual for sustainable living, it seems detrimental that we start creating intentional, PLACE-BASED rewilding cultures. I’ve taken several steps beyond the “first step” toward an animist lifestyle and want more than what Rabbitstick Rendezvous had to offer. Though from your words, it sounds like you see more in it than I do, since you are a member of the “community.” Though, looking at it as a community, it also doesn’t look that appealing, since it is not a place-based (the meaning of indigenous) community, but a long-distance one. And that’s okay too. I have friends who live far away and support me, who I see a few times a year or now and then. But I want a sustainable, rewilding culture right here in Portland OR. I want them all over the planet. I want to do everything I can to help the future generations so when I die I’ll know I did my best. We have to take people beyond the first step that they may or may not take. We have to use cultural mentoring techniques to show people the world through native eyes. That’s what I have been doing for 10 years now and that’s what my critique was about. No, I don’t look like a primitive person; I don’t wear buckskins, but I have worked towards having the mind of an indigenous person. Indigenousity and Rewilding is fundamentally about how you see the world and connecting to one place; not the clothes you wear or the tools you use or having communities with members living 1000 miles apart and seeing each other once a year. It’s one thing to cross-pollinate your local communities at a Rendezvous or at Rewild.info, its another to rely on a community as distant, abstract, temporary and disassociated from your landbase as this website.
I’m still planning to attend Rabbitstick next year but only if I can go as an instructor in cultural mentoring; a concept I didn’t hear spoken of once.
Of The Wood,
I’ve read a lot of Tamarack Songs stuff and I love most of it. I’m here in Cascadia though and I’m not leaving this land. I also don’t like what I’ve heard about the schools “no contact with the outside world” rule. Just not my thing. Also, I will never pay for another primitive skills class as long as I live, with money.
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If I dont like this and I dont like that and I think that this should be like that and I think that that should be like this…..then it looks like I is the problem.
Just do it!…..And be grateful that there others to share your idiosyncratic likes and dislikes with or it would be a small world indeed.
You do good work Scout even if I don’t agree with everything you say (I agree with 95%). It’s important to challenge people to activate additional brain cells and think critically about the world.
Scout/Peter,
“Also, I will never pay for another primitive skills class as long as I live, with money.”
A more interesting question is whether or not you will instruct a primitive skills class for money for as long as you live.
Pray thee, do tell…
Haha, you know what they say… A sucker is born every minute!
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i appreciate this article greatly… excluding the judgments made of others… the details of the broad and applicable use of primitive skills to reach more deeply into the heart of what it can mean “to be” a human being and how it may draw more sharply into focus the social contexts which these incidental practices potentially have is amazing all at once to hear and especially uplifting to know that it is potentially happening!
it is the socializing principals of rewilding that i am most interested in ; how we organize ourselves to meet our ‘economic’ and emotional needs in small collectives ; i would be willing to offer my assistance in organizing any local rewilding events/gatherings to establish year/life long tribal community.
feel free to contact me.
i will be definitely reading more. gratitude for the work you do.
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It is easy to be critical of other systems (such as modern society, Rabbitstick, etc) as a person living outside of those efforts, from a distance, and some of your points are interesting. However, as a wilderness skills camp director for over twenty two years, I find most people who like to be critical and think that the world, or camp, should be this way or that way do so by wanting everyone to do what they think, because they think that they are right. Not because they are leading by doing. The critical ones never make any real commitment towards change except mentally, and don’t lead by action but by talking…. Not all that inspiring, really. And they justify their ‘moving on’ and lack of commitment to the same argument, saying that the program wasn’t compatible, etc. and implying that their personal philosophy is somehow superior to the program or camp, etc. All the while, taking skills and supplies and experience with them to add to their own skill base, etc, and at the same time bad mouthing the program as not perfect or worse.
Parts of this blog post reminds me of that feeling I get when a student or staff or apprentice does this. I bristle sometimes, or just shake my head and laugh. It doesn’t feel good, but you can’t do much about it. The bottom line is, you can’t please everyone. If I did what everyone wanted me to do, we would be vegan, and then the meat eaters would be unhappy, and do you see how this is going????????? We have to do what makes us happy, and attract the people that feel the same way. Follow your own vision and enjoy it when some egotistical dude shows up at your ReWilding Gathering ten years from now and complains that it isn’t authentically Neanderthal or whatever. See how that will feel then!
We screen people a lot better now at Hawk Circle, and if they show signs of this ego driven ideology type, we let them go be critical someplace else. Or just don’t accept them into the program.
We have semesters that people pay for, and apprenticeships where they pay through work. People can take their pick as to what they want to do and how much time they have to practice and learn.
However,
This isn’t to say that we or I am not open to new ideas, or hearing other people’s point of view. In other words, they just need to be respectful of what it has taken to build our camp, or Rabbitstick, or modern society. I think that is the part of the post that could be thrown a bone.
I do agree with you that culture and society does play a huge part of the movement towards understanding and living what primitive skills can be, but the difference between you and me is that I know how long it can take to build a different culture. When I first started learning how to live in the wild, I could only find a few friends who would practice with me, or head out in the bush for extended lengths of time. We loved being out there, but it certainly wasn’t a tribe. Does that make me a bad person, in your book? The fact that I couldn’t get twenty people to come in the woods with me, and we only had 500 acres to gather from is the best I could do at 20 years old.
Building a gathering, or an organization, or a community, is such a labor of love and dedication. It takes years and years of planning, effort, sacrifice and commitment.
If your rewilding efforts don’t include respect for the efforts of others, and an appreciation of their own visions and personal paths, then I am happy to not be a part of them.
I do think that what you are saying is good to be said, openly, and discussed, but the various parts of your post that show disrespect make the discussion very cloudy and much more difficult.
Shed the judgement and attitude and your ideas and philosophy will be much more readily welcomed and appreciated and considered.
Keep it and most people at the leadership level will just write you off.
Good luck with your Rewilding project… and enjoy your bio region. It is beautiful out there, to be sure….