It seems necessary as of late to define some of the terms I use often on my blog. Although the definitions below may sound judgemental, I have been a member of all of these communities at one time or another. As I teenager, I was drawn to survival skills because I loved the outdoors. At the same time I was into gear intensive sports such as backpacking, rock climbing, and whitewater rafting.
As a college student at The University of Vermont I studied with world-renown ecological design pioneer John Todd, sold desktop “living machines”, and designed fancy strawbale houses at Yestermorrow Design/Build School. I also took a course in permaculture, and helped plant a fruit trees as part of a permaculture system at a local community garden.
After leaving UVM I attended green anarchy gatherings, read Species Traitor magazine, and wore a black T-shirt with the words “Against Civilization” on it. Later I read all of Tom Brown Jr.’s books and attended the Tracker School. And just before joining the rewild forum, and moving to Portland, one of the few cities in the US to have what might be called a “rewilding community”, I dated a How to Build Your Own Bazooka reading gun nut!
Although it may be considered the father of rewilding, Green anarchy/ anarcho-primitivism seems to be a more politically loaded term. While I do not mind being called a green anarchist as I essentially agree with the philosophy, the word calls to mind a certain type of militancy and idealism. Green anarchists are mostly likely to openly advocate fucking shit up, burning shit down, and unfortunately practice what I call “reverse snobbery” for example attacking someone for watching television, dressing fashionably or writing a blog. To be blatantly stereotypical, they may also practice security culture, quote Derrick Jensen and John Zerzan, wear a lot of black and appear to be what is known as a “crust punk”.
The terms Primitive skills, primitive technology, and wilderness skills on the other hand carry few political connotations. Some people practice these skills as a form of experiential archaeology (see Society for Primitive Technology). Others simply do it for fun, for example as an adjunct to general outdoor recreation such as hiking and camping. Gatherings such as Rabbit Stick and wilderness schools generally fall under this category. However, graduates of Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School (Brownies) do tend to carry some underlying moralistic-survivalist philosophy. Brown writes that if we do not change our destructive ways, “…only the children of the Earth will survive”.
Permaculture, as I hinted in my last post, is limited by its agricultural origins. Although the world permaculture can be and sometimes is used on a broader scope, to describe a “permanent culture”, the fact remains that at this point in time it most commonly refers to a system of gardening. If you were to sign up for a permaculture course at your local college you would expect to learn first and foremost about bioswales and rain catchement systems, not about the practice of animism, indigenous language, or other contributors to cultural sustainability. “Permies” also tend to be into natural building, such as cob, and ecovillages or intentional communities. Many peak oil proponents see permaculture as possible solution.
Sustainability, associated with the environmental or “green” movement, is a fine word. Sustainability is really what we are all looking for. Unfortunately sustainability is used by corporations to describe many practices which are most likely not sustainable, such as the importation of bottled water. Most Green technologies still require a global industrial economy to operate. For example the manufacture of photovoltaic panels and the batteries used to store the energy they produce is hardly a DIY project. Also regardless of source, electricity brings its own problems such as light pollution and electro-magnetic field disturbance which can have severe effects on human and animal health.
Survivalists. Then you have your classic libertarian, gun-nut, cache-hiding, government-distrusting, paramilitary survivalist types. These types are somewhat concerned with wilderness skills but mainly in the context of preparing to defend their home territory and/or run and hide in a hostile situation (See Paladin Press). There are also survivalists such as Survivor Man who are concerned with skills and equipment that allow an individual to live long enough in an emergency to get rescued or make their way back to civilization, but do not particularly advocate living off the land long-term.
Ted Nugent- Straight-edge, Detroit rock star known for conservative political views and feverish promotion of conservation and hunting, esp. bowhunting. Defies categorization.
All of this brings me to my favorite word: rewilding. There will be those that disagree, but to me rewilding encompasses all of the above viewpoints and more. While the ultimate goal of rewilding can be described as the return to a hunter-gatherer way of life, or going beyond domestication, as some might say, since we can never truly go back, and the term is somewhat political in that it is implied that this way of life is better for humans and non-humans alike than what we have now, rewilding embraces movement toward a “more wild” way of living.
For some people this might include purchasing solar equipment and getting off the grid (green technology). They may not envision a glorious solar powered future, but are simply making a compromise between living a life closer to nature and temporarily leveraging the power of electricity to say, stay connected to other rewilders on the internet. For other’s rewilding might include preventing the construction of condos in a natural area (green anarchy), learning how to weave a willow basket (primitive skills), planting an herb spiral (permaculture), or purchasing a gun (survivalism). No one person is capable of doing everything at once.
While pure wilderness survival may come in handy, rewilding recognizes that even after a monumental disaster, artifacts of civilization such as knives, clothing, cooking vessels, and shelter would be around for a long time and might as well be made useful (see Afterculture). In addition to classic “hard” primitive skills such as flintknapping, braintanning, and bowmaking, rewilding takes into account the “soft skills” of our ancestors, skills such as story-telling, community ritual, and child rearing. It is my belief that almost any aspect of civilized life from food to music to fashion to medicine can be rewilded. Where is your passion?
Love your disambiguation here, :1.
I’d also like to hear your take on the “woo-woo” communities (of which I currently belong): the witches, the neo-pagans, the New Agers, the Earth-based spiritual communities, Animists, and all other God-service-providers.
Do you have any experience within these communities?
Do you feel these communities are large enough or cohesive enough to warrant separate categorization?
How have they overlapped the Rewilding community, or is this part of the phase we Rewilders are in now? (I know I am exploring this side of life in community right now).
Also, do Burners fit into the Ted Nugent category with a sub-header of “explicitly not straight-edge”?
Thank you Emily, you defined a lot of terms that were ambiguous to me.
My Passion is living a life that is pleasing to God. I have found this has made me truly happy because my joy is not based on earthly things which in the end will pass away. “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away”
I have also discovered by living a life in obedience to God He has opened my eyes to a what is unseen to the world. Not only does life take on a new meaning because you are in tune to the rhythms of heaven itself. You see God’s handiwork in His creation, the creator and sustainer of all life.
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”(Psalm 37:4)
Nothing else can satisfy your Mind, body, soul and spirit as God can.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
”And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
This is a great entry.
I found your blog by way of your anarcho-primitivist stand-up routine on youtube, and coincidentally I’m a former UVM student, having dropped out a week ago.
My world was turned upside down several months ago after reading Jensen and watching Stimulator and running in circles with people who had similarly mind-blowing information to share. All of a sudden a UVM education wasn’t holding up to the one I was getting outside the classroom, and it seemed more logical to spend my time self-educating than pay a school thousands of dollars only to be miseducated.
This entry strikes a chord, as I’m now constantly having to explain myself and my atypical views to family, friends, and peers. It’s hard to put a label on my beliefs and interests, especially when they sound as combative as “green anarchy” or as ambiguous as “living sustainably.”
Without an innate interest in plant-life (I was a studio art major) but a genuine interest in gaining primitive skill sets and a sense of immediacy in rewilding, I’m not sure what my next step will be. I’m staying in Burlington for the time being, working a part time job, and slowly teaching myself and my friends about wild food foraging, gardening, bicycle maintenance, and building healthy communities.
I don’t know if I’ll go back to school or where I’ll end up in the future, but finding your blog and hearing your story was very, very cool, and it’s nice to know that someone else with a similar background and similar interests is making it work and making it look good. Kudos.
Christine.
Thanks for the posts. I am surprised to not know you already. Just stumbled on your site and like and agree with all here. Hope to talk to you at Winter Count or Rabbitstick sometime.
Christine-
So good to hear your story. Burlington is a great place for this stuff. Maybe not as strong a rewilding community, but a little easier to breathe in than Portland for a country girl like myself. I have fond memories of living in a fort in Centennial Woods and stealing into UVM to watch movies by myself on the big screen in the auditorium, starting my urban foraging career with cherries and grapes from the nearby houses, eating the blueberries growing in front of City market that for some reason no one else had touched, and dumpster diving Lake Champlain Chocolates. If you haven’t already check out the wilderness skills school http://www.rootsvt.com. It didn’t exist when I was around but I’ve heard good things about them. Best of luck! -Emily
p.s. there are lots of nettles along the roadside in the intervale somewhere near the big compost pile.
Paleotool- Beautiful site, nice photographs. Looks like I probably won’t make it to wintercount again this year, but I’ll keep an eye out for you at future gatherings!
Matt- Interesting question. I do not have contact with a lot of these crowds such as witches/pagans, but absolutely there are similarities between these communities. For example here in Portland I know there is some overlap between the old school Tracker School students and neo-shamanic practitioners since Tom Brown Jr.’s work is so spiritually oriented. On the other hand I have worked with quite a few shamanic practitioners who have nothing much to do with nature in our physical reality. Author James Endredy http://www.jamesendredy.com has coined the term ecoshamanism to differentiate between earth based practices and the rest. It is complex for some New Age types believe in infinite abundance, and to practice conservation would be to admit limitation. I ranted a little bit about this in my post The Spiritual Reformation of Civilization and Other New Age Bullshit: http://trackerofplants.com/2007/12/23/the-spiritual-reformation-of-civilization-and-other-new-age-bullshit/. I’d say since that post I have definitely become more solidly oriented in a spiritual practice, what with my intuitive plant medicine and herbal tarot readings, and would love to incorporate shamanic ritual and other types of spiritual healing into a wilderness therapy program someday.