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”.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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