Comments on: The Wandering Free Families http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/ Embrace Heritage Skills from Your Tribal Past Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:42:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 By: The Anthropik Network » Rewilding Humans http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-22041 The Anthropik Network » Rewilding Humans Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:46:23 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-22041 [...] The basic social foundation of wild (and feral) life is the family—bands and tribes are simply fancy terms for those. Domesticated societies invariably try to cast themselves in a metaphor of family: Roman emperors justified their authoritarian rule as the Pater patriae, the father of the Roman people, and perpetuated a familial model of domination and coercion down to the cruel Roman Pater familias; more recently, George Lakoff’s work on “frames” has discussed the dividing line between “liberals” and “conservatives” between metaphors of government as a nurturing mother or a stern father, respectively; Derrick Jensen has drawn many haunting parallels between the dynamics of civilization and the dynamics found in abusive families. If civilizations are abusive, dysfunctional families, then rewilding is the process of creating healthy, well-adjusted, nourishing families. As Willem Larsen wrote so beautifully about “The Wandering Free Families“: Imagine this: you, your parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, mothers and fathers, children, cousins, second cousins, your whole extended family, has lived the life of a year-round summer camp for as long as you remember. You live together, resolve conflicts, and support one another as best you can, as a family. Your in-jokes have become the stuff of legend, your artistic styles have inspired each other, for countless generations you have collaborated on a vital and celebratory family culture that you enjoy. You make decisions as a community, relying on the wisdom of those you trust. The smallest child contributes to voice of the community as a whole. No police, no bureaucracy, no institutions…instead you have taboos, family consensus processes, and traditions. A Free Family, living your life on the land. … [...] […] The basic social foundation of wild (and feral) life is the family—bands and tribes are simply fancy terms for those. Domesticated societies invariably try to cast themselves in a metaphor of family: Roman emperors justified their authoritarian rule as the Pater patriae, the father of the Roman people, and perpetuated a familial model of domination and coercion down to the cruel Roman Pater familias; more recently, George Lakoff’s work on “frames” has discussed the dividing line between “liberals” and “conservatives” between metaphors of government as a nurturing mother or a stern father, respectively; Derrick Jensen has drawn many haunting parallels between the dynamics of civilization and the dynamics found in abusive families. If civilizations are abusive, dysfunctional families, then rewilding is the process of creating healthy, well-adjusted, nourishing families. As Willem Larsen wrote so beautifully about “The Wandering Free Families“: Imagine this: you, your parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents, mothers and fathers, children, cousins, second cousins, your whole extended family, has lived the life of a year-round summer camp for as long as you remember. You live together, resolve conflicts, and support one another as best you can, as a family. Your in-jokes have become the stuff of legend, your artistic styles have inspired each other, for countless generations you have collaborated on a vital and celebratory family culture that you enjoy. You make decisions as a community, relying on the wisdom of those you trust. The smallest child contributes to voice of the community as a whole. No police, no bureaucracy, no institutions…instead you have taboos, family consensus processes, and traditions. A Free Family, living your life on the land. … […]

]]> By: Nine Nations: Bioregionalism in North America (The Anthropik Network) http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-19236 Nine Nations: Bioregionalism in North America (The Anthropik Network) Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:30:00 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-19236 [...] Bioregionalism is by no means new, and if the sketchy connections to environmental determinism serve to cast a shadow on bioregionalism, its long-standing connections with nationalism in general, and the Nazi party specifically, are positively chilling. In the wild human mind, the two most important elements in life are family and land.8 Just as states have formed dysfunctional, abusive "families" that posit the state as some grandiose parent, so, too, has the natural biophilia9 (as E.O. Wilson calls it) or querencia (to use Kirkpatrick Sale's favorite word) been perverted into "nationalism," also known as, "patriotism." Consider how easily this love of one's ecology bleeds into nationalist jingoism, as exemplified in this Weimar-era pamphlet: In every German breast the German forest quivers with its caverns and ravines, crags and boulders, waters and winds, legends and fairy tales, with its songs and its melodies, and awakens a powerful yearning and a longing for home; in all German souls the German forest lives and weaves with its depth and breadth, its stillness and strength, its might and dignity, its riches and its beauty -- it is the source of German inwardness, of the German soul, of German freedom. Therefore protect and care for the German forest for the sake of the elders and the youth, and join the new German "League for the Protection and Consecration of the German Forest."8 [...] […] Bioregionalism is by no means new, and if the sketchy connections to environmental determinism serve to cast a shadow on bioregionalism, its long-standing connections with nationalism in general, and the Nazi party specifically, are positively chilling. In the wild human mind, the two most important elements in life are family and land.8 Just as states have formed dysfunctional, abusive “families” that posit the state as some grandiose parent, so, too, has the natural biophilia9 (as E.O. Wilson calls it) or querencia (to use Kirkpatrick Sale’s favorite word) been perverted into “nationalism,” also known as, “patriotism.” Consider how easily this love of one’s ecology bleeds into nationalist jingoism, as exemplified in this Weimar-era pamphlet: In every German breast the German forest quivers with its caverns and ravines, crags and boulders, waters and winds, legends and fairy tales, with its songs and its melodies, and awakens a powerful yearning and a longing for home; in all German souls the German forest lives and weaves with its depth and breadth, its stillness and strength, its might and dignity, its riches and its beauty — it is the source of German inwardness, of the German soul, of German freedom. Therefore protect and care for the German forest for the sake of the elders and the youth, and join the new German “League for the Protection and Consecration of the German Forest.”8 […]

]]> By: “The Savages are Truly Noble” (The Anthropik Network) http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-14081 “The Savages are Truly Noble” (The Anthropik Network) Thu, 10 May 2007 19:27:48 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-14081 [...] In oral societies, shamans exist to tend the boundaries between human and non-human communities, as ambassadors and negotiators with the non-human world. The "shamanic state of consciousness" that captivates Western imagination (as with the drug culture fascinated by the egregious hoax of Carlos Castenada) is merely a tool to this end. Michael Winkelman's work has shown how deeply shamanism is tied into the structures of the human brain,39 and we can further understand shamanism's effectiveness in terms of the kind of "thin slicing" Malcolm Gladwell discusses in Blink, if we bear in mind that shamanism actively cultivates such techniques, so that the gap that opens up is similar to someone tapping out a melody on his glass at a restaurant, compared to a world-class symphony. But most importantly, traditional shamanism exists only as part of a tribe, and as part of a larger relationship that binds family and land.40 The "plastic medicine men" of contemporary cultural appropriation, in a desperate search for something real and authentic, instead perform a final kind of cultural theft to follow the genocide and decimation of Native peoples by robbing them of what culture they have left. The Noble Savage provides a fantasy for Euro-Americans wishing to escape dilemmas of their own culture. Imitation of Native Americans and other appropriations of their identity have often accompanied this romanticization. In "The Tribe Called Wannabee: Playing Indian in America and Europe," Cherokee scholar Rayna Green does an excellent job of tracing this historical phenomenon of "playing Indian" from the Boston Tea Party to YWCA sponsored "Indian princess" programs. ... [...] […] In oral societies, shamans exist to tend the boundaries between human and non-human communities, as ambassadors and negotiators with the non-human world. The “shamanic state of consciousness” that captivates Western imagination (as with the drug culture fascinated by the egregious hoax of Carlos Castenada) is merely a tool to this end. Michael Winkelman’s work has shown how deeply shamanism is tied into the structures of the human brain,39 and we can further understand shamanism’s effectiveness in terms of the kind of “thin slicing” Malcolm Gladwell discusses in Blink, if we bear in mind that shamanism actively cultivates such techniques, so that the gap that opens up is similar to someone tapping out a melody on his glass at a restaurant, compared to a world-class symphony. But most importantly, traditional shamanism exists only as part of a tribe, and as part of a larger relationship that binds family and land.40 The “plastic medicine men” of contemporary cultural appropriation, in a desperate search for something real and authentic, instead perform a final kind of cultural theft to follow the genocide and decimation of Native peoples by robbing them of what culture they have left. The Noble Savage provides a fantasy for Euro-Americans wishing to escape dilemmas of their own culture. Imitation of Native Americans and other appropriations of their identity have often accompanied this romanticization. In “The Tribe Called Wannabee: Playing Indian in America and Europe,” Cherokee scholar Rayna Green does an excellent job of tracing this historical phenomenon of “playing Indian” from the Boston Tea Party to YWCA sponsored “Indian princess” programs. … […]

]]> By: The Fifth World Community » Blog Archive » The Importance of Participatory Performance Art http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-899 The Fifth World Community » Blog Archive » The Importance of Participatory Performance Art Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:59:55 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-899 [...] You don’t see this kind of problem with tribes, but you also see a very different social dynamic with tribes than you do amongst permaculture communities or anarchist collectives. Daniel Quinn distinguished between tribes and communes by pointing out that people in communes shared an ideology, whereas people in a tribe are making a living. I tend to think that it’s more accurate to think of a tribe in terms of families. Either way, if you ask them the secret to their success, they’ll point to their rituals, their stories–their art. If we observe indigenous tribes—both human and non-human—we notice that people come together regularly and cyclically. Perhaps they gather around the campfire each evening, singing songs at sunrise or the full moon, celebrating, perhaps, the first day of the summer. We also notice that everybody in the tribe participates. There are no rows of chairs where people sit down, watch, applaud the “performers” and then leave. [...] […] You don’t see this kind of problem with tribes, but you also see a very different social dynamic with tribes than you do amongst permaculture communities or anarchist collectives. Daniel Quinn distinguished between tribes and communes by pointing out that people in communes shared an ideology, whereas people in a tribe are making a living. I tend to think that it’s more accurate to think of a tribe in terms of families. Either way, if you ask them the secret to their success, they’ll point to their rituals, their stories–their art. If we observe indigenous tribes—both human and non-human—we notice that people come together regularly and cyclically. Perhaps they gather around the campfire each evening, singing songs at sunrise or the full moon, celebrating, perhaps, the first day of the summer. We also notice that everybody in the tribe participates. There are no rows of chairs where people sit down, watch, applaud the “performers” and then leave. […]

]]> By: Alpha Dogs, Wolf Packs & the Wandering Free Families (The Anthropik Network) http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-310 Alpha Dogs, Wolf Packs & the Wandering Free Families (The Anthropik Network) Wed, 15 Nov 2006 17:15:39 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-310 [...] In the modern world, we have some expressions that honor family connection ... "blood is thicker than water," for example. I know of none that get to the heart of the fundamental indigenous belief, that family holds all the roots of wealth (referring to its etymology): wholeness, wellness, health, and holiness.7 [...] […] In the modern world, we have some expressions that honor family connection … “blood is thicker than water,” for example. I know of none that get to the heart of the fundamental indigenous belief, that family holds all the roots of wealth (referring to its etymology): wholeness, wellness, health, and holiness.7 […]

]]> By: Revolution & Evolution (The Anthropik Network) http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-304 Revolution & Evolution (The Anthropik Network) Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:27:38 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-304 [...] If we are expecting 6.5 billion people to become primitivists in a grand revolution, we are setting ourselves up for failure. That will never happen. But the future belongs to the primitive. Our task is not to convert the world, but to begin building a new world here and now, to forge the relationships to make our tribes—our wandering free families, our functional cultures—now, while it is still a luxury, and not yet a necessity. Our task is to learn the skills of a new world: hunting, gathering, permaculture, and most importantly, how to relate to the other people in our human community, and how to relate to the non-human communities that surround us. We can wait until these things are necessary, and many people will slide into the new world without any conscious direction whatsoever, but that will be a much more difficult, and much riskier, prospect. But we shouldn't expect to ever be anything but a fringe of a fringe. We should never expect widespread acceptance. We must do all that we can to make sure as many people hear as are possible, but we must also accept that most people will simply choose not to hear. The future will be primitive, but it will not become so by revolution; it will be evolution. As Daniel Quinn said: If there are still people here in 200 years, they won't be living the way we do. I can make that prediction with confidence, because if people go on living the way we do, there won't be any people here in 200 years. [...] […] If we are expecting 6.5 billion people to become primitivists in a grand revolution, we are setting ourselves up for failure. That will never happen. But the future belongs to the primitive. Our task is not to convert the world, but to begin building a new world here and now, to forge the relationships to make our tribes—our wandering free families, our functional cultures—now, while it is still a luxury, and not yet a necessity. Our task is to learn the skills of a new world: hunting, gathering, permaculture, and most importantly, how to relate to the other people in our human community, and how to relate to the non-human communities that surround us. We can wait until these things are necessary, and many people will slide into the new world without any conscious direction whatsoever, but that will be a much more difficult, and much riskier, prospect. But we shouldn’t expect to ever be anything but a fringe of a fringe. We should never expect widespread acceptance. We must do all that we can to make sure as many people hear as are possible, but we must also accept that most people will simply choose not to hear. The future will be primitive, but it will not become so by revolution; it will be evolution. As Daniel Quinn said: If there are still people here in 200 years, they won’t be living the way we do. I can make that prediction with confidence, because if people go on living the way we do, there won’t be any people here in 200 years. […]

]]> By: The Anthropik Network http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-299 The Anthropik Network Wed, 27 Sep 2006 03:44:23 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-299 <strong>Dysfunctional Culture...</strong> I feel sorry for George Bush. It can't be easy to grow up in the shadow of a president—particularly when your mother is one of the most vile bitches in American history. Barbara's iconic image as "America's grandmother" hid the reality of ... Dysfunctional Culture…

I feel sorry for George Bush. It can’t be easy to grow up in the shadow of a president—particularly when your mother is one of the most vile bitches in American history. Barbara’s iconic image as “America’s grandmother” hid the reality of …

]]> By: The College of Mythic Cartography » Blog Archive » Cascadia: A State of Mind http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-231 The College of Mythic Cartography » Blog Archive » Cascadia: A State of Mind Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:50:02 +0000 http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2006/07/03/the-wandering-free-families/#comment-231 [...] In the sense of the Wandering Free Families, and as I mentioned before, I have no political ambitions for Cascadia. My cultural ambitions for her, however, have no bounds. A great tribe-of-tribes, family-of-families, lies at the horizon of my consciousness. Someday, one living room at a time, one hearth at a time, I see a whole new world replacing a dying old one. Cascadia and her people; the Land and her children. [...] […] In the sense of the Wandering Free Families, and as I mentioned before, I have no political ambitions for Cascadia. My cultural ambitions for her, however, have no bounds. A great tribe-of-tribes, family-of-families, lies at the horizon of my consciousness. Someday, one living room at a time, one hearth at a time, I see a whole new world replacing a dying old one. Cascadia and her people; the Land and her children. […]

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