Characteristics of wild

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance
#1

Okay, so I have a thought.
The Mongolian/Chinese book, Wolf Totem, concluded with the issue of the national characteristic of the Chinese.
So I thought, what characteristics do more wild people share, do more domesticated people share? Also, people can mean other plants and animals. For instance, the characteristics of the wild variety and domestic variety of a plant, and even, those in the middle (feral).

Furthermore, cultures puts a lot of emphasis on characteristics that make the desired society more functional, and those less functional. For example, hardworking/productinve and the corollary, lazy.
Of course, some may not fit this black and white relationship, so lets hunt those down too. What characteristics do you see as functional/disfunctional to a rewilding society?

#2

functional: communal, sharing, tolerant (of thought, though not of all actions), respectful

disfunctional: isolationist, miserly, totalitarian, apathetic

Basically, everything you’ve been told you should be in Western society, but nothing you’ve got a good example of. It’s not as black and white as that, of course, there are plenty of ways to be functional and lacking respectfulness of many things, but the less respect for the wild environs that is shown, the less it returns back. It is impossible to be a wild human and not share - one will be sharing everything before too long, because it’s definitely possible to be wild and dead at the same time!

That the kind of response you’re looking for? I’m not up on Chinese anything so I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, haha.

#3

Thanks for sharing GC.

That definitely fits under the topic at hand.

Heres one from me

Domestic chicken:
superior feed-to-egg conversion ratio.
Rarely broody (tendency to actually sit on it’s eggs).
Early to mature
Bares confinement well

feral/Game chicken:
can be broody;
protective mother
slow to mature
needs to be active;
less tolerant of close confinement;
aggressive
efficient foragers

#4

What keeps coming to mind for me, similar to part of what GC said, is the issue of connection. Undomesticated people are deeply connected to the earth, domesticated are detached. I’m thinking that a wild person’s connection to the earth implies connection to others as well, because they are a part of the earth to which he/she is connected.

Detachment breeds isolation, aloneness. Connection fosters contentment.

#5

Amen to that. The more I think about rewilding the more I realize that it seems to be more about connection than anything else. Connection to the earth, to the plant, to the animals and to each other.

I read someplace that claimed the downfall of communities was the invention of air conditioning. Before we had air conditioning the only way to escape the heat was to do outside and that got us to meet each other. But with air conditioning we now stay inside to escape the heat.

Another person claimed it was the invention of garage door openers. Now we can opne the garage door from inside our cars pull into the garage and close it and never have really been outside. No chance of meeting our neighbors, no chance of having to deal with the weather.

Both of these have the same common theme. We lose our connection to the world around us.

#6

Connect and respect!

These two sound great. Sounds like a rewilding culture would want stories that teach respect and build connections to the circles of life around us.

#7

While looking into primitive (or “unimproved”) sheep breeds, I found that they have easier births and better mothering skills than more recently developed breeds where the shepherd has to help with the birth and sometimes the ewe has problems nursing her lamb. Also, animals in zoos have more trouble birthing and rearing healthy babies than their wild brothers and sisters.

The other day, I contemplated why some human babies have a hard time latching and breastfeeding and why many babies come out with the umbilical cord around their necks or breech birth, hemorrhaging, or any other number of dangers. Then the thought about the sheep came to mind. I wonder if human birth complications arise from generations of physical domestication (like the sheep), combined with the stress of captivation (like with the animals in zoos).

I very much encourage women to have more wild births, but I think if we treat ourselves as animals emerging from a long line of domestication, we will have a better idea of what to expect during birth and also not let a tragedy (or even a home birth that turns into a c-section), dishearten us from returning to wildness.

#8

Good point, Sarah. I’ve wondered about why sheep seem to abandon their babies so often - it made me suspect that they didn’t want the babies, as a result of the unnaturalness of domestication / the practices of sheep farmers. It would also make sense if their genes (and therefore minds and bodies) have been messed with by human breeding. We see that a lot with domesticated plants, how they can’t reproduce very well without human help.

#9

Thanks for the kudos.

I was definitely trying to convey those two words.

Though, I can’t help but think that being out in the wild, while it’s our natural habitat, isn’t anything more than just another way of doing the same thing. We’re born, we live, we die. The quality of the life in between birth and death is the only real variable… even if that’s overly simplistic.

I’ve been thinking about things a lot lately. More than usual. Part of the reason why I find it so hard to put in dirt time is because there’s no one but myself to do it with. I went to a knap in and got the distinct feeling that I was just one of the unwashed masses, to be cajoled and humored to get me to drop a buck here or there, like a mark for a pickpocket or a carney. I felt very much out of place and not part of the crowd… well, the right crowd, anyway, because there was definitely a crowd. I was greatly disappointed; I was expecting people to be far more congenial. They seemed to want to sell rocks more than teach or show. I did ask a lot of questions, though. I suppose I can only be taken seriously by picking up a rock, which brings this paragraph around full circle.

And there’s a point to this in here somewhere. I can only answer as far as I can imagine, because I haven’t got the dirt time to speak from experience. I only HOPE that connection and respect are two very major ideas that will be left in man when there is only 1% of us left.

I just read a paper from Ted Kaczinski (yes, that guy) aiming at the myth of the perfect wild. He was really trying to inject some reality into the minds of anarcho-primitivists (and specifically John Zerzan) and explaining that it is not all “go out and get roots and a pig,” like they’re used to going to the grocery store for. It’s hard, even for someone who knows what they’re doing. Albeit I think he approached it in the wrong way by living by himself as a hermit, but then that’s where community comes in with the connection and respect.

There’s no tribe. Need it. Can’t do it by ourselves no matter how hard we think we can, and we need sharing, connection, and respect for all involved (especially the environs), and to be prepared to give it all back.

@Sarah: Breech births happened, it’s just that it got bred out of us by the extremely high mortality rate involved. It probably happens a lot more now than it used to because of the fact that people survive them far more often in the Western World™. One can only hope that some of that sharing involves sharing of midwife knowledge so that people know that a c-section is possible and how to do it right!

#10

Glass windows, carpets, sleepers, … the list is endless. Anything that makes a house more comfortable than the outside in the daytime.

[quote=“Sarah Miles, post:7, topic:1526”]The other day, I contemplated why some human babies have a hard time latching and breastfeeding and why many babies come out with the umbilical cord around their necks or breech birth, hemorrhaging, or any other number of dangers. Then the thought about the sheep came to mind. I wonder if human birth complications arise from generations of physical domestication (like the sheep), combined with the stress of captivation (like with the animals in zoos).

I very much encourage women to have more wild births, but I think if we treat ourselves as animals emerging from a long line of domestication, we will have a better idea of what to expect during birth and also not let a tragedy (or even a home birth that turns into a c-section), dishearten us from returning to wildness.[/quote]
Like Jean Liedloff stated in the Continuum book: skin against skin vs. putting a machine between you and your son/daughter.

[quote=“GC, post:9, topic:1526”]Though, I can’t help but think that being out in the wild, while it’s our natural habitat, isn’t anything more than just another way of doing the same thing. We’re born, we live, we die. The quality of the life in between birth and death is the only real variable… even if that’s overly simplistic.

I’ve been thinking about things a lot lately. More than usual. Part of the reason why I find it so hard to put in dirt time is because there’s no one but myself to do it with.
(…)
I suppose I can only be taken seriously by picking up a rock, which brings this paragraph around full circle.
(…)
There’s no tribe. Need it. Can’t do it by ourselves no matter how hard we think we can, and we need sharing, connection, and respect for all involved (especially the environs), and to be prepared to give it all back.[/quote]

Some weeks ago i met some guy who after getting a job, was seeking for something to do in his spare time instead of just drinking beer. And i think it is the same with most of civ people, in one way or another. Everything is so disconnected from life that people can not feel but walking in the dark.

For me is exactly the same about dirt time. I want to do so many things, to practice so many different skills, but doing anything alone is so boooring and unnatural that most of the time i just waste the time or keep on making research instead of practicing what i already know.

I think rewilding is not so much about keeping a job and paying for primitive skills and seminars, … but about getting physically together with the alike and recovering back the connection between people that used to be natural to us before all this domestication. So many people focus on mastering some primitive skills to the extreme while keeping a regular civ life … while in many civilized countries people you know don’t even say “good morning”, never say directly what they think, … so much “thanks”, “please”… and so many “sorry” for just brushing somebody’s arm while crossing in the street. So much romantic writing about peace and joy in the lap of the Mother, but what we need is just to get out there and really get together.
So many people like Ted Kaczinski and this guy from “Into the Wild” going alone to live in the forest… but not so many tribes not connecting to the environment, but even connecting to each other.

Wild human vs. domesticated human:
hugging vs. “good morning”
everything connected and related vs. everything separated (as the different rooms in a house)
taking care of self look vs. practical clothing, hair cut, footwear… (my mother used to say: “been i warm, let the people laugh”… rhymes in my mother language)
doing stuff that makes sense, watching the result vs. doing only senseless tasks, not connected directly to life
wanting to be closely surrounded by more humans vs. extreme individualism.