Just because you didn’t mean it doesn’t mean your query didn’t suggest it as a presumption. Using words like “advanced” and then referring to various technologies implies this, as well as your other alternative of “totally primitive” involving making nothing. It suggests the idea of a level of purity in primitivism having to do with having/using less. We’ve had a great discussion recently about the conflation of some ascetic ideas with primitivism, which I suggest checking out. It’s in the “Dealing with non-believers” thread.
If I’m wrong there, I of course apologize, but it warrants mentioning.
On to the real dialogue:
I’m not sure how much complexity of tools would necessarily cause a recreation of civilization. Plenty of civilized people have used far less complex tools than hunter-gatherers. Look comparatively at the bows used by Roman troops and those used against them by the Huns. The Huns used bows more complex than the civilized people. Bow-drills, involving many parts, have been used by so many primitive peoples, and the far less complex flint and steel was standard for so many civilized counterparts. Early agriculturalists used the same sort of digging sticks that some foragers use to dig up roots.
Obviously, there is a point of complexity we just would be unlikely to recreate primitively, like microprocessors. But physical technologies like this aren’t the main factor in deciding our primitive living. If you haven’t already, check out the forums on ‘invisible technologies’. A new understanding of things like social interactions, our relationships with the world, and how we should organize ourselves are far more essential to primitive living than how we decide to start a fire.
As for my preferences? I might be optimistic to think I’ll be stationary, or even semi-nomadic, but the area I live in is pretty abundant, even with all the civilized folk around. Wigwams seem like good housing, especially since I have experience building them already. I should be able to get a fair amount of food from fishing weirs, since there are several fishing areas in within a few miles, even within a quarter mile, and building a little weir is easy. And not surprisingly, these fishing areas have plenty of “nature’s supermarket”, cattails, which are a great food source as well as a source of fibers and other materials. There’s also plenty of game to be had, including much I can use torsion, snare, and deadfall traps to get, and plenty of turkeys and deer to hunt with my composite bows. I’m also a decent gardener, and plan to grow a decent amount of the Three Sisters, as well as tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, chives, and a few other fruits, vegetables, and spices in small amounts. Am I missing anything? Well, that covers shelter and diet anyway. Those are the major technologies we tend to worry about.
