Introduction
For hundreds of thousands of years Homo sapiens lived a lifestyle that for the most part changed very little and looked a lot different compared to how we live today. This lifestyle was largely based on a hunter-gatherer form of subsistence where people lived in small, tight-knit, dispersed tribal communities, and depended on their hunting and foraging skills to survive. Today, due to the advent of agriculture, civilization, industry, and technology we no longer live in tribal communities or rely on hunting and gathering to survive. The general consensus is that this transition from hunter-gatherers to our modern form of existence is a good thing and thus often labeled as “progress”. Taken at face value most people will look at the comfort, and convenience that modern society provides and conclude that our lives today are in fact better. But what happens if we go beyond a surface level analysis? How do we define progress? What is progress? If progress is our scientific understanding and sophistication of technology then it would be virtually impossible to argue otherwise but what if we were to use human health and well-being as our metric or the health of the planet and the other non-human plants and animals that call earth home or the long term sustainability of a way of life? Viewed from these perspectives the answer becomes a lot less certain. Human rewilding is largely based on the belief that at least some of these changes in lifeways, and society are not good for us or the planet and it is therefore desirable to attempt to adopt some if not all of the lifeway characteristics of our wild hunter-gatherer ancestors. Not to be confused with ecological rewilding which is about restoring ecosystems to their wild states and excludes humans as part of that wild ecosystem, human rewilding is an acknowledgement that humans like every other animal evolved to live in a specific niche within the natural environment. Further this niche is the ideal environment for human flourishing. The path of rewilding is the quest to reclaim some of that lifeway and become more fully human.
Human Domestication
Implicit in the idea of human rewilding is the idea that humans are a domesticated species. In order to talk about human rewilding we must therefore first explore the idea of human domestication. When most people think about the idea of domestication they do not think about humans but will instead conjure up images of dogs, cats, cows, sheep, chickens, pigs etc. or put another way animals that were once wild and capable of surviving by themselves but can no longer survive without humans providing them with food and shelter.
To determine whether or not humans are domesticated we must first roughly define what it means to be domesticated. In order to do that we can look at the domesticated species listed above and parse out some of the common characteristics that make those species domesticated. From there we can use those common characteristics to determine if humans share some if not all of the same qualities and are therefore also domesticated. Based on the animals above some of the common characteristics are:
- Subsistence changes: Domesticated animals are no longer capable of providing for themselves through their own means
- Behavioral changes: Domesticated animals have altered behavior patterns, such as reduced aggression, increased docility, or changes in social structure
- Morphological changes: Domesticated animals may exhibit physical differences, such as floppy ears, smaller brains, or altered body shape, compared to their wild ancestors
Now let's look at the above criteria one at a time and see humans display the same changes:
Subsistence changes: Yes. Almost every single human in modern society is now dependent on a system of industrial farming for food. We have lost our ability to provide for ourselves
Behavioral changes: Yes. Our society now selects for docility and our hierarchical social structures are vastly different from the egalitarian tribal structures we once lived in.
Morphological changes: Yes. Modern humans today have smaller jaws, worse eyesight, less bone and muscle strength, and are on average significantly overweight. source 1, source 2, source 3
Based on the above we can conclude that human beings in at least some ways have in fact become a domesticated species. The one major difference between humans and the rest of the animals listed in the above example is that humans are the only species to self domesticate. Instead of relying on another species to provide for us we have created a system of industry and technology that provides for us. Despite the differences in the causes for domestication the end result is the same.
Human Rewilding
The easiest way to understand rewilding is to think about it as a spectrum with a fully domesticated animal on one end and a fully wild animal on the other end (visualized below). The idea of rewilding is that regardless of where you sit on the spectrum you are attempting to move farther towards the wild spectrum. A simple way to illustrate this spectrum is with dogs. All dogs descended from the wolf, the wild ancestor, but now there exists many dog breeds that fall on various areas of the spectrum. For example we can think of breeds like the poodle or tiny toy breeds on one end of the spectrum and then breeds like huskies, german shepherds and other dogs that more closely resemble the wolf on the other end. Humans, we would argue, are no different. On one end of the spectrum are people who live in urban environments and spend a significant portion of their time indoors, staring at a screen, eating unnatural processed foods, and on the other end of the spectrum are our wild hunter gatherer ancestors. Everyone falls somewhere on the spectrum between these two. Where you fall on this spectrum matters little; what does matter is the direction you are heading.
Why Rewild?
At this point you may be asking yourself why would anyone choose to rewild? What are the benefits? The reasons why someone would choose to rewild are different for each person. I know some people who chose to pursue rewilding for health benefits, while others for spiritual reasons, and still others for environmental concerns. The benefits of rewilding are too numerous to cover in this article so instead I’ll provide a scenario to illustrate the concept of how rewilding can benefit anyone. I want you to imagine a lion living in the savannah, totally wild, roaming for miles in a seemingly endless wilderness, hunting for its food, stalking through the tall grass to try and sneak up on its prey… Put simply, living as a lion was meant to live, how a lion has evolved to live. Now I want you to imagine that same lion in a zoo in San Diego getting its food delivered by a zoo keeper and restricted in movement to a small cage. And now ask yourself which of those two lions is going to be happier, healthier, and more fulfilled as a lion? It’s easy to see where I’m going with this. Although the circumstances of how we got to our cages are different, the practical impacts are none the less the same. Humans, like lions in this example, once lived in vast wildernesses and interacted directly with the environment to acquire the necessities to survive. Now many of us spend the majority of our days confined to artificial spaces in apartments or offices and instead of hunting and foraging now exchange money at a grocery store for our food.
Humans like every other animal evolved over millions of years to fit into a particular niche and live a particular way. It’s only in the last couple thousand years that we’ve started to drastically change our lifestyles and as a result are generally less content and less healthy. To use another metaphor humans are essentially fish out of water living in an environment that does not allow us to express our full humanness and disconnects us from who we are and I would argue is the root of the majority of the discontent we see in modern society. Rewilding has many positive benefits including making you healthier, happier, and more connected to nature but at its core rewilding is about something much deeper, it’s about reclaiming what it means to be a human.
How to Rewild?
There is no one right way to rewild and there are as many ways to rewild as there are people, how you go about your rewilding journey is unique to each individual. For my personal rewilding journey I find it helpful to first imagine a fuzzy target (hunter-gatherers) and then parse out some of the major themes of that lifestyle and work backwards to determine how I can incorporate some of those themes more fully into my life. At primal provisions we like to call those our primal tenets and are as follows:
Live Outside
On average modern humans spend 90% of their time indoors. If you're like the average human today, find ways to spend more time outdoors.
Move Often
Our ancestors did not have to think about exercise, their lifestyles were full of it. Movement is a requirement for robust health and well-being. Instead of “exercising”, create a lifestyle that incorporates movement into your daily life.
Always Natural
Modern industrialized products and food are full of chemicals and toxins that are detrimental to our health. Anything that goes in or on your body should come directly from a plant, animal, or the ground.
Find Community
Humans evolved living in small tribes and thrive in similar environments. Being a part of a community in whatever form it takes is critical for human flourishing.
Become Self Sufficient
Our ancestors were capable of surviving with only their minds, bodies, and whatever nature provided. Self sufficiency is a desirable goal that leads to confidence, fulfillment, and security.
Do Hard Things
Constant comfort and convenience do not lead to a fulfilling life. Comfort and convenience paired with hard things creates a balanced life.
Seek Higher Purpose
Rituals, ceremonies, and a deep connection to something bigger than ourselves was a part of everyday tribal life. Like our ancestors we should strive to incorporate a higher purpose into our daily lives.
Pursue Freedom
Hunter gatherer societies did not understand the concept of work because for them there was no such thing. The things they did for "work" like hunting, fishing, gathering, and generally being outside are now things we do for fun. Strive to leave the rat race and unplug from the matrix.
Conclusion
Rewilding is not for the faint of heart, if you decide to pursue this path most people either won’t understand it or think you are embarking on a hopeless, impossibly idealistic quest. To capture the basic essence of the critiques of rewilding we can summarize those views as, society is moving in a particular direction and you can either flow with it or get taken by the current but there’s no reversing it. On a large civilization wide scale this may in fact be true, there’s no turning this ship around so to speak but that does not mean that you as an individual are powerless to make decisions about your own life. For the vast majority of us there still exists many opportunities to live a wilder life even within the confines of our modern society. I can say from personal experience the results of pursuing something that is congruent with your personal morality is rewarding beyond description. Yes you may be looked at as weird or non-conforming but ask yourself if you live in an unhealthy society do you really want to be considered an outstanding citizen in it? To drive the point home I’ll end with a quote by Aldus Huxley.
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
Rewilding Resources
If you’ve made it to the end and the idea of rewilding intrigues you the following is a short list of resources to help you explore the idea of rewilding more fully.
A New Path by Arthur Haines: If you’re going to buy one book about human rewilding, this is it. Arthur does a great job of explaining in great detail the different areas of rewilding while also supporting the benefits with scientific research.
Rewild Yourself Podcast by Daniel Vitalis: this is a great interview based podcast that interviews various experts on strategies and tactics for how to “rewild yourself.”