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Sun 22 May, 2005 05:44 am
They say that the neanderthal man could not make fire, but he was smart enough to harvest it from burning bushes and sustain it for later use.
The homo sapiens could make fire. He knew how to use twigs or flint rocks.
We are homo sapiens, but I wondered, upon recieving this information, how many of today's homo sapiens know how to make fire without matches or a lighter? How many would freeze to death before they could get a fire going were the need to rise?
How many can make clothes if they can't buy wool or fabric?
How many can hunt or harvest food any other place than the shopping mall?
How many can build good shelters?
How many know how to survive outdoors?
I don't know where I'm going with this. There are many things to make of it. One is that we have become consumers addicted to the lifestyle we're adapted to. Depressing. What do you think?
I couldnt even make decent wine. There was a chapter about SPecialization in skills and leisure.
I think i'll go avail my self of the stream of electrons which is poured into my humble kitchen on a constant basis and use it to produce a cup of coffee without the least resort to mere fire.
I couldn't make change had my grandmother not decided to knock it into my dense, Hibernian skull . . .
I stuck a pin into a wall socket as a kid. got burned real bad. Give me idea how to start fire. Really painful though. Hmmm, get brother. He do anything I tell him.
What a truly evil lad you were . . . reminds me of my brothers.
i believe it's called technology!
[you simply use it; understanding it is for 'others'!]
We are currently adapted to live in an environment of specialists, which allows all of us a better lifestyle than if each of us had to do everything ourselves. That said, I know how to start a fire, grow food, build a shelter, and clothe myself if necessary. There are plenty of people with various survival skills and resources who could teach others in case of disaster.
are there no other boy scouts here? fire? easy.
Knowing how to make fire
Its easy, just rub two sticks together.
and actually doing it are two different things.
I remember trying that as a kid. An hour of rubbing and no fire. (They did get hot.)
Now I figure a variation on the bow and stick would work much better. Throw a dowel into the cordless drill and crank it up to full speed.
Luckily people don't live alone. As long as one person in your band knows how to make fire, you're doing all right.
Perhaps more useful is keeping the band from falling apart. Just ask John and Paul.
What I find interesting is that some of the most "successful" hunters and gatherers of today are among the least likely to be able to do things like make a fire from sticks.
ie: actors, pop stars, infomercial mavens...some of the people with the very most money are the most practically...useless?...in a way...
weird. like a wealthy infomercial tycoon. gotta be one of the most useless types going today. yet they get wealthy.
what has happened to survival of the fittest? infomercial tycoons and schiester businesspeople are the fittest of our time? they are the dominant mammal that has replaced smart cavemen who tamed fire?
what is that?
The male lion doesn't do squat, and yet he eats very well.
We should all be as smart as the male lion.
Lions in general don't do squat: when researchers in Kenya started setting up night camera operations, they found that lions most commony run hyenas off their kills, and that they will slink around behind hyena packs waiting to steal the kill. The females will then rush the kill, and the cubs are unlikely to get anything to eat, unless the male drives off the females so that the cubs can eat.
Small wonder that hyenas have small backsides and powerful necks and jaws--countless generations must have been backed into a corner and obliged to defend themselves against theiving lionesses . . .
Society is based upon the sharing of skills.
Having said that, it is still wise to maintain a level of selfsufficiency; however, frequently, knowing where to draw the line in personnal knowledge vs skill exchange, is the point where the benefits of society lead us into a more richly textured existence.
[knowing how to make fire is a fairly simple, and attainable skill; even assembling a computer is more a matter of mechanical ability than technical wizardry; but if each of us were preparing our own vehicle, complete with provisions, telecommunications equipment, and navigational skills, for a trip to Mars...............................]
Extra medium wrote:
Quote:what has happened to survival of the fittest? infomercial tycoons and schiester businesspeople are the fittest of our time? they are the dominant mammal that has replaced smart cavemen who tamed fire?
That is the survival of the greediest. These people make a lot of noise in the world, but they haven't got any more control than anyone else. They get a lot of attention because what they have so many of us think we want. But generally they are not the makers and breakers of fortune. We do that ourselves.
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