Many wild habitats are unique and quite localised. The information to survive there requires expert, local information.
This is definitely the case with many hunter-gatherers. They can not just move anywhere and remain as hunter-gatherers. Their knowledge of how to sustain themselves from the land is insolvably linked to the land from which they sustain themselves.
Even in bigger, more widely recognised habitats such as rainforest, savannah, temperate or boreal forest, there's a great amount of loval adaptation, both in vegetation and local terrain.
However well you know the common species which populate a specific habitat, getting to know your way around a specific area of wild country demands that you build up a mental map of the area and, over the passage of time the local knowledge that goes with this.
From a solely survival-oriented viewpoint you need to know where are the animal trails, the migration routes? Where do particular species of animal like to feed? Where is the best fishing? Where do particular species of useable trees and eatable plants grow?
Wherever you go, the people who know the land best are the local people. These are the folks that have spent time on the land, in the forests and on the water.
However good your general bushcraft and survival skills are, there is always much value in gaining the local perspective.
Even better gain discernment from natives, whose folk have lived close to the land since ancient times. Gaining aboriginal understanding is precious.
So it is when studying about particular environments, you must endeavour to incorporate the native viewpoint.
The interaction needed to gain this point of view goes miles past the typical insubstantial tourist experience. As an independent traveller, I have witnessed this superficiality from Scandinavia to Africa to Australia. Most travellers just don't want to know very much detail about indigenous cultures. They want to take a photograph and move on.
If you'd like to know more, this can be enormously maddening. If you would like to know as much as is possible, want to absorb the local information and the indigenous culture, you usually have to work harder to reach your goal.
As a result, we look to our native hosts to provide a view of their world which is both detailed and fair. We stay with them and we work to their timetable.
This effort is easily worth it, however as it imbues us with a view of the land, the terrain, the trees, the plants, the animals - the very nature of the country we are travelling through - that we'd otherwise simply not get.
This is definitely the case with many hunter-gatherers. They can not just move anywhere and remain as hunter-gatherers. Their knowledge of how to sustain themselves from the land is insolvably linked to the land from which they sustain themselves.
Even in bigger, more widely recognised habitats such as rainforest, savannah, temperate or boreal forest, there's a great amount of loval adaptation, both in vegetation and local terrain.
However well you know the common species which populate a specific habitat, getting to know your way around a specific area of wild country demands that you build up a mental map of the area and, over the passage of time the local knowledge that goes with this.
From a solely survival-oriented viewpoint you need to know where are the animal trails, the migration routes? Where do particular species of animal like to feed? Where is the best fishing? Where do particular species of useable trees and eatable plants grow?
Wherever you go, the people who know the land best are the local people. These are the folks that have spent time on the land, in the forests and on the water.
However good your general bushcraft and survival skills are, there is always much value in gaining the local perspective.
Even better gain discernment from natives, whose folk have lived close to the land since ancient times. Gaining aboriginal understanding is precious.
So it is when studying about particular environments, you must endeavour to incorporate the native viewpoint.
The interaction needed to gain this point of view goes miles past the typical insubstantial tourist experience. As an independent traveller, I have witnessed this superficiality from Scandinavia to Africa to Australia. Most travellers just don't want to know very much detail about indigenous cultures. They want to take a photograph and move on.
If you'd like to know more, this can be enormously maddening. If you would like to know as much as is possible, want to absorb the local information and the indigenous culture, you usually have to work harder to reach your goal.
As a result, we look to our native hosts to provide a view of their world which is both detailed and fair. We stay with them and we work to their timetable.
This effort is easily worth it, however as it imbues us with a view of the land, the terrain, the trees, the plants, the animals - the very nature of the country we are travelling through - that we'd otherwise simply not get.
About the Author:
Paul Kirtley is owner and chief instructor of Frontier Bushcraft, a leading bushcraft school. He also writes a highly-regarded bushcraft blog.
