As a follow up to my previous post reviewing the history and potential future of iron in human civilisation, I wanted to take my thoughts further by considering the practical alternatives to metallurgy and future possibilities that could open the door to whole new types of civilisations based on biology rather than technology.
Shane, I am intrigued by your statement, "The larger empires of the new world were just beginning to produce bronze tool heads around the time of European contact." Would you share your source for this? I am aware of "coppers", decorative, hammered copper panels in the North American Pacific coast cultures from the Tlingit in the north to the Salish in the south, and the Innuit groups that were called, "Copper Eskimo" by early European explorers, but I have not heard of any evidence for bronze smelting or casting technologies. I am less familiar with SA groups and the Inca clearly had extraordinary gold mining and working capabilities, so perhaps they were moving toward bronze metallurgy?
Це одна з багатьох тем, яка мене цікавить, як повернутися до своєї екологічної ніші, сприяючи не лише власному життю, а і всьому життю, яке підтримує твоє власне.
Сприяючи різноманітності, знаючи властивості цього біорізноманіття(ліки, їжа, ремесла), цикли(фенологія тваринної поведінки, розвиток рослин), кліматичні, грунтові, локальні ландшафтні особливості можна з легкістю, і я підкреслюю, з легкістю насолоджуватись перебігом життя.
Людські потреби насправді, нікчемні.
І саме деградація біотичного багатства змушує нас працювати так тяжко (бо не має контекстних видів розповсюджувачів, деградована мікробіологічна та мікологічна база, знищене біорізноманіття та грунт, клімат збожеволів тощо). Немає спільноти, немає безкорисних соціальних зв'язків, про які я чув і чую від власних родичів. Це все знищене.
Лише гроші є самоціллю кожного і єдиним мотивом для життя. Це не нормально.
Багато хто називає нас неробами та диваками(бо багато бур'яну і безгосподарний вигляд території), але без кінця плаче про тяжкість життя і відсутність грошей. Але є такі, які щиро прагнуть жити так само вільно, ні не від відповідальності чи обов'язків, у нас їх вдосталь, від сиситеми, яка надає майже ті ж засоби, для життя, які я отримую майже не використовуючи знаки вартості. Маючи 24/7/365 часу, яким я розпоряджаюся так як сам вважаю за потрібне. Маючи більше турбот, переживань, нервових зривів тощо.
Без хвилювання про майно, крім книг і пари цінних інструментів, про пенсію, яка мені не потрібна, про акції, а незабаром і електрику, від якої я швидше за все відмовлюсь, хоч і моє місячне споживання всього 6 кВт×год.
Єдине хвилювання це майбутнє, до якого все важче пристосовуватись і переживання про те чи встигну я передати знання і навички нащадкам.
Навіть смерть я готовий прийняти в спокої та смиренні...
"... Звідти не вертається ні бідний ні багатий, коли прийшла, кому пора, то треба – помирати. Тіло в могилу, покладуть, душа піде – "на небо". З собою багатства не візьмеш, бо там його – не треба..."
Translated for other readers, with no comment since I am completely resonant with your thoughts-
Thank you!! Very resonant!
This is one of many topics that interests me, how to return to your ecological niche, contributing not only to your own life, but to all life that supports your own.
By promoting diversity, knowing the properties of this biodiversity (medicine, food, crafts), cycles (phenology of animal behavior, plant development), climatic, soil, local landscape features, you can easily, and I emphasize, easily enjoy the course of life.
Human needs are actually insignificant.
And it is the degradation of biotic wealth that forces us to work so hard (because there are no contextual species of spreaders, degraded microbiological and mycological base, destroyed biodiversity and soil, crazy climate, etc.). There is no community, no useless social ties, which I have heard and hear from my own relatives. It's all destroyed.
Only money is everyone's end in itself and the only motive for life. This is not normal.
Many people call us idlers and weirdos (because there are a lot of weeds and the territory looks unmanaged), but they endlessly cry about the difficulty of life and the lack of money. But there are those who sincerely seek to live just as freely, not from responsibility or obligations, we have plenty of them, from the system, which provides almost the same means for life, which I get almost without using signs of value. Having 24/7/365 time that I use as I see fit. Having more worries, worries, nervous breakdowns, etc.
No worries about possessions, except for books and a couple of valuable tools, about a pension that I don't need, about stocks, and soon electricity, which I will most likely give up, even though my monthly consumption is only 6 kWh.
The only worry is the future, to which it is increasingly difficult to adapt, and worries about whether I will have time to pass on knowledge and skills to my descendants.
I am ready to accept even death in peace and humility...
"... Neither the poor nor the rich come back from there, when it comes, whose time it is, then it is necessary to die. The body will be put in the grave, the soul will go to "heaven". You will not take wealth with you, because it is not needed there. .."
Shane, A heavy hoe, whether lithic or steel , is pretty hard to replace IMO. Calif. has lots of lithic resources ,any lack thereof for knapping might be somewhat dependent on tectonics and volcanism where you happen to live. I have been hoeing out 100sq ft a day and have about 3000sq ft prepared . I have been enjoying the texture of the buckwheat cover crop I am working in. I am struggling in trying to explain it but the buckwheat is crisp . Some plants have tough stems and therefor difficult to hoe through and others are crispy and yield to my efforts at green manure and cover crops for building soil fertility.
A hoe is indispensable for hoeing, but hoeing itself may be unnecessary if our crops are further domesticated. I see hoeing and ploughing as a stop-gap method to open the door for semi-wild opportunistic crops. Maize is a rare example of a more fully domesticated crop. Hoeing would be useful for teosinte, but maize can be grown with just a long dibbling pole. The larger seeds allow corn to establish through a low ground cover of weeds (provided dense grasses are excluded). Crops with even larger seeds could be even more capable of out competing other plants. I quite enjoy hoeing, but I think I would also enjoy living in a world where it wasnt necessary at all.
I think of these as steps down the energy descent. Maintaining cover crops of legumes or buckwheat and lightly hoeing them back in is way less obtrusive than rototilling ,plowing or subsoiling your ground. I am willing to leave the edges rough because the weeds are seed fodder for birds and some things I forage like amaranth and tomatillo run wild around here. And for me gardening would be backup to foraging acorns in the event of zero electrics because the energy( EROI ) to return is so much better than trying to grow crops with very paltry precipitation.
Bruce - I also appreciate the tender, easily hoed buckwheat as a cover crop. Especially in contrast to annual rye! I've been selecting for a buckwheat that doesn't shatter so badly that I re-sow the entire patch when I harvest seed. I'd also like to see a more concentrated ripening window for the seed but haven't figured out how to select for that yet!
"Surface tin and bronze deposits usually occur far from each other..."
I'm sure you see the issue here. 😃
Shane, I am intrigued by your statement, "The larger empires of the new world were just beginning to produce bronze tool heads around the time of European contact." Would you share your source for this? I am aware of "coppers", decorative, hammered copper panels in the North American Pacific coast cultures from the Tlingit in the north to the Salish in the south, and the Innuit groups that were called, "Copper Eskimo" by early European explorers, but I have not heard of any evidence for bronze smelting or casting technologies. I am less familiar with SA groups and the Inca clearly had extraordinary gold mining and working capabilities, so perhaps they were moving toward bronze metallurgy?
Here is one source discussing the limited bronze working culture of the Aztecs- https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/aztec-bronze-metallurgy-in-mesoamerica.119652/. Various tribes in North America worked native copper until the reserves were depleted as well.
Дякую!! Дуже резонуюче!
Це одна з багатьох тем, яка мене цікавить, як повернутися до своєї екологічної ніші, сприяючи не лише власному життю, а і всьому життю, яке підтримує твоє власне.
Сприяючи різноманітності, знаючи властивості цього біорізноманіття(ліки, їжа, ремесла), цикли(фенологія тваринної поведінки, розвиток рослин), кліматичні, грунтові, локальні ландшафтні особливості можна з легкістю, і я підкреслюю, з легкістю насолоджуватись перебігом життя.
Людські потреби насправді, нікчемні.
І саме деградація біотичного багатства змушує нас працювати так тяжко (бо не має контекстних видів розповсюджувачів, деградована мікробіологічна та мікологічна база, знищене біорізноманіття та грунт, клімат збожеволів тощо). Немає спільноти, немає безкорисних соціальних зв'язків, про які я чув і чую від власних родичів. Це все знищене.
Лише гроші є самоціллю кожного і єдиним мотивом для життя. Це не нормально.
Багато хто називає нас неробами та диваками(бо багато бур'яну і безгосподарний вигляд території), але без кінця плаче про тяжкість життя і відсутність грошей. Але є такі, які щиро прагнуть жити так само вільно, ні не від відповідальності чи обов'язків, у нас їх вдосталь, від сиситеми, яка надає майже ті ж засоби, для життя, які я отримую майже не використовуючи знаки вартості. Маючи 24/7/365 часу, яким я розпоряджаюся так як сам вважаю за потрібне. Маючи більше турбот, переживань, нервових зривів тощо.
Без хвилювання про майно, крім книг і пари цінних інструментів, про пенсію, яка мені не потрібна, про акції, а незабаром і електрику, від якої я швидше за все відмовлюсь, хоч і моє місячне споживання всього 6 кВт×год.
Єдине хвилювання це майбутнє, до якого все важче пристосовуватись і переживання про те чи встигну я передати знання і навички нащадкам.
Навіть смерть я готовий прийняти в спокої та смиренні...
"... Звідти не вертається ні бідний ні багатий, коли прийшла, кому пора, то треба – помирати. Тіло в могилу, покладуть, душа піде – "на небо". З собою багатства не візьмеш, бо там його – не треба..."
Translated for other readers, with no comment since I am completely resonant with your thoughts-
Thank you!! Very resonant!
This is one of many topics that interests me, how to return to your ecological niche, contributing not only to your own life, but to all life that supports your own.
By promoting diversity, knowing the properties of this biodiversity (medicine, food, crafts), cycles (phenology of animal behavior, plant development), climatic, soil, local landscape features, you can easily, and I emphasize, easily enjoy the course of life.
Human needs are actually insignificant.
And it is the degradation of biotic wealth that forces us to work so hard (because there are no contextual species of spreaders, degraded microbiological and mycological base, destroyed biodiversity and soil, crazy climate, etc.). There is no community, no useless social ties, which I have heard and hear from my own relatives. It's all destroyed.
Only money is everyone's end in itself and the only motive for life. This is not normal.
Many people call us idlers and weirdos (because there are a lot of weeds and the territory looks unmanaged), but they endlessly cry about the difficulty of life and the lack of money. But there are those who sincerely seek to live just as freely, not from responsibility or obligations, we have plenty of them, from the system, which provides almost the same means for life, which I get almost without using signs of value. Having 24/7/365 time that I use as I see fit. Having more worries, worries, nervous breakdowns, etc.
No worries about possessions, except for books and a couple of valuable tools, about a pension that I don't need, about stocks, and soon electricity, which I will most likely give up, even though my monthly consumption is only 6 kWh.
The only worry is the future, to which it is increasingly difficult to adapt, and worries about whether I will have time to pass on knowledge and skills to my descendants.
I am ready to accept even death in peace and humility...
"... Neither the poor nor the rich come back from there, when it comes, whose time it is, then it is necessary to die. The body will be put in the grave, the soul will go to "heaven". You will not take wealth with you, because it is not needed there. .."
Shane, A heavy hoe, whether lithic or steel , is pretty hard to replace IMO. Calif. has lots of lithic resources ,any lack thereof for knapping might be somewhat dependent on tectonics and volcanism where you happen to live. I have been hoeing out 100sq ft a day and have about 3000sq ft prepared . I have been enjoying the texture of the buckwheat cover crop I am working in. I am struggling in trying to explain it but the buckwheat is crisp . Some plants have tough stems and therefor difficult to hoe through and others are crispy and yield to my efforts at green manure and cover crops for building soil fertility.
A hoe is indispensable for hoeing, but hoeing itself may be unnecessary if our crops are further domesticated. I see hoeing and ploughing as a stop-gap method to open the door for semi-wild opportunistic crops. Maize is a rare example of a more fully domesticated crop. Hoeing would be useful for teosinte, but maize can be grown with just a long dibbling pole. The larger seeds allow corn to establish through a low ground cover of weeds (provided dense grasses are excluded). Crops with even larger seeds could be even more capable of out competing other plants. I quite enjoy hoeing, but I think I would also enjoy living in a world where it wasnt necessary at all.
I think of these as steps down the energy descent. Maintaining cover crops of legumes or buckwheat and lightly hoeing them back in is way less obtrusive than rototilling ,plowing or subsoiling your ground. I am willing to leave the edges rough because the weeds are seed fodder for birds and some things I forage like amaranth and tomatillo run wild around here. And for me gardening would be backup to foraging acorns in the event of zero electrics because the energy( EROI ) to return is so much better than trying to grow crops with very paltry precipitation.
Bruce - I also appreciate the tender, easily hoed buckwheat as a cover crop. Especially in contrast to annual rye! I've been selecting for a buckwheat that doesn't shatter so badly that I re-sow the entire patch when I harvest seed. I'd also like to see a more concentrated ripening window for the seed but haven't figured out how to select for that yet!