Far left: Brenda Reynolds tans a deer hide. Left: natalie “Bogwalker” nicklett, who wears a dress she made from hides, teaches classes on making medicine from flowers.
ing. Okay, not nothing: I do create a few wisps of smoke. Yet every time I get close to success, I manage to sabo- tage myself. My spindle flips free of my bow. I press down too hard or not hard enough with my rock. I shift my foot and destroy my tiny baby coal. Tim, taking note of my ineptitude,
suggests that I use the full length of my bow, start slow and steady and then speed up at the end, rather than squandering my energy right away. I begin again, working that bow until I’m sweat-drenched, panting and in pain. Not even a wisp. Making fire is, evo-
lutionarily speaking, huge. You need fire to cook, and cooking, according to one theory, is what separated Homo erectus from plain old hominids. It’s arguably man’s most consequential achievement, and I can’t pull it off. I have flunked “Intro to Ignition.”
A
t breakfast the next morn- ing, I run into Bill Kaczor, the organizer of this woodsy shindig. Bill is one of the founders of Ancestral
Knowledge, a nonprofit whose slogan is “passing on ancient life ways.” With
his hipster glasses, Vans sneakers, and spiky hair, Bill doesn’t look like the back-to-nature type. Instead, he looks as if he should own a shop that sells skateboarding accessories — which, co- incidentally, is exactly what he did before starting Ancestral Knowledge. Back in his pre-primitive days, Bill
was a vegan. Now he hunts deer with bows and arrows he makes himself. Re- cently, he was grinding venison in his kitchen when blood spattered on his face. He turned to his wife and said, “I never imagined myself doing this.” I am not going to kill a deer with an
september 26, 2010 | The WashingTon PosT Magazine 19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174