Your definition of sustainability...?

[creaker]

I think we've gone beyond the need for sustainability--we are at the point where the buzzword should be "regenerative."

....

I'd rather think of it as "a sustainable society is one in which we contribute actively to supporting the natural ecological systems which, in turn, support us."

I'm reading a book "1491" - some of the things put forward are not agreed upon by different people in the field, but the author makes the case that a lot of the "bountiful" found here when folks arrived from Europe was due to extensive land and ecological management done by the native populations before diseases brought in by the Europeans decimated their numbers. Not sure if all the theories hold up, but it builds an impressive picture of sustainable living.

[Ultralight]

creaker:

I think that living the way most Native Americans lived in the Americas before the European invasion is probably one of only a very few sustainable ways to live. I think you have to go stone age. haha

[bae]

I think that living the way most Native Americans lived in the Americas before the European invasion is probably one of only a very few sustainable ways to live. I think you have to go stone age. haha

My mother-in-law and father-in-law are both anthropologists, specializing in the US. I have spent decades with them on field expeditions. I think it's a great mistake to frame things as "the way most Native Americans...". There were/are in reality so many different cultures and practices that you run the danger of romanticizing and overly simplifying your analysis.

[Ultralight]

My mother-in-law and father-in-law are both anthropologists, specializing in the US. I have spent decades with them on field expeditions. I think it's a great mistake to frame things as "the way most Native Americans...". There were/are in reality so many different cultures and practices that you run the danger of romanticizing and overly simplifying your analysis.

I know there were like 500 different nations. So they all had major differences. But the fact is that things were nowhere near as F-ed up as Europe. And there is only so much damage you can do stone age style.

[freshstart]

Native Americans and "stone age style" seems contradictory to me

[Ultralight]

Native Americans and "stone age style" seems contradictory to me

I am not a Professor of Native American Studies, but I don't think many (if any) Native American tribes from what is now the US had metallurgy of any kind.

[bae]

I am not a Professor of Native American Studies, but I don't think many (if any) Native American tribes from what is now the US had metallurgy of any kind.

They did. Copper mostly. The Makah village here in Washington state that was well-preserved by a pre-contact landslide has all sorts of metal tools, for example.

Here are some copper tools from Wisconsin, 3000BC->1000BC

[Ultralight]

Wow... Interesting stuff. Thanks for the info.

[bae]

Wow... Interesting stuff. Thanks for the info.

For some interesting First Nations-based models of sustainable living, you might find it worthwhile to look into some of the peoples of the Pacific NW coastal region.

Here's a start of a bunny trail:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch

[Ultralight]

Awesome, thanks.

You are a real character, bae. I never know what to expect from you!