Comments on: IshCon 2005, or, the Power of the Unexpected

By: Exploring the Tribal Network » The Anthropik Network

Exploring the Tribal Network » The Anthropik Network — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 23:24:35 +0000

[…] Jason has written of the breakthrough that occurred at Fall Ishcon. This event leads us to a new or different understanding of the New Tribal Revolution, in which tribes perform a mixture of subsistence and business-occupational activities. This leads to a few questions. How might this look? Are we talking about two discrete groups—occupational tribes which are only occupational tribes and subsistence tribes which are only subsistence tribes, or something more flexible? Can a tribal society actually be composed of a mixture of occupational and subsistence tribes? Or, to put it better, can a large tribal network perform both subsistence and occupational activities? […]

By: The Appalachian Confederation » The Anthropik Network

The Appalachian Confederation » The Anthropik Network — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 02:48:36 +0000

[…] The Great Breakthrough of IshCon 2005 was not only that primitivist and occupational tribes were compatible–but that they were complimentary. Occupational tribes are pursuing a course of trying to avert civilizational collapse by “changing minds.” Primitivists like myself find this effort to be laudable, but futile. However, the future is not entirely known to anyone, and the chance that collapse may yet be averted, while remote, is still non-zero. […]

By: Lauren

Lauren — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 19:16:24 +0000

Thanks for sharing all of this. I felt largely the same way about the union of both of your ideas and formation of a “Tribe of Tribes” even though I understood it from an outsiders perspective rather than being involved in the interchange from the beginning. It really is beautiful the way things work out.

By: Steve Thomas

Steve Thomas — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 15:31:12 +0000

Jason–

Excellent stuff.

Quick criticism (cause that’s what I do) about occupational tribes: I don’t think it’s quite accurate to say that they have the same chance of surviving as anyone else. Members of occupational tribes have one huge advantage over the mass of society: a group of people already committed to each other’s survival.

Another thought: There’s no reason (I think we’ve actually discussed this before…) that there even should be a sharp distinction between “occupational” and “foraging” tribes. The “ecological” issue is at the forefront of everyone’s mind, including occupational tribalists. We are probably all best off opting for as broad a strategy as possible: An occupational tribe who tended a functioning permaculture system on whatever land the group had access to and practiced wilderness skills as often as possible.

This is incredible stuff. Wish I had been there. (Damn this fucking war.)

By: Gus

Gus — Fri, 03 Jun 2005 04:33:17 +0000

This has also been happening for some time at Burning Man in the NV desert, and you could sort of consider the regular Renaissance Faires to be a version of this phenomenon…