Modern Hunter-Gatherers: The Policy of Enough

The Wisdom of Ancient Ways

For the greater part of human history, we have been hunter-gatherers, living off and of the land. We didn’t see ourselves as owning the land, but as part of it and the rest of nature.
Hunter-gatherers are aware of the natural rhythms of the world in which they live. They understand the cycle of seasons and life. They only take what they need and focus on providing for themselves what they need now, rather than accumulating surplus for an unknown future, yet they think ahead to what they are leaving for future generations.
Most importantly, they see themselves as part of the environment in which they live, part of the ecosystem as whole. Compare this to the view of most “modern” humans, living as if we are separated and isolated from the environment and unaware of our ultimate dependence on it.

Three Principles for Modern Application

Cyclical v. Linear Thinking

Hunter-gatherers understand the natural rhythms of their environment and work with them. In our “civilized” world, we fight the seasonal rhythm and demand whatever we want, when we want it, depending on continuing growth to sustain our economies and lifestyles.
Think about seasonal foods. Hunter-gatherers eat seasonally, working with nature to produce food efficiently, whereas most of us expect to get whatever we want all year round. This comes at a cost to the environment because we transport out-of-season foods great distances, or produce them in artificially heated and lit conditions, in both cases, inefficiently consuming natural resources.
Hunter-gatherers also work within longer-term cycles, allowing for regeneration of the natural resources they depend on. For example, they may hunt for a particular food in one area for a season, then work another area the following season, allowing the first to recover and replenish.
The “growth forever” philosophy of the modern era is far from the sustainability thinking of the hunter-gatherer. The linear thinking concept of perpetual growth is out of whack with the fact that we live on an isolated planet in the vacuum of space; a closed system with finite resources with which to sustain us, and natural regenerative systems that can only function at a certain rate to restore the damage we do to it.

Reciprocity and Restraint: The Policy of Enough

Reciprocity and restraint involves taking only what is needed, maintaining a balance with natural systems. This is what I call the policy of enough.
In personal practice, the policy of enough involves distinguishing between what is a genuine need and what is a manufactured want. It also involves thinking about how much is needed, rather than taking more just because it is there. Does anyone remember the toilet paper panic during the pandemic?
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) has a philosophy known as the seventh generation principle. Under this principle, any decision they take must take into consideration the impact that it will have on their descendants seven generations into the future. Seven generations could be about 200 years. Thinking about the consequences of our actions 200 years into the future would profoundly change our way of life and the way we consume.
Unfortunately, our “civilized” society often has trouble seeing past the middle of next week! If we could evolve to think 200 years into the future as the hunter-gatherers do, we would understand the importance of only taking enough for our current needs, leaving enough for our descendants.

Embedded Systems Awareness

Hunter-gatherers are aware that they are part of the ecological and social systems in which they exist. This is in contrast to modern industrialised society where we see nature as a resource to be exploited; something apart from us that we control.
Embedded systems awareness means that when I go to the supermarket to buy a tomato, I am aware of the natural and social systems involved in getting that tomato to the supermarket shelf. I understand that it is out of season, so it was grown in an artificially heated greenhouse and transported a great distance to get to me, burning fossil fuels and producing harmful emissions during that growing and moving. I know about the fungicides and insecticides that kept it looking unnaturally perfect. I am aware of the social conditions in which that tomato is brought to me; the low-waged greenhouse workers, and the trucker driving exhausting hours, not to mention the store worker stocking the shelves. I decide to leave the tomato and buy something else.

The Modern Hunter-Gatherer

Modern hunter-gatherers are the people who are aware of, and are consciously a part of the natural and social systems that they exist in. They know how and where the goods and services they consume are produced, who produces them, who profits, and where they go when done with. They make their choices based on that knowledge, refusing to accept those things that are going to leave a worse world for their descendants to live in. They know that every decision they make now will have a consequence for the future, and decide in the future’s favour. They are aware that Planet Earth is a closed system, finite in its ability to provide resources and in its ability to absorb harm.
Modern hunter-gatherers are aware that health, prosperity and wellbeing are intimately connected to the state of the larger systems they are embedded in. This awareness leads to different choices, not from guilt or obligation, but from real understanding of that interconnectedness and the consequences of their choices “to the seventh generation”.
I am trying to live by that philosophy and I’m hoping that some of my readers will see the value of doing so too. I would like to see a movement of like-minded modern hunter-gatherers grow and prosper, forming local, national and global communities, supporting each other in a common aim of protecting the wellbeing of humanity and the natural world of which we are one part.
In future articles, I’ll be looking at how this growth may happen, how the social tensions such a movement will create may be overcome and what the practical outcomes might be.
In the meantime, reader, what do you think? Are you on board? What challenges, what solutions do you see? Your comments below will help me to develop this theme in future articles.

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