Measuring from early adulthood, there's basically two active generations at any one time that are capable of passing the material culture down. That's the window for reliable cultural transmission. Some of the stuff the hippies rescued from extinction was so far gone only a handful of people in their eighties still had a mastery of the trade in question, so they really plucked those from the jaws of ruin.
I am non-plused that in an article about hippies that also directs people to learn more about what we think the early medieval period was like and focuses on the efforts to regain old skills and finding your way in a lost world you didn’t once mention the Society for Creative Anachronism, the intersection point of all of those. It’s awful as a re-enactment group (too broad) but it is truly that interesection and served that role not just for hippies but a good deal of GenX.
As for folk rock being longer lived in the UK it’s still very much alive with both stalwarts like Steeleye Span still performing along side modern heirs like The Unthanks or, over in Germany, Faun. And until 2016 (was that really 8 years now) we had Bellowhead.
I oddly grew up in the shadow of the SCA, but never ran into that side of it. Everyone I knew was a combat and/or courtly te-enactor. The trades obsessives I knew were all Renfaire folk
"So we can hit reset on that one. We are now, once again, two generations from technological extinction"
Can you explain this a bit more? What specifically is causing that timeliness of two generations? Is it another cycle of "old ways dying out"?
Measuring from early adulthood, there's basically two active generations at any one time that are capable of passing the material culture down. That's the window for reliable cultural transmission. Some of the stuff the hippies rescued from extinction was so far gone only a handful of people in their eighties still had a mastery of the trade in question, so they really plucked those from the jaws of ruin.
Oh ok, I see, that makes me think of those Fox Fire books!
Indeed!
They are the product of just what Dan was writing about.
This post was a feast! Thank you.
You've explored this homebrew world much more than I have. Ever been to Pennsic?
https://www.pennsicwar.org/2023/02/pennsic-university/
Nope, this is my first time hearing about it that I recall. Will check it out!
Well, that explains the question I had in my note.
"too stupid to make toilet paper?
Shit man"
In a world without toilet paper? Have you lost your shit?
I am non-plused that in an article about hippies that also directs people to learn more about what we think the early medieval period was like and focuses on the efforts to regain old skills and finding your way in a lost world you didn’t once mention the Society for Creative Anachronism, the intersection point of all of those. It’s awful as a re-enactment group (too broad) but it is truly that interesection and served that role not just for hippies but a good deal of GenX.
As for folk rock being longer lived in the UK it’s still very much alive with both stalwarts like Steeleye Span still performing along side modern heirs like The Unthanks or, over in Germany, Faun. And until 2016 (was that really 8 years now) we had Bellowhead.
I oddly grew up in the shadow of the SCA, but never ran into that side of it. Everyone I knew was a combat and/or courtly te-enactor. The trades obsessives I knew were all Renfaire folk
They were possibly the same people that were also SCA trade side.
Lots of overlap in the Rennie/SCA/Boffer LARP world.