Community
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Receive updates on new writing, events, skills gatherings, and the ongoing work of Human Rewilding.
Learn the Skills
James Van Lanen teaches traditional bushcraft and wilderness skills — flintknapping, hide-tanning, friction fire, primitive hunting, and more — to individuals, groups, and at gatherings across the western USA.
Events & Gatherings
Ancestral skills gatherings are where the rewilding community comes alive — hands in the dirt, fire by friction, skills passed person to person.
Earthkin Ancestral Skills Gathering
June 28 – July 5, 2026
Coast Mountains, BC · St'at'imc Territory
A week of camping on a wild mountain lake to practice ancestral earth-based skills — friction fire, hide tanning, willow weaving, shelter building, herbal medicine, and more — within an intergenerational circle of humans.
Between the Rivers Gathering
May 25 – 30, 2026
Northeastern Washington State
A week-long gathering focused on ancestral arts and self-sufficiency — from stone-age technology and wilderness survival to homesteading and sustainable living. Hands-on classes in flintknapping, buckskin tanning, friction fire, archery, wild edibles, and much more.
Rabbitstick Primitive Skills Conference
September 13 – 19, 2026
Rexburg, Idaho
Now in its 38th year, Rabbitstick is one of the longest-running primitive skills gatherings in North America — a week of immersive classes in stone-age technology, wilderness living, and the hands-on crafts that connect us to our shared human ancestry.
Read the Book
Human Rewilding in the 21st Century
Why Anthropologists Fail
2024 · Birch Top Hill Press
Drawing on anthropology, archaeology, and lived experience, this book lays out the case for abandoning the techno-industrial trajectory and reclaiming the indigenous ways of being which were the most socially and ecologically endurable — a practical and philosophical blueprint for human rewilding. The book is also an in-the-face response to rewilding's critics, particularly a certain cadre of anthropologists.
How to Get Involved
- Subscribe to the newsletter
- Read and share the books and articles
- Attend a skills class
- Organize a local reading group or skills gathering
- Reach out to connect: jamesvanlanen.com/contact
Connect with James
This site is maintained by James M. Van Lanen — anthropologist, author, and rewilding advocate. For speaking inquiries, consulting, class bookings, or to get in touch:
Visit jamesvanlanen.com