Reading & Resources
A curated library of works that inform the Human Rewilding perspective — spanning hunter-gatherer ethnography, egalitarian societies, the critique of civilization, ancestral skills, and more.
12 topic categories · 177 works
Books by James Van Lanen
Human Rewilding in the 21st Century
Why Anthropologists Fail
2024
Turning a Moose Hide into Buckskin
Brain-Tanning Large-Game Animal Skins at Home
+ 3 upcoming titles
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Towards a Feral Future
On Domestication, Rewilding, and Resistance
Two linked essays on the necessity of rewilding and feral resistance against human domestication and modernity. Drawing on ethnographic research, field experience, and the legacies of voluntarily isolated peoples, James M. Van Lanen argues that self-domestication is the primary barrier to resistance — and that only through rewilding can we build the self-reliance necessary to free ourselves from the totality.
Essays originally published in Black & Green Review, 2016.
Free DownloadComplete Book References
These are the complete references cited in Human Rewilding in the 21st Century. The publisher has made them available here for readers and researchers.
Explore the ReferencesHunter-Gatherer Ethnography
Firsthand ethnographic accounts and studies of hunter-gatherer peoples — how they live, organize, and relate to their environments.
63 works
Egalitarian Societies & Anti-Hierarchy
How and why some hunter-gatherer societies actively enforce autonomy and liberty from dependency relationships, suppress hierarchy, and prevent the accumulation of power.
24 works
The Critique of Civilization
Works interrogating civilization itself — its origins, costs, and trajectory — from anarchist, anthropological, and ecological perspectives.
45 works
Agriculture, Health & the Neolithic Decline
The archaeological and biological evidence that the transition to agriculture damaged human health, reduced brain size, and created new forms of disease and inequality.
27 works
Ancestral Skills & Material Practice
Practical guides and accounts of stone-age technologies, bushcraft, wild food, and the material arts of living directly from the land.
12 works
The Rewilding Movement
Contemporary writings on rewilding as philosophy, practice, and political stance.
9 works
Indigenous Rights & Cultural Survival
The ongoing struggle of indigenous peoples to maintain their lifeways against colonization, development, conservation enclosure, and forced modernization.
22 works
Political Ecology & Green Critique
Why mainstream environmentalism and 'green energy' fail to address the root causes of ecological destruction.
15 works
Social Complexity & the Origins of Inequality
How and why human societies transitioned from egalitarian to hierarchical — the archaeological and theoretical evidence.
18 works
Psychology, Neurobiology & Human Development
How civilization reshapes the human mind — and what a baseline of healthy human development actually looks like.
34 works
Resilience & Socioecological Systems
How human societies maintain long-term ecological stability — and how that stability breaks down.
10 works
Anarchism, Autonomy & Dropout Culture
Anarchist theory as it relates to indigenous lifeways, primitivism, and the rejection of state and market control.
23 works
Key Articles & Essays
James's articles, essays, and shorter writings on rewilding, civilization, and ancestral skills.
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