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Primal: Why We Long to Be Wild and Free
TV survival shows and survival schools are more popular than ever; Paleo diets are proving to be more than just a passing trend; and free-range parenting is gaining steady momentum. So in an age when living in a modern society often equates to comfort and ease, why is it that we are so interested in these primal aspects of being human when they are no longer really necessary? Why are we still so fascinated with making fire or stone tools in this social media-driven digital age? Why are we urging our children to run back out into the wild?
The answer to all of these questions—to why we seek out the natural world—stares us in the mirror every We long to fulfill our natural destiny as upright-walking hunter-gatherer-nomads. It’s who we are.
Primal explores the natural human desire—the primal desire—to fulfill our original design. From the telling of anecdotes and stories from author Nate Summer’s twenty years as a survival specialist to conversations with world-renown survival and human nature specialists to digging into the rewilding and free-range parenting trends, Nate explores how humans have—and continue to—pursue “survival” situations to fulfill their deep, soulful longings.
The answer to all of these questions—to why we seek out the natural world—stares us in the mirror every We long to fulfill our natural destiny as upright-walking hunter-gatherer-nomads. It’s who we are.
Primal explores the natural human desire—the primal desire—to fulfill our original design. From the telling of anecdotes and stories from author Nate Summer’s twenty years as a survival specialist to conversations with world-renown survival and human nature specialists to digging into the rewilding and free-range parenting trends, Nate explores how humans have—and continue to—pursue “survival” situations to fulfill their deep, soulful longings.
- GenresNonfiction
215 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 19, 2019
6 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 27, 2022
Please read this book, and then share it with your friends! Let it become part of your conversations.
Nate is a seasoned instructor, and his experience is on full display here.
While this isn’t a book for the general public, it is an exploration of universally important questions. If you have found yourself wondering about the human relationship to natural cycles, this book will feel like a conversation with a trusted friend.
In fact, it’s clear that his teaching style evolved while seated around a campfire with his students and elders. Don’t read it expecting a carbon-copy of the self help gurus littering the market. Nate thinks for himself and isn’t afraid to ask difficult questions that don’t have simple answers. I don’t agree with every idea in his book, but I am very grateful that he got me to stop and think about my experiences.
Nate is a seasoned instructor, and his experience is on full display here.
While this isn’t a book for the general public, it is an exploration of universally important questions. If you have found yourself wondering about the human relationship to natural cycles, this book will feel like a conversation with a trusted friend.
In fact, it’s clear that his teaching style evolved while seated around a campfire with his students and elders. Don’t read it expecting a carbon-copy of the self help gurus littering the market. Nate thinks for himself and isn’t afraid to ask difficult questions that don’t have simple answers. I don’t agree with every idea in his book, but I am very grateful that he got me to stop and think about my experiences.
November 27, 2019
Humanity's oldest abilities nearly died out before being resurrected in a paleo-renaissance of traditional knowledge, wilderness survival, and nature awareness skills. There were few resources from which to learn these skills when I sought survival training in the 1980s, but now there are hundreds of books, videos, websites, schools, and primitive skills gatherings around the world. In his book, "Primal: Why we Long to be Wild and Free," author-educator Nate Summers holds a mirror up in self-examination of this growing movement.
Summers notes the explosion of survival-themed television shows and investigates the widespread interest in reconnecting with nature. The author weaves interviews with wilderness survival and nature awareness experts, myself included, together with his own experiences and observations to answer the question, "Why do we long to be wild and free?"
Primal is written in conversational style, much like a philosophical evening around the campfire with leading educators from the field. The book covers the overall rise of the new Stone Age movement, with individual chapters dedicated to hunter-gatherer trends that have gone mainstream, including the paleo diet, natural movement, raising free-range children, and our longing for a tribal sense of community.
The book may be most captivating for fellow instructors to catch a glimpse of what our colleagues are thinking and teaching. But Primal is also of interest to anyone pursuing a deep nature connection to grasp the scope of the movement while sampling the various approaches and philosophies towards advancing one's own education. If you want to be Wild and Free, Primal is a good place to start.
Summers notes the explosion of survival-themed television shows and investigates the widespread interest in reconnecting with nature. The author weaves interviews with wilderness survival and nature awareness experts, myself included, together with his own experiences and observations to answer the question, "Why do we long to be wild and free?"
Primal is written in conversational style, much like a philosophical evening around the campfire with leading educators from the field. The book covers the overall rise of the new Stone Age movement, with individual chapters dedicated to hunter-gatherer trends that have gone mainstream, including the paleo diet, natural movement, raising free-range children, and our longing for a tribal sense of community.
The book may be most captivating for fellow instructors to catch a glimpse of what our colleagues are thinking and teaching. But Primal is also of interest to anyone pursuing a deep nature connection to grasp the scope of the movement while sampling the various approaches and philosophies towards advancing one's own education. If you want to be Wild and Free, Primal is a good place to start.
July 31, 2019
I got this book by mistake from Netgalley.
I started reading it and became intrigued by the authors story and decided to finish the book.
I have mixed feelings about this book.
On one hand I thoroughly enjoyed the learning aspect of it all. How fire is life, getting back to nature can calm people, we feel more connected to the Earth and other people when we bond over nature.
I agree with all of that mentioned above.
Yet the author did a deep dive into cultural appropriation and even began to go into the Movie the Black Panther.
I think that everyone can learn from others without it being cultural appropriation...unless you are dressing, speaking, and telling people you ARE that culture.
But that is where the author lost me.
I felt that he went off the rails on the Black Panther movie and how that is affecting more black people to get involved in naturalism.
Overall the first half of the book is super good.
Second half fell very short and I felt very repetitive.
I started reading it and became intrigued by the authors story and decided to finish the book.
I have mixed feelings about this book.
On one hand I thoroughly enjoyed the learning aspect of it all. How fire is life, getting back to nature can calm people, we feel more connected to the Earth and other people when we bond over nature.
I agree with all of that mentioned above.
Yet the author did a deep dive into cultural appropriation and even began to go into the Movie the Black Panther.
I think that everyone can learn from others without it being cultural appropriation...unless you are dressing, speaking, and telling people you ARE that culture.
But that is where the author lost me.
I felt that he went off the rails on the Black Panther movie and how that is affecting more black people to get involved in naturalism.
Overall the first half of the book is super good.
Second half fell very short and I felt very repetitive.
December 24, 2019
The book was great. It unlocked my mind too a whole other world. With suggestions of outdoor schools and books about nature and survival skills it opened doors that I never knew existed.
October 18, 2020
I had a hard time getting through this. Although I truly believe in nature immersion for everyone, I just felt like this storytelling didn't do it for me.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews