Re: ecovillage and sustainability

> Jean Claude,
> Thanks for your cautioning.
> I see that the idealized 'traditional village' is in danger of succumbing
> to the 'noble savage' delusion.
> But there are no real villages in the USA.


It is good for me to be reminded , i am from a small village ( 80
inhabitant ) up in the pyrennees in France and when i came to north america
,it was painfull despite i live in a small  community for american standard
( a small island ).raising childrens in the context of this deshumanised
landscape ( cars is what you see ) is heart breaking . most often north
american don't have even the clue of what it means to co-inhabit with others
, i am glad you noticed ..


> Excuse me, but the desertification of the Med. basin was a consequence of
> the rise of CIVILIZATION - CITY-based culture, along with its concomitant
> and inherent militarization and social stratification. VILLAGE-based
> cultures are benign; they endure (see Critchfield). Much more sustainable
> to design at village scale.

that is why i was asking what traditional village because many if not most
of the traditional vilages were inherently part of the city culture ( just
by being the suppliers ) that desertified many regions of the world .

I didn't heard of many agriculturists villages who were not part of empires
and were destroying their own ecosytems to be able to supply the cities and
the power in place .( overtime slowly but surelly )

you know before i came on the west coast of north america , i considered the
pyrennees as the last remnants of wild nature in france ( it is called the
wild frontier ) but i had no clue how it was so much of a depleted nature in
comparaison of the still wild forests of north america .centuries of
exploitation by both the spanish and french kingdoms have left their toll on
the small "traditional village " that was mine .


> Wouldn't it be possible in our retrofitting to bypass agriculture and
> instead design and institute horticultural systems?

i am into it , creating edible ecosytems that support a wide diversity for
every species to find their niches

> How many people would be ready to return to hunting and gathering?

i will but it is an other matter,  but a fondamental one determining the
ecosytems i favorise   .That is the conclusion of decades of resarch on
human  natural diet .Having tried to raise animals on a natural diet for
their species it is obvious that it is way better for everybody for the
animals to be free .
jean-claude


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