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Tamara Wilder Teaches the 7th Grade

Tamara Wilder Works with the 7th Grade Teaching Paleotechnics

        RVUSD has invited Tamara Wilder to share her knowledge of ancient technologies with grades 4 - 12 this year.  She is coming in four times this year to work with individual classes to help students gain an appreciation of how our ancestors adapted to our local environment and utilized our local plants and animals in creative and practical ways.  

In today's hi-tech modern world, it's easy to lose sight of the basics, but we believe that many ancient skills remain worthy of preservation.

Re-discovering old ways living skills and learning to use natural materials to make what we need can bring us closer to our past, show the present in a unique perspective, and can shine a light on where we are headed in the future.

We might also evolve a deeper appreciation of the net which sustains us and some of its individual threads, increase our self confidence and find a great feeling of accomplishment.

                                                Paleotechnics Web site:  www.paleotechnics.com

          Through the in-school demonstrations, the students learn:

Stringmaking programs for young kids begin with partially or totally prepared fiber of Dogbane and/or other materials which are easier to work with in certain situations. We extract and twist these fibers into string using one of several techniques (varying from extremely basic for very young kids to advanced for small groups of older kids, with lots of other levels in between).  Young adult programs are slightly longer and use more advanced techniques.

Grinding and drilling beads is a fun activity which introduces many of the age old stone and wood shaping techniques used in many other technologies. Using soapstone (a soft but durable stone) and ghost pine nuts (Pinus sabiniana), we will make beads to hang on the string made of native plant fibers. Most kids take home either a bracelet or necklace which they are very proud to have made "from scratch". 

Firemaking programs begin with a demonstration of hand drill firemaking. Prepared hand and/or bowdrill kits are then supplied so participants can partner up and give it a try. Friction fire is difficult so we will concentrate on the process instead of the result; however, it is possible for focused partners of older kids to make fire. Flint & steel firemaking can also be demonstrated.  Young adult programs are slightly longer and more focus is given to actually making fire.

Hunting tools target practice is extremely popular with kids and is a safe activity as long as there is enough space and adult supervision. A grass field is the best venue. The weapons which are available for this activity are:

• rabbitsticks
  The oldest & most pandemic of weapons. In Australia, it evolved into the boomerang for hunting birds, but most rabbitsticks are non returning.
• handspears
  One of the most basic of hunting weapons.
• bow & arrows
  Probably the most familiar hunting weapon, the bow & arrow was an extremely successful invention which is still used in many different forms today.
• atlatls (spear throwers)
  Atlatl is the Aztec word. Spear throwers enjoy a long & diverse history as the weapon used worldwide to hunt mammoths, mastodons & other megafauna. In the Old World, they were replaced by the bow & arrow long ago, but in the New World, the bow & arrow only made its appearance as recently as 500 years before contact; therefore, North American spear throwers reached a higher level of design than those of the Old World. The Aborigines in Australia never adopted the bow & arrow and even today still depend on the spear thrower (woomerah).