10 Vital Primitive Survival Skills That All Families Learn
What did the ancient families of the past have to do in order to survive?
Running water, electricity, supermarkets, fast food and cars in our modern world have made survival much easier.
But could a family live without these things? If so, how?
Well in this post we are going to explore primitive survival skills that the families of before would need to know.
These are a set of skills perfected by our ancestors without the technology of today.
These skills are time tested and could keep you alive in a survival situation. You may even want to pass them onto your kids.
The skills we shall be looking at are:
- Purifying water
- Creating tools
- Hunting Food
- Archery
- Preparing meat and vegetables
- Navigation
- Building a shelter
- Building a fire
- Fishing without tools
- Building traps
1# Purifying Water
Staying hydrated in ancient times took a little bit more work than just turning a tap on.
We are truly lucky to have such easy access to clean water today but it is certainly good to know how you would cope without it.
People of the past would sometimes travel miles to find fresh water from rivers, they would dig up springs or groundwater which was safer from contamination.
Another method is known as rock boiling, where the user would use really hot stones to boil the impurities out of the water.
Here is an awesome video demonstration by the HistoryAnew Youtube Channel:
2# Creating tools
Before the dawn of the industrial age and all the silverware in your kitchen drawers, families had to make their own tools.
They would create their own arrowheads, spears, makeshift hammers, axes and even baskets.
They would use different rocks, sticks, and vines to put these tools together. This would be great for you to try if you’re into bushcraft.
3# Hunting food
Hunting for food would be top of the priority list for ancient families because if you don’t hunt, you don’t eat.
It was down to the men to bring home the bacon. They would go out to hunt animals whilst their woman would take care of the young.
They would need to know techniques such as following animal tracks, building traps, throwing darts, spear fishing or archery.
4# Archery
Speaking of archery, this was a very effective way of taking prey down.
Instead of netflix and chilling, it was likely that the families of these times would be busy with a bit of target practice.
When the opportunity for a meal presents itself they could not afford to miss that chance.
Basic archery with self made bows and arrows would have been an essential survival skill.
5# Preparing meat and vegetables
Now what to do with that prey.
Knowing how to strip an animal of its feathers or fur in the quickest most efficient way is important.
Butchering the meat correctly would also prevent you from eating the unwanted parts that should be discarded.
Knowing what vegetation could be consumed and how to eat it too would also prevent poisoning.
6# Navigation skills
Before the sat navs on our mobile phones, before compasses and before even paper maps.
Ancient families would need methods of knowing their way around.
For one technique they would use the stars in the sky to plot out directions.
Another method would be to put a stick in the ground and watch the direction of the shadow which the sun would cast. More on that here.
Such a skill would be useful in a pinch when you don’t have a compass or working phone.
7# Building a shelter
Here is another skill for the bushcraft lovers amongst you.
Creating a shelter to keep your family warm and dry is just as important as finding food or water.
Back in these times it would be down to the family themselves to create their own homes. They would use anything from mud, sticks, to eventually stone and steel.
We also want to take this opportunity to share this absolute insane video of the primitive built home by youtube channel.
These guys really know how to build some incredible bushcraft homes.
8# Building a fire
Being able to build a fire with zero tools is an extremely valuable survival skill.
For the families of the past it would have likely been their source of heat, light, cooking and even entertainment.
Techniques such as feathering wood, using friction between sticks to generate heat and generating sparks from certain types of rocks to start a fire are all things an ancient family would need to master.
9# Fishing without modern tools
Could you catch a fish without a fishing rod? worms? Or how about no boat?
You’d probably think the task would be pointless but these are things people of the past had to do without.
There are many techniques from setting traps, throwing a spear into the water or even grabbing them out of their laire with your bare hands (catfishing).
One of the most creative methods we’ve seen is the fishing nets built from bamboo trees.
Once lifted large fish would be caught without falling through the gaps.
10# First Aid
Natural remedies were the doctors and hospitals of the past.
Families would need to have vast knowledge of these early first aid skills.
This would involve knowing how to clean open wounds, preventing infection and how to set broken bones.
The treatments would also be internal such as digestive remedies, pain relief and cold remedies.
They would use plants to do this.
Different vegetation could be used to save people from poison, if grounded up could be placed on wounds and if eaten could help with sickness.
Conclusion
Modern technology has made life much easier and is a true blessing. We have all been born at a great time in human history.
However in a survival situation you may not have the right tools or technology you need. So make sure you and your family can get by without them.
A thousand years from now, civilization might look back on the way we lived today as primitive but they will take away valuable lessons.
I feel we should be doing the same.
That’s all for this one, thank you so much for reading and please let us know if you have any primitive survival skills people should be learning.
Till next time survivors!
