Toddy, I think it is precisely these regional variations that I am thinking of. Do they apply to other bushcraft activities as well as the craft produce. Can we distinguish between a British fishing spear, shelter, way of cooking burdock to that of our European cousins?
(Hope this makes sense)
There are differences in typology of tools from region to region, but to tie it down and say, this is uniquely British.....hmmm. A billhook is a case inpoint, there are dozens of different types in England alone...but they are all billhooks. Flint arrowheads however, I know one archaeologist who reckons he can tell the differences between tribes and their hunting lands by the way they made their arrowheads...and he got a PhD out of it too
Spears? no idea, wood rots too commonly to be tied down so tightly that there would be no dispute. The oldest bow found in the UK was a Carafaen, where they are now planting a forest for a new millenium.
Cultural differences come through though; we don't eat horses or dogs in the UK for instance, while it is certainly common enough in other countries.
We also have no really widespread fungi for edible use traditions, the church frowned on toadstools (sic) and landowners proscribed collecting anything that might be of use without it being to their benefit, and the enclosures put paid to much of what was left of knowledge.
Burdock and the like....technically these fall under the heading of famine foods....in fact much of the stuff we gather does.
The UK is an agricultural/ pastoral economy that was first to change into an Industrial one, and, it could be argued that it is now the first post industrial economy
The change between being a rural society to an urbanised society happened within two generations here. An awful lot of knowledge was just no longer relevant or important.
The crafts that survive, some of the plant works, and a few of the fishing techniques are probably it.
cheers,
Toddy
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