II. The Cynegetic Child

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American philosopher and ecopsychologist Paul Shepard (The Tender Carnivore, 1973 & Nature and Madness, 1982), while using Erik Erikson's and Erich Fromm's models of human development and psychology, traced an historical path of mental and physical health deterioration from an original Paleo-hunter past to present-day industrialized societies.   His writings were the first voice, echoed since in medical and psychological-environmental science, about the impact of rapid and drastic environmental and societal changes to our evolutionary past and genome.  In essence, the physiology and psychology of Paleo-humans for the most part has not changed, we are still they, therefore, physical and mental health needs have to be understood in this context.  While using ecological science, developmental psychology, archeological evidence, and historical data Shepard argued, similarly with Rousseau and Maria Montessori, that educating children, youth and adolescents toward a healthy and grounded end, necessitated an immersion in a real and original natural world of rich and complex geography and natural history where human intelligence can maximally hone in its perceptual and intellectual capacities, achieving, after this training, the peak of its natural species-specific talents. Thus nature, they argued, and its predictable cycles and processes, offers more enduring, more in-depth, more authentic, more real, and ultimately more satisfying lessons than the fickle and transient, disposable, material-bound and capriciously fabricated man-made synthetic environments.

Paul Shepard and others argue that it is the natural world (as well as the intense interpersonal dynamics with a small band -20 to 25- of humans) that gave rise to and perfected human intelligence to begin with and so it is the natural world (and a small and intense social group) that best serves as the classroom for the authentic, original mind.  This is a mind that is perceptually and cognitively quick, compassionate, and that understands the ecological interplay of non-human and human companions alike.
At the end of this ideal development and training, the cynegetic individual, have argued J.Rousseau, Paul Shepard, Maria Montessori, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, will achieve a level of maturity, self-control, love of the complexity of the natural world, independence of thought, and compassion for others, unparalleled by present-day mental health and personality standards.   Thus if achieved, the cynegetic progression leads to the opposite end of arrogance, narcissism, or self-centeredness.   The cynegetic individual is at the same time an educated and practical individual who can solve real problems in a real world using whatever special talents he/she is able to offer.

Although this developmental path is hard to achieve in present-day urbanized settings or industrialized nations, given the appropriate environment of relative freedom of choice, independence of action, and a high expectation of abiding to ethical guidelines, all in the backdrop of a natural school environment, this developmental feat can still be achieved.  Thus a special environmental setting that exemplifies these natural qualities and allows for such a developmental opportunity AND the unique and loving support of a group of adults who manage this high quality development ARE the alchemy that transforms the child into the integrated adolescent, an adolescent who understands himself/herself as part of a complex web of social and natural interactions where he/she will be called to participation as a mature partner.

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