MAIN POINTS
ENCYCLOPEDIA
MOTHER CULTURE
INDEX TO ISHMAEL
ESSAYS
RESOURCES
LINKS
GUESTBOOK
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Quinn's Books
Leaver Societies
Animism
School and Unschooling
Evolution
History
Survival Skills
Movies
Quinn's books
If you haven't read all of Quinn's books yet, read them! The more you read, the better you understand his ideas.
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Ishmael
The book that started it all, focusing mainly on the origins of our culture, the myths Mother Culture tells us, the Law of Life that governs the biosphere, and the relationship between food supply and population. |
| The Story of B
The Story of B discusses the origins of our culture, animism, and The Great Forgetting, and clarifies the relationship between food supply and population. |
| My Ishmael
Discusses the origins of our culture, tribal warfare, school, laws, and cults, and coins the term "New Tribal Revolution". |
| Beyond Civilization: Humanity's Next Great Adventure
A non-fiction book made up of short essays. This one proclaims to answer the question "What do I DO?" |
| Providence
The story of Quinn's journey towards writing Ishmael. |
| After Dachau
A novel taking place in a world where the Nazis won World War II after all. (Sound familiar?) |
| The Man Who Grew Young
The book Quinn calls his personal favorite, a graphic novel about a man who lives through history backwards. The artwork is stunning, and the story is fascinating, and does a good job of delivering Quinn's ideas. |
Newcomer's Guide to the Afterlife
Not related to the others in any way, but entertaining none the less.
Leaver Societies
Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: A Reader on Hunter-Gatherer Economics, edited by John M. Gowdy
This book contains writings on hunter-gatherer societies; essential to understanding this ignored subject.
Politics and History in Band Societies, edited by Eleanor Leacock and Richard B. Lee (currently out of print)
Another excellent book on hunter-gatherers, also made of various writings by various anthropologists, this one focusing more on social structure and customs.
Traditional Peoples Today, The American Museum of Natural History
This book is a great resource on Leaver societies. It has information on cultures all over the world, including details of their culture and how civilization has affected them. While not all the cultures featured are Leavers, most are and this is a wonderful book.
Endangered Peoples, Art Davidson
This is a wonderful book, also focusing on cultures around the world. This books is mostly about how the cultures are threatened, and again a few of the cultures featured are not Leavers. At some points the information in this book can be horrifying, because many of the things done to these cultures are completely unknown to us.
The Harmless People, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
This book, whose author has praised Ishmael, chronicles the events of an anthropologist's time with the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. (It should be noted, however, that the title was thought up before Thomas discovered that the Bushmen have an extremely high rate of murder.)
The Forest People, Colin M. Turnbull
This book describes the culture of the Pygmies of the West African rainforest.
People of the Deer, Farley Mowat
This is an amazing book, about Mowat's time living with the Ihalmiut, an Inuit people on the brink of extinction due to the skills lost when they came in contact with civilization. Mowat surprises the people when he expresses that he wants to learn their language, and then is taught not only that but their whole world view.
The Continuum Concept, Jean Liedloff
This book is probably the most important book you can read besides Ishmael. After spending time with the Yequana Indians in the Brazillian rainforest, Liedloff came to some startling conclusions about childcare and how we view human nature in our society. This book explains why happiness is a goal in our society and not the normal state of mind like it is for people of the Yequana and other cultures.
Museums-
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History--Washington, DC
American Museum of Natural History--New York, New York
Smithsonian Museum of American Indians--New York, New York
Lenape Indian Museum--Bushkill, Pennsylvania
The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram
Throughout this lyrical book, Abrams describes the power that animates all things, and gives a wonderful explanation of how humans fit into the community of life.
The Vision, Tom Brown, Jr.
In this book, Tom Brown explains the religion of Native Americans as taught to him by his Apache teacher, Stalking Wolf.
People of the Deer, Farley Mowat
I know I listed this above, but this book should also be noted for its explanation of the Ihalmiut's religion.
Any of John Holt's books
John Holt is basically the father of the modern unschooling movement. The best books of his are probably How Children Fail, How Children Learn, and Teach Your Own.
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Cumpulsory Schooling, John Taylor Gatto
This book explains what schools are really for.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education, Grace Llewellyn
This is great resource for teens who are in school and teens who aren't. It gives you good reasons to quit school, tells you how to convince your parents, and gives a great deal of resources for learning on your own.
The Unschooling Handbook: How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom, Mary Griffith
This book gives lots of ideas for how to find resources for unschooling your children or yourself.
Growing Without Schooling magazine
A wonderful magazine full of writing sent in by its readers, with suggestions, resources, and writings on home schooling and unschooling. No longer being published, but back issues are still available.
FUN Books catalog
The catalog put out by the Family Unschoolers Network, containing books on many subjects, for child and teen unschoolers alike.
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
A study of evolution, focusing on the inherent selfishness of genes. This book coins the word "meme" that Quinn uses so often.
Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould
In this book, Harvard professor Stephen Jay Gould argues against the idea that evolution is a progress from "lower", less complex organisms, to "higher", more complex organisms, with humans as the end result. Gould says that the evolution of humans was "a cosmic accident that would never arise again if the tree of life could be replanted."
The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond
The Third Chimpanzee is us. Diamond argues that humans and chimps are much more closely related than most people would like to think, and says that chimps, humans, and gorillas should be classified in one genus rather than three separate ones. He goes on to discuss the origin of language and other uniquely human atributes (while noting that almost all have animal precursors). However, Diamond appears to believe that environmental destruction is part of human nature. He sites examples of the indigenous people of New Zealand, Madagascar, and some Polynesian islands destroying their environments. What he neglects to mention, however, is that all of these groups had intensive farming and hierarchy, meaning that they were Takers, which hardly proves that all humans have this tendency. He goes on to argue that the Native Americans caused the extinction of many large mammal species in North America, but his evidence is less than satisfactory. Even so, this book addresses some important issues and gives a good description of the evolution of humans, and is highly recommended.
Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
While Diamond seems to believe that a lack of the necessary resources causes primitive peoples to be conquered, this book is full of useful information, and goes into depth about subjects that other resources gloss over, such as the beginnings of agriculture, and his central question (why do some cultures conquer others?) seems to be very similar to Quinn's.
A Peoples History of the United States, Howard Zinn
This book is nothing like your U.S. History book in high school. This book takes a look at American history from the perspective of those who were trampled on, namely, Native Americans, African Americans, women, and the working class. Zinn begins the book with an account of Columbus' invasion of America and the effect on Native Americans, and notes that while Natives captured by whites almost always returned to their tribes given the chance, whites captured by Natives often chose to stay.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen
An excellent book discussing the lies and misconceptions found in many history textbooks.
Survival skills aren't really related, but they are interesting and they give you an appreciation for the earth and more of an understanding of the way of life of Leavers.
Tom Brown, Jr's books
In this series of books, Tom Brown explains the skills necessary for wilderness survival. The first one in the series is Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival.
Outdoor Survival Skills, Larry Dean Olsen
This book includes information on the skills needed for survival, including making shelter, finding water, building fire, collecting plant foods, and hunting and trapping animals.
How to Stay Alive in the Woods, Bradford Angier
Pretty much the same as above.
Instinct
"Suggested" by Ishmael, this movie is not particularly great, but it did attract a lot of people to Quinn's work.
Dances with Wolves
This movie depicts the last days of the Sioux Indians (aka Lakota) as they come into conflict with whites. It could be good, but it's too black and white, with the Noble Savage image of the Sioux, the evil invading whites, and the one good white man who turns native when he meets the Sioux.
Black Robe
Similar to Dances With Wolves, but doesn't fall into the same trap of the Noble Savage stereotype.
Fight Club
Some Quinn readers have said it's related; the only similarities I can see are its message of anti-materialism (which is not something Quinn talks about, but is somewhat related to environmentalism and the Leaver lifestyle), and one scene where Tyler Durden briefly describes the future after civilization has collapsed and people have returned to hunting and gathering (again not what Quinn is suggesting, but sort of related).
The Matrix
There are some very Quinnian themes in this movie, particularly relating to Mother Culture and having your eyes opened. But there's also some very non-Quinnian themes, in that Neo is the "savior" who has come to save humanity.
The Gods Must Be Crazy
A movie about a group of Bushmen in Africa. It clings to the Noble Savage myth, and gives the impression that there are Bushmen who have no knowledge of civilization (which isn't true -- and it wasn't even true back when the movie was made), but it's still an interesting look at their lifestyle and world-view, and it's hilarious. There's also a sequel, The Gods Must Be Crazy 2, which is a continuation of the story.
Walkabout
About a pair of white children who get lost in the Australian desert, and are saved by an Aboriginal boy on his walkabout (a coming-of-age vision quest sort of thing). It's based on the book Walkabout, which was much better than the movie, in my opinion.
In association with:
If you have any suggestions, feel free to email me, or sign the guestbook and I'll check it out. See also my list of related links.