I love shoes. There was a time in my life where I worked for many major sneaker companies to teach people about all the technology in shoes. The makeup of the cushioning. The nature of the lateral support straps or the anti-pronation devices embedded in the midsole. I could tell you about shoe lasts, vamps,…

The winters about 44,000 years ago in the Eastern Ukraine near the Dneiper River  would have been about just as inhospitable as they are now. Cold. Windy. Not an easy place to live and fill your days certainly at that time of the year. Though the rest of the year certainly would be a more…

What do you always find on grasslands? Many things, but large, hoofed animals grazing on the grass will be one of them in any truly alive place — buffalo, zebra, gazelles, wildebeest, etc. The grass and the animals evolved together, much like bees and flowering plants. They evolved to rely on each other. They developed…

Before settlers and colonizers brought glass beads from Czechoslovakia and Italy to North America and added to the seeds that Native Americans beaded with, those indigenous people cultivated a remarkable beauty making skill with  braiding, stitching, plaiting, and folding porcupine quills as not only adornment but also as a sign of their bindedness to their land. Quilling…

Over here at Primal Derma we count ourselves lucky that you are with us and reading about ancient culture and the thread to modern times. But Babylonian eclipses? Cuneiform? What is cuneiform? And what does this have to do with skincare? If you didn’t know, cuneiform is the script that Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian culture…

“The problem with convenience and efficiency is that, in the effort to make the shortest path between us and the things we want, the privilege of accountability is lost.If you consider the time it takes an individual to gather raw materials, which are often living organisms, the honour and grief that is felt in their…

The Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest have been inhabiting their lands and their waters for about 14,000 years and finding and refining their understanding and relationship with their home. And surely they forgot along the way sometimes, I would imagine, but their longevity their points to their deep connection to the rhythms of that…

At the base of the Altai Mountains is the Pazyryk Valley. In the 1920’s some of the kurgans or burial mounds that resided there were unearthed. Some of these mounds were over 2000 years old. Within these ancient graves were saddles, ritual burial chariots, countless sculpted and carved figures and tattooed mummies still encased in…

I don’t have any tattoos. Maybe you do. I have known friends be delighted with them and have them have deep meaning for them. Others have spen good money getting them slowly lasered away. Others just sort of forget that they are there but can recount to you the story of when and where it…

While sheep have been in Scotland for about 4500 years there isn’t evidence of short tail sheep being there until about 1200AD…and Shetland sheep are short tailed. The oldest Shetland lace we have is about 150 years old and it is incredibly intricate. We can surmise that this is a skill that has been around for…