Human Desire to Explore and Accumulate | Explorer | Gatherer

Human Desire to Explore and Accumulate has been with us from the beginning of our Existence.

Throughout history, humankind has shared an innate trait – the desire to explore. 

As human beings, the desire and necessity to “explore” the world have been with us from the beginning of our existence. From the basic act of looking for food and water to traveling many kilometers to trade goods and engage in social exchange and dynamics, humans have had to travel at various scales; travel comprises a necessary activity in any aspect of human life.

Hunter-Gatherer Culture

Hunter-gatherer culture was the way of life for early humans until around 11 to 12,000 years ago. The lifestyle of hunter-gatherers was based on hunting animals and foraging for food.

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Neolithic Revolution

With the beginnings of the Neolithic Revolution about 12,000 years ago, when agricultural practices were first developed, some groups abandoned hunter-gatherer practices to establish permanent settlements that could provide for much larger populations. However, the desire to explore and accumulate persisted until modern times. 

Human Desire to Explore and Accumulate

Why do we want to leave home and travel?

“The desire to be boundless is an idea handed down to us by our ancestors who traveled across trackless lands in prehistoric times.” “They looked enviously on the birds soaring freely through space, at full speed, above all obstacles on the infinite highway of the air.”

A trait that continues to define explorers is a willingness to travel boundless accepting and accumulating all that comes on the way.

“The Earth is the cradle of humanity, “but one cannot live in a cradle forever.”

Man belongs wherever he wants to go and he’ll do plenty well when he gets there.

He has been exploring, the unexplored and this is what “landed a man on the moon and returned him safely to Earth.”

“We set our explorations to gain new knowledge, live new experiences that give us the wings to fly and feel boundless to our existence. 

“We choose to travel places for new experiences, to do different things, challenge our limits. In our exploration which isn’t just the destination, it’s the journey. “It’s not about going someplace, it’s about what we will find along the way.”

Our desire to travel…

Travel makes us free, makes us explore untravelled paths. Travel becomes a way for us to deal with different situations, experience new things, a desire to just leave it all behind, the need to forget, or want to meet new people, or help search for a sense of self.

Whether we’re going to see a pyramid or experience a new culture, whether we are going to get away or to learn, and whether we go for a month or a year, we all go because we seek to change. We seek something different. A change of self, attitude, daily routine, or impressions of another culture, change is the one thing travel brings us.

We modern-day sapiens are prisoners of our own illusionary self-created paradise that has bounded us to routines, systems, and busy life. We with technological advancements created a limitless opportunity in the limited scope of life. 

Our innate instincts desire freedom and constant change, to come to terms with the world around us and find out who we are. We desire to be out in the sea of freedom, with no compass to guide us, with nothing to force our direction, connect us to our inner spiritual self, where we are boundless.

Traveling these intriguing, unfamiliar retreats give us a respite from the chaos and regimented world we have created for ourselves with the advancement of life.

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Why We Accumulate?

The urge is primal. In prehistoric times, we were hunters and gatherers, so we were ingrained with that behavior — it’s hardwired into us. This innate instinct urges us to accumulate things as this makes us happy and we don’t want to leave the past behind and we are also afraid of the future. We feel attached to objects because they remind us of past moments or loved ones and we believe that by letting go, we will forget those memories.

It’s been also believed that we carry many subconscious memories from our past lives and we tend to get attracted to objects that we might possess or were attached to in our past lives.