Is there a historical precedent of backpackers?
>>916469
yeah, gypsies
well desu unless you were rich everyone would just pack up their shit and walk places, so yeah, everyone.
Ibn Battuta
Sort of, but it was much more restrictive before the 70s, because old fashioned tents were hella heavy. Modern tents are basically spinoffs of Bucky Fuller's tensegrity concept.
Pilgrims
>>916469
define backpacker
I've always found backpackers to be a bohemian's take on mass tourism.
Because what are backpackers really doing? Are they travelling 'more authentically'? What does that even mean? Was there an authentic way to travel then? Travel in premodern societies was either motivated by trade or religion. People didn't go and see sights necessarily. Or it had to be because you were a scholar/artist, but not just to have your bucket list down.
So I do think that backpackers are just mass tourists doing it in a cheaper way. They are just consuming sites, collecting postcards by taking the pics themselves.
Like all the backpackers I met couldn't understand that I wanted to be in a city for 2 weeks or longer. They just move on to the next city in a matter of days.
Even the way they describe their travels, it's all about "I saw this many countries!"
Consumerism really. Nothing too countercultural imo.
>>916613
It's cheap and that's all. Plus there's a lot more freedom than those guided tours where you need to stick to some schedule.
>>916469
People used to walk in the wilderness with a purpose, not just to go for a walk. In the US and Northern Europe, trappers and hunters used to live out in the wilderness as bushmen, guiding travelers and whatnot. Think Daniel Boone and people like that.
Northface pretty much invented modern backpacking when they started to make Backpacking gear in the 70s (this is before their lifestyle stuff became popular). Before that, you had to pick from heavy as fuck milsurp or hunting gear to go camping.
Irish Travelers
>>916469
The humans that kept fucking walking until they reached the Americas
It was common among aristocrats to travel to other european countries when young.
Of course you could hardly call it backpacking, but it comes close in other aspects, traveling to see countries, places, learn new ways, languages, socialize etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Tour
>The Grand Tour was the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means, or those of more humble origin who could find a sponsor.
