There is an intersection between the hand-built and the practical that focuses directly on how people occupy and respond to the challenge of being alive day-to-day. One thinks of how tanned animal pelts protected against the cold or crude farming tools prepared the ground for planting.
Today, manufacturing processes provide most all of our essentials. Increasingly, the handmade is rests in the creative sphere: arts and crafts. It is a different type of self-reliance but some would argue, it is no less critical for our survival.