NavList:

Interesting philosophical question! 

Are we mixing up two issues, 1) Self sufficiency, i.e can largely be done on your own. 2) Black, grey and white boxes with varying degrees of hidden magic, beyond our understanding?

You could probably make a "white box" basic cel nav kit as follows.

i) sharpended stick and home made charcoal ink as your HB pencil

ii) wooden backstaff with no mirrors etc carved by hand using sharp flint chisels.(probably take a bit of practice!)

iii) homemade paper from natural fibres etc.

iv)Home generated sun Declination  table

Do Meridian passage for reasonable Latitude.

So you now know approximate lat . Is that any use to you? 

Here's the crunch for me. No! not without accurate charts which require a cast of thousands to generate!

I defy anyone to self generate worldwide accurate navigation charts.

The truth is, no man is an island, we humans do all our best and most  interesting work in teams.

I just enjoy celnav and the use of brain and hands to do some of the white box stuff. It is  not self sufficient though.

Francis