CPShines
Well-Known Member
Interesting Article
It's become clear to me during my time on this forum that there are many different reasons and motivations for why we each choose to go out and kill deer or other wildlife. I found this essay and it explains far more eloquently than I ever could why I hunt, and it will help me explain to non-hunting friends what I do, so I thought it would be good to share it. Perhaps it's old news, but sometimes these things are worth repeating. I'm glad to say it's the first result to come back if you Google my question.
https://www.humansandnature.org/why-hunt
Some snippets that stand out to me:
"There are probably as many reasons to hunt as there are hunters, but the core reasons can be reduced to four: to experience nature as a participant; to feel an intimate, sensuous connection to place; to take responsibility for one’s food; and to acknowledge our kinship with wildlife. It should not be surprising that these four themes echo through the extensive literature of the hunt. Let’s look briefly at these four themes—the personal reasons people are drawn to the hunt. Almost all hunters say, in one way or another, that they hunt in order to experience nature directly as a participant, not simply a spectator. To be sure, hunters are spectators, but the fact that they are carrying a gun or a bow gives an edge, no pun intended, to hunters’ observations. It is a cliché among hunters to tell of how the scurrying of a chipmunk on autumn leaves brings the hunter to full alert: does the rustling of leaves signal the cautious approach of a deer? Whether or not, on a given outing, a hunter kills a deer or rabbit or pheasant, going afield prepared to kill changes—intensifies—everything."
"another personal reason that draws men and women to hunting is the need to acknowledge that we are, after all, also animals with a long history of predation, a history long enough to have been encoded in our genes. To be sure, our capacity to create cultures with rituals, norms, and ethical restraints makes us distinct from the other creatures with whom we share the planet, but to deny that part of us that is wild is, as Florence Shepard insists, to deny what it is to be fully human."
"Humans have an incredibly broad repertoire, cultivated over millennia of evolution and the concurrent shaping of culture. I can’t dance or jump worth a damn but I can thrill to a ballet performance or an NBA basketball game. Before ballet and basketball, our ancestors performed all sorts of performances that got refined, degree by degree, into our collective repertoire. It provides us with an expansive sense of what it means to be a human being. Hunting is an indelible part of our repertoire and like stunning athleticism, astonishing scientific discoveries, and sobering ethical reflection on what it means to be human, hunting has its place in teaching us who we are."
It's become clear to me during my time on this forum that there are many different reasons and motivations for why we each choose to go out and kill deer or other wildlife. I found this essay and it explains far more eloquently than I ever could why I hunt, and it will help me explain to non-hunting friends what I do, so I thought it would be good to share it. Perhaps it's old news, but sometimes these things are worth repeating. I'm glad to say it's the first result to come back if you Google my question.
https://www.humansandnature.org/why-hunt
Some snippets that stand out to me:
"There are probably as many reasons to hunt as there are hunters, but the core reasons can be reduced to four: to experience nature as a participant; to feel an intimate, sensuous connection to place; to take responsibility for one’s food; and to acknowledge our kinship with wildlife. It should not be surprising that these four themes echo through the extensive literature of the hunt. Let’s look briefly at these four themes—the personal reasons people are drawn to the hunt. Almost all hunters say, in one way or another, that they hunt in order to experience nature directly as a participant, not simply a spectator. To be sure, hunters are spectators, but the fact that they are carrying a gun or a bow gives an edge, no pun intended, to hunters’ observations. It is a cliché among hunters to tell of how the scurrying of a chipmunk on autumn leaves brings the hunter to full alert: does the rustling of leaves signal the cautious approach of a deer? Whether or not, on a given outing, a hunter kills a deer or rabbit or pheasant, going afield prepared to kill changes—intensifies—everything."
"another personal reason that draws men and women to hunting is the need to acknowledge that we are, after all, also animals with a long history of predation, a history long enough to have been encoded in our genes. To be sure, our capacity to create cultures with rituals, norms, and ethical restraints makes us distinct from the other creatures with whom we share the planet, but to deny that part of us that is wild is, as Florence Shepard insists, to deny what it is to be fully human."
"Humans have an incredibly broad repertoire, cultivated over millennia of evolution and the concurrent shaping of culture. I can’t dance or jump worth a damn but I can thrill to a ballet performance or an NBA basketball game. Before ballet and basketball, our ancestors performed all sorts of performances that got refined, degree by degree, into our collective repertoire. It provides us with an expansive sense of what it means to be a human being. Hunting is an indelible part of our repertoire and like stunning athleticism, astonishing scientific discoveries, and sobering ethical reflection on what it means to be human, hunting has its place in teaching us who we are."
Last edited:
