The Scavenger piece was also one that was interesting and gave me a lot to think about. Again, him dedicating a year of his life to killing an immense number of bizarre animals to put on a feast is something I can't relate to, but he does back up his theories. The fact that his childhood had a huge impact on his desire to hunt, as well as his belief that hunting is an organic and spiritual experience made me see things in a different light. Still, part of me wonders if hunting is more desirable to men because of our ancestry - that is that men are the ones who must provide for their families.
Whether I believe hunting is moral or immoral, I cannot say. I know I am biased about the issue but the question still remains about whether hunting is justified if it is for sport rather than necessity. It makes me sick when I hear about rich men hunting animals like elephants or tigers that are going extinct. That's a situation where I think there should be laws and consequences in place. Although I still have no desire to go out and shoot a deer or rabbit, I can now appreciate what an art form hunting is to some people.
Helldin, Jan Olof. Pine Marten Population Limitation: Food, Harvesting, or Predation? Uppsala: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 1998. Web. 19 April. 2010.
Burch, Ernest S., and Linda J. Ellanna. Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research. Explorations in anthropology. Oxford, England: Berg, 1994. Web. 19 April. 2010.
I definitely agree that hunting endangered animals is a terrible act. Especially because it is often times for sport, and not even for food. There is no necessity for it, it's usually just to obtain a hide or even just the bragging rights. Hunting for food, however, is different. I liked your observation that the way a person is raised has a large impact on their opinions of hunting. I think this is very true, I wasn't raised around hunting either and I do not ever want to try it. I don't even want to be in the same vicinity of people who are actively hunting. I would not be able to handle it well at all. But then again, none of my immediate family hunted and I was only barely exposed to it through a couple of cousins. I certainly didn't grow up catching my own dinner like one of the authors did. Being raised to kill my own meals would have definitely impacted the way I view the American food chain. I think growing up in that fashion would make places like grocery stores look a whole lot different. You would better be able to see slabs of meat for what they really were, before we turned them into faceless fillets.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post it made me feel like I missed putting some of the main points that I myself took from the articles into my own post. I too was completely against hunting before I read the articles, but their valid points and human perspecitive from people who have emotional ties to the food changed my stance. I do not feel as though I could go out and kill and animal, but I have a new found respect for people who do with justifications such as the ones found in these articles.
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