Hunting As Humanizer: Then and Now

[Robin Conrads]

#6187

Here’s an interesting article…

Hunting as Humanizer: Then and Now By David Petersen

[paleoman]

#48740

Good Lord. Like the stuff they gave me to stop kidney stone pain, Dave’s’ stuff is like an injection of impassioned reason straight to the brain. Well done!

[tailfeather]

#48884

Nicely done as always, Dave. Related: Has anyone read any of Jan Dizard’s books? His essay on the same website, “Hunting – for a sustainable relationship to nature” was also good. His books look interesting.

[Fallguy]

#48891

Great job Dave, I can see I am going to need another book case to hold all the interesting titles you site.

[Bruce Smithhammer]

#48938

A fine essay, Dave. It seems to me that ideas which you’ve been kicking around for a while are getting honed to a razor point with time. I plan to share this with a lot of folks I know, hunters and non-hunters alike.

[David Petersen]

#49803

Thanks, Robin, for posting this.

And thanks, as always, for your kind words, kindly gents. And it’s true what the Hammer says, that I am locked into a core of basic ideas I just keep torturing from every angle I can find. Over beer and burgers lunch with my personal therapist today (only a half-joke, as Doc Dave Sigurslid did special training in psychology and psychotherapy and sees more patients in that way than for physical ailments,plus he is one sharp cookie), this (what Hammer said) came up in conversation and it struck me for the first time that what I’ve been doing all these years, with no conscious awareness of my motivations, is trying to figure out and morally reconcile my deep love for animals and the natural desire to protect them that comes with love, with my equally deep love of hunting. Thus, I guess I am guilty as charged of being an elitist: IMO, if people can’t hunt without disrespecting the animals, they have no moral right to hunt. Perhaps I should look for some new ideas to torture myself and readers with. I have one, but it has naught to do with hunting. Anyhow, I do appreciate all the support you exceptionally good folks on this site have always offered, and also your honest feedback, bad as well as good. Of course, good is for the public forum and bad is what PMs are for! 😆 Or, as they say on a radio blues program we listen to: “If you like what we’re doing, tell everyone. If you don’t like it, don’t say nuthin’ to nobody!” 😆

[Col Mike]

#49884

Bruce

I actually think he has taken it beyond honing the point. I mean that article was clearly a single bevel broad head straight to the heart IMHO:D

Dave

Not sure you need new ideas to torture us with just continue that honing process. Although if your receptive here’s one.

Yes we all know that hunting made us human and the ancient’s being small in number and never having a thought about conservation–they didn’t have to they just hunted to eat. Today the dichotomy is kill for the trophy and you need all this tech gear to do it because you are to stupid to be a Hammer or R2 or doc nock or paleo or clay, you get the point.

However that wealth of food is no longer there and how do we re-educate the youngsters that the traditional way is better then just killing, That the outdoor,woodsmen skills are what’s important.

Not sure I said that very well but I hope you will get the drift.

Semper Fi

Mike

[Fallguy]

#49930

Dave what you do is by No means torture. You have a passion and a quest to find the inner truth, you have found the words the rest of us can not. Now break out the padded cuffs, key board and whip us up some more enlightened reading.:wink:

[Ralph]

#49949

“if people can’t hunt without disrespecting the animals, they have no moral right to hunt.”

Dave that statement moves me very much. So many people I once knew and even now I still know some, (I do not associate with them) had not or have no respect or feelings for the animals they kill. They respect only the “trophy”, the pats on the back from their buddies or the glory from the crowds.

Thank you for your wise way of using words and expressing your thoughts and feelings.

Ralph

[James Harvey]

#50099

Something I really liked about that essay was that it was clearly reaching out to people who don’t hunt. Challenging them, inviting them in for a closer look. It’s the kind of piece that may just encourage a couple more young folk to pick up a bow and get some blood on their hands.

[Clay Hayes]

#50943

Well done Dave, and for those who’ve not read The Tender Carnivore and the Sacred Game, you should. It’s deep and, if you’re like me, will answer questions you never knew you had. It’s deep enough, and I’m slow enough, that I can only really comprehend what Paul is saying when my mind is most active, which is about 5 – 7 am. After that, forget it.

Dave, you just keep hammering away at the crowd you’re targeting. I can’t think of a better representative to the non-hunting majority. God knows we need someone to counter the contemporary American “sportsman” image.

[David Coulter]

#51066

All said and well said above. I want to add.. please do go after a non-hunting topic and when you write, please WebMom, send us the link to that, too. You should sleep well. dwc

[Stephen Graf]

#51601

R2 wrote: …So many people I once knew and even now I still know some, (I do not associate with them) had not or have no respect or feelings for the animals they kill…

Ralph

You speak of a problem I think about every day… If good people like you don’t show them a better way, how will they ever learn it?

Just wondering out loud…

[Author]

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