Why We Hunt

[John Y Cannuck]

Why We Hunt
By Randall L. Eaton, Ph.D.



We hunt because we love it, but why do we love it so?



As an inherited instinct, hunting is deeply rooted in human nature. Around the world in all cultures the urge to hunt awakens in boys. They use rocks, make weapons or sneak an airgun out of the house to kill a bird or small mammal. In many cases the predatory instinct appears spontaneously without previous experience or coaching, and in the civilized world boys often hunt despite attempts to suppress their instinct.



The fundamental instinct to hunt may link up with the spiritual. An analogy is falling in love in which eros, the ###ual instinct, connects with agape or spiritual love. Initiation on the path of love changes our life irreversibly. Henceforth, we shall know the meaning of our authentic love experienced with the totality of our being.



When we fall in love, the instinctive or primal self merges with the spiritual. It is a vertical convergence of subconscious to superconscious, lower to higher.



Hunting is how we fall in love with nature. The basic instinct links up with the spiritual, and the result is that we become married to nature. Among nature pursuits, hunting and fishing connects us most profoundly with animals and nature. As Robert Bly said in his best-selling book Iron John only hunting expands us sideways, "into the glory of oaks, mountains, glaciers, horses, lions, grasses, waterfalls, deer."



Hunting is a basic aspect of a boy's initiation into manhood. It teaches him the intelligence, beauty and power of nature. The young man also learns at a deep emotional level his inseparable relationship with nature as well as his responsibility to fiercely protect it.



Essentially, hunting is a spiritual experience precisely because it submerges us in nature, and that experience teaches us that we are participants in something far greater than man. Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish philosopher, described the hunter as the alert man. He could not have said it better. When we hunt we experience extreme alertness to the point of an altered state of consciousness. For the hunter everything is alive, and he is one with the animal and its environment.



Though the hunter may appear from the outside to be a staunch egotist dominating nature, on the inside he is exactly the opposite. He identifies with the animal as his kin, and he feels, as Ortega said, tied through the earth to it. The conscious and deliberate humbling of the hunter to the level of the animal is virtually a religious rite.



While the hunt is exhilarating and unsurpassed in intrinsic rewards and emotional satisfactions, no hunter revels in the death of the animal. Hunters know from first-hand experience that "life lives on life," as mythologist Joseph Campbell said. The hunter participates directly in the most fundamental processes of life, which is why the food chain is for him a love chain. And that is why hunters have been and still are, by far, the foremost conservationists of wildlife and wild places, to the benefit of everyone.



Today as for countless millennia proper initiation to hunting engenders respect for all life, responsibility to society, even social authority, and spiritual power. It develops authentic self-esteem, self-control, patience and personal knowledge of our place in the food chain. According to Dr. Don T. Jacobs, author of Teaching Virtues, "hunting is the ideal way to teach universal virtues," including humility, generosity, courage and fortitude. As I said in The Sacred Hunt, "Hunting teaches a person to think with his heart instead of his head. That is the secret of hunting."



Consequently, the most successful programs ever conducted for delinquent boys have focused on hunting. The taking of a life that sustains us is a transformative experience. It's not a video game. Hunting is good medicine for bad kids because it is good medicine for all kids.



Hunting is a model for living. When we hunt we discover that we are more than the ego. That our life consists of our ego in a mutually interdependent and transcendent relationship with nature. We keep returning to the field because for us hunting is a dynamic ritual that honors the animals and the earth on which we depend both physically and spiritually.



While interviewing Felix Ike, a Western Shoshone elder, I asked him, "What kind of country would this be if the majority of men in it had been properly initiated into hunting?" He replied, "It would be a totally different world."



In a world imperiled by egoism and disrespect for nature, hunting is morally good for men and women, boys and girls. Hunters understand the meaning in Lao Tzu's statement,



The Earth is perfect,

You cannot improve it.

If you try to change it,

You will ruin it.

If you try to hold it,

You will lose it.



Some aboriginal peoples believe that the Creator made us perfect, too, and that He made us to be hunters, dependent on nature and close to the earth. Like Narcissus, civilized humanity has fallen in love with itself and turned its back on its hunting companions and its animal kin. Beware the teaching of the ages summarized in this admonition from Loren Eiseley, "Do not forget your brethren, nor the green wood from which you sprang. To do so is to invite disaster."



Disaster looms over us now as we wage endless battles with anti-hunters who do not understand that we are the tribe of wild men and women whose hearts hold the promise for recovery of proper relationship to the animals and earth. If we should lose hunting a far greater disaster will befall nature, society and the human spirit.





References and Suggested Reading and Viewing:

Bly, Robert. 1991. Iron John.

Eaton, Randall L. 1997. "The Sacred Hunt." 90 minutes. Sacred Films.

Eaton, Randall L. 1998. The Sacred Hunt: Hunting As A Sacred Path. Sacred Press.

Eaton, Randall L. 2000. "Proper Hunting Initiation Could Curb Teen Violence." North American Hunter. June-July



Eaton, Randall L. In progress. "Why Hunting Builds Character." Video production.

Eaton, Randall L. In progress. Hunting As Character Education.

Eiseley, Loren. 1978. The Unexpected Universe.

Jacobs, Don T. 2001. Teaching Virtues.

Ortega y Gasset, Jose. 1972. Meditations on Hunting. Charles Scribner's Sons.



Randall L. Eaton has been awarded the First Place Award for the Sacred Trophy at the Outdoor Writers Association of America.



He may be contacted at (541) 426-2047,

reaton@eoni.com.

P.O. Box 280, Enterprise, OR 97828 USA.

www.eoni.com/~reaton

 

[Gatehouse]

I hunt because it is who I am.

Period, full stop.

(okay, also since a beer tastes much better when you have crusted blod on your hands)

 

[BIGREDD]

Throw a frog in the play pen with a couple of Two Year olds and see what happens.....

 

[Levi Garrett]

I have no idea why , it came natural as a child , and I never ever wanted for anything else. There was a peroid of time where hunting 2 legged critters took over. A short time later , I got back on the horse, and never looked back. The hunt is everything, the kill is just the end of it.
I buy a tag, and take 2 weeks to harvest an animal, I felt short changed if I bag an animal the first day. But thats the fun in hunting, its so Unpredictable , both in seeing the animal , and the quality of game animal you end up with , if at all.
A close encounter with a monster buck that gets away is just as great a memory as it ending up in the freezer.
Practice fair chase, good friends along for the hunt, and your gonna be one happy camper.
Avoid at all cost, the Liberal ,BBC,UN,PETA head bone lobotomy.

 

[triton]

Don't know why exactly. Was brought up that way. It's just what I do!

 

[JohnC]

"Man hunts in order to have hunted"

Ortega Y Gasset, Meditations on Hunting. the book covers it all.

 

[pickpork]

I hunt to relax. It seems like after 5 mintues in the woods all the problems in the world just fade away. Watching the sun set and just listening the sounds in the woods let a man know he is alive. Harvesting a tasty animal is a great bonus.

 

[powder burner]

because wild meat tastes better than beef.

 

[Varmit]

Thanks man, that was the best explanation I've seen yet.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

Hunting defines me.
Without it, I would not be me.

 

[dumbdawg]

i hunt for all the above reasons

 

[Levi Garrett]

I hunt cause I like to kill my meat before eating it.

 

[death-junky]

I hunt because it is the best thing i can think of spending my money on....
ttyal
Riley

 

[Johnn Peterson]

I've always enjoyed shooting and going after Grouse in my youth was a fun intro to hunting but the crowning glory was the thrill of my first Moose hunt. After Dad introduced me to that and I got my first Moose, at close quarters, I knew I was hooked for life.
Other related activities such as camping, reloading and other aspects of the shooting sports have all added to that enjoyment.
These days the 'thrill of the hunt' is still there but gaining in importance is the association and camarderie of most others with similar interests.

 

[powdergun]

Man is but a small part of a much larger picture. We fit into the natural scheme of things as we always have. Nature is about hunting. We hunt because we are a part of nature and that is how it should be. A man must be self sufficient even if it is only ceremonial as in a yearly hunting trip.

For those who claim to be nature loving while at the same time denounce hunting they are sadly misinformed and do not understand. And by the way they can kiss my big fat rosy red a**!

 

[cdngunner]

I have posted this before, along the same lines

Why do Hunters Kill?
From Russ Chastain,
Your Guide to Hunting / Shooting.
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When there's meat available at the butcher's, why must hunters kill their own?
It is my feeling that hunting is not a sport, inasmuch as a sport is most often perceived as an organized activity performed for the entertainment of the participants and/or onlookers. Hunting is something that goes much deeper than that.

I've been asked several times why hunters kill, when we could just as easily stalk our prey with a camera or binoculars, just for the thrill of being up close with a deer, turkey, or other game animal. The answer is simple: without the kill, we're not hunting.

The kill is the culmination of the hunt. We're not fishing here; there's no catch-and-release option, it's all or nothing. Yes, it's fulfilling just to be in the woods with the animals, and to get up-close-and-personal with them. Yes, it's a thrill to have a deer walk by at 25 yards, totally unaware of my presence.

But the kill is what makes it hunting.
I've got to quote a favorite statement here: We don't hunt to kill, we kill in order to have hunted. I'm not sure of the source of this quote, but it's right on. We hunt for the thrill of the chase, and the ecstatic peace that comes with being out there trying to beat a wild animal at his own game. When the chance finally comes, there is no doubt; we will kill.

But, can't we just stroll down to the grocery store and pick out a nice roast, instead of killing the poor forest creatures? Yep. But why should we? When I kill a deer, I know that deer had a chance, and that up until the time I took him, he lived a wild, free life. That erstwhile cow that's sitting in the foam trays in the butcher's case was born to die... it never had a chance. Add to that the various steroid injections, etc, and I know I'd rather be eating the deer. I also know the conditions in which the deer was butchered, since I've always done that myself. I also have the pride in furnishing it, rather than paying someone else to do my killing for me.

To those who don't kill and don't understand why we do, I'll borrow from an acquaintance. Why do we kill rather than buy meat? For the same reason many folks grow vegetables in their back yards... for the same reason amateur musicians play music rather than buying it... for the same reason folks paint or draw pictures, rather than buying someone else's art... for the same reason many enjoy photography rather than just buying a picture book of photos... because of the pride that lies in doing it ourselves. Also, venison (deer meat) is healthier than beef or pork, as it is much leaner.

I have to include another quote as well, from The Old Man and the Boy : "...if there's one thing I despise it's a killer, some blood-crazy idiot that just goes around bam-bamming at everything he sees. A man who takes pleasure in death just for death's sake is rotten somewhere inside, and you'll find him doing things later in life that'll prove it." All true hunters agree with this, and we don't kill out of bloodlust, and we don't kill everything we see.

The kill is not the bottom line reason for the hunt, but it cannot be removed from the equation.

-Russ Chastain

 

[44fordy]

I ask myself that question from time to time. Why do I hunt?

Instinct.....pure, animal instinct. That's it. Ya sure, I love animals, I love nature, I love the outdoors and everything like.

But I seek animals for the purpose of killing them and eating them, out of instinct.

 

[44fordy]

Here's a good one that I picked up...

Why Hunt?
Many of us have been asked to put into words the reasons why we hunt. The problem is, the reasons and motivations that compel me and many others to hunt are pretty hard to put into print. This is my first attempt at explaining what drives me to head into the woods each hunting season.
What leaps to mind is a quote from my father. Someone had asked him why he loved to hunt so much; what was so great about being in the woods. His reply was, "If I have to explain it, you wouldn't understand." This really sums up the feeling many of us have. A recent ad in several hunting magazines shows a fellow festooned in camoflage, with the caption "You can't explain it. But nothing would keep you from it." Our lack of eloquence on this subject is a major factor in the "bunny-huggers'" fight against our rights. The vast majority of our populace is open to suggestion on the topic of hunting, and could take it or leave it. The very fact that the anti-hunting crowd often makes their claims public, with little or no rebuttal from us hunters, will sway many of these neutral folks. It's really a debate with one vocal participant, and the claims made, while illogical and faulty, are the only thoughts to ever reach many of these non-hunters. I believe it's time we delved into ourselves and offered our thoughts, however abstract, to the non-hunting public for their consideration.
I started going to the woods with Dad when I was very young. I don't really remember when I first went, but when I was nine, I got to go on a few hunting trips with him and follow him through the woods. He wisely kept these trips varied, and limited the time we spent on any one thing, as my attention span was fairly short. By the time I was eleven, I got to carry an old heirloom .410 double-barrel shotgun, with the action broken open. If I was to spot some game, then by his permission, I could close the gun and shoot. Soon I was allowed to wander the woods on my own for short times, still following his rule of keeping the gun broken. It was at this time that the hunting seed really began to grow in me. There's just no way to adequately portray the majesty of a forest and the creatures within, when you feel like the only man who's ever stood where you stand. It doesn't matter that you're walking on a well-worn trail, and that you spy spent shotgun shells alongside it from time to time. You feel all alone, at peace, fully alert, ready for anything. I never feel closer to God than I do when I walk in the woods, his most wondrous creations all around me, with the challenge of outwitting them on their own terms in front of me.
The hunting instinct is one of the most basic instincts of mankind. After all, we are the ultimate predator. Take a look at "prey" animals. Their eyes are usually on the sides of their heads, affording a wider field of view. They lose some depth perception with this arrangement, but it helps them survive. Predators, on the other hand, characteristically have their eyes set close together, very useful for estimating the distance between he and his target. Beyond this, the urge to kill lies within us all, especially as children. Without proper channelling of these instincts, children often grow into physically abusive and/or murderous adults. Can any of us honestly say that, as kids, we didn't shoot birds with our slingshots and bb guns, or set homemade traps for other critters? I say that if you can say that, then you either never had an opportunity as a child, or you're an exception to the rule of human nature.
The kill is the fulfillment of the hunt. We hunt to be alone, to observe wildlife without being observed ourselves, to face one of the greatest challenges in this world: to take a wild animal on his own turf, using our brain and little else. Forget the wild tales you may have heard about "automatic" guns and telescopic sites. When it comes right down to it, those things are no good unless you can create an opportunity to use them. We don't swagger into the woods and slay Bambi when he meekly peeks from behind a tree. We have to use every sense, every bit of experience we have, and when we accomplish our goal, it's a milestone. I once watched a videotape on hunting that theorized that, on the average, if you are hunting and get a chance at a deer, that chance will last 7 seconds. In my experience, that's not far off. Sometimes you'll have longer, sometimes not that long, but 7 seconds is just about average. Think of what it takes to be alert and ready, and to make an honest, clean shot on an animal that always believes there's danger behind every tree! In those 7 seconds you must verify that it is, indeed, a legal animal, find a chance to shoot (not easy when you're in brushy country), and you must usually remain undetected by those roving eyes and swivelling ears. What a high! The adrenalin rush I get from it is like nothing else in this world. The fulfillment of long hard hours of hunting is definitely worth it!
I read a quote from a famous writer once, though I can't recall his name. The quote went something like this: "We do not go hunting to kill. We kill in order to have gone hunting." Without the kill, you aren't hunting. That doesn't mean that you have to kill every legal animal you see, but hunting is not hunting if you're not there to kill. But to return to the quote, one does not go hunting expressly for that purpose. Hunting is freedom, a tie to our ancestors, peace, contentment, happiness, joy, sweat, close calls, exploring, hiking, stealth, boring, exhilarating, tiring, satisfying, challenging, and a thousand other things. It's there for you to discover, and judge for yourself if you want to take part in it. But please, "don't knock it until you've tried it." That's the only way you'll ever know for sure.

 

[Dogleg]

I hunt because I'm a hunter. Something we all were once, with the possible exception of some of the gatherers.

 

[Johnn Peterson]

I hunt because I'm a hunter. Something we all were once, with the possible exception of some of the gatherers.

That is a basic concept that some have great difficulty coming to terms with. On the way to Brooks AB for a Phesant & Duck hunt a number of years ago, we stopped for fuel on the outskirts of Calgary. When in the conversation the young lady pumping gas found out where we were going and why, there was a major change in her attitude. She had trouble accepting the fact that for something to live, something else must die, both for plants and animals.