jefff@cadovax.UUCP (Jeffery H. Fields) (07/16/85)
There has been much discussion lately regarding the morality of
hunting wild game. I believe that the controversy over this issue
stems from the fact that we all live in a post-industrial agrarian
society. I would like to introduce the perspective of a hunter-
gatherer as it pertains to the morality of hunting.
I know a member of the Salish-Kootenai tribe in western Montana named
Richard. One summer day he told me he was going deer-hunting. I
asked him how it was legal to hunt out of season. He said he was
going hunting on the Flathead Indian Reservation as members of the
tribe can hunt there any time they wish. I then asked him what he
thought of poachers and hunters in general. He told me that he
thought poachers and hunters were generally conscientious people, but
that some should not be allowed to own a rifle. He has no objection
to poaching, if it is done with with respect for the prey. It angers
him when he sees a hunter sloshed to the gills on booze and tramping
through the country looking for something to kill.
Richard told me that the most important thing about hunting is the
spirit in which it is done. The Native North Americans, as all
hunter-gatherer societies, have a religious reverence for the earth
and its inhabitants. When Richard goes hunting he prays to the spirit
of the animal. He prays so that the animal can prepare itself for
death. He prays that his aim will be true and that the animal will
die with a minimum amount of pain. He prays for permission to kill
the animal in order that he may live.
Once the animal is killed, it is customary in Richard's tribe to
remove the still-beating heart and to divide it equally among the
hunting party who eat it. From a western white middle-class view
point this may seem primitive and barbaric, but for Richard it is a
symbolic ritual that signifies the rebirth of the spirit of the dead
animal. The spirit becomes one with the hunter who is strengthened
spiritually and physically.
In our high tech society we have become divorced from this spirit.
This separation began long ago, when we started to till the soil and
domesticate animals. It is from this separation that our perceptions
of the living earth have become clouded. Please remember this the
next store-bought meal you eat.
--
Jeff Fields
{ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!jefff
Pax vobiscum.foy@aero.ARPA (Richard Foy ) (08/08/85)
In article <709@cadovax.UUCP> jefff@cadovax.UUCP (Jeffery H. Fields) writes: > >Richard told me that the most important thing about hunting is the >spirit in which it is done. The Native North Americans, as all >hunter-gatherer societies, have a religious reverence for the earth >and its inhabitants. When Richard goes hunting he prays to the spirit >of the animal. He prays so that the animal can prepare itself for >death. He prays that his aim will be true and that the animal will >die with a minimum amount of pain. He prays for permission to kill >the animal in order that he may live. > It is interesting to compare and contrast this attitude with ours as portrayed in the movie The Emerals Forrest.