Hunting is as old as humanity-older, in fact-and as
new as the latest high-tech gear they're selling at your local sporting goods
store. Fossil evidence indicates that early humans were hunting with spears as
long as 16,200 years ago, and scientists estimate that we've been eating meat
much longer than that-for nearly two million years, a span of time that long
predates the emergence of homo sapiens.
And in that time we haven't merely hunted
animals-we've made the experience of hunting part of the myths, rituals and
arts of human culture. The cave painters, who are humanity's first known visual
artists-and still among its best-seem to have made hunting one of their major
themes; there are images tens of thousands of years old that seem to depict
animals wounded in a hunt, and some speculate that the reason for the overall
predominance of animal imagery in those paintings reflects their origin in some
sort of pre-hunt magic-an early instance, if you will, of visualization.
Agriculture, and animal husbandry, reduced the
importance of the hunt slightly, but it's remained a part of human life. Its
decreased necessity, in farming societies, allowed it to become a social
outlet, even a sport, for those who could afford the time-which, for much of
European history, was not many people, given the brutal laws that affected
laborers' ability to sell their work for a greater-than-subsistence wage.
Hunting became a pastime for the idle rich, one that was thought to build character.
In the Europe of medieval and later times, hunting grew to be so firmly
associated with the upper classes that the rich hunter became a sort of
stereotypical figure-one that survives to our own day in the cartoon character
Elmer Fudd, that befuddled but well-off would-be wabbit hunter of Looney Tunes
fame.
In nineteenth-century America, by contrast, the slaves
and poor whites of the South insisted, in practice, on their right to hunt for
food (often from sheer necessity). Hunting thus became, for Americans, a more
democratic pastime. The Second Amendment, and the resultant tradition of
American gun ownership (not to say worship), helped reinforce this idea. So did
such iconic American figures as the writer Ernest Hemingway, who returned to
the subject in one short story after another, and the president Theodore
Roosevelt, whose obsession with "virility" (as he defined it) drove
him to a near-worship of sports. So as well did the practical importance of
hunting to the settlers of the West and Middle West-who carried on from
thousands of years of Native American hunting of the same territory, though
generally without the ecological sensitivity and local intelligence of those
peoples. (Thus the near-extinction of the Bison.)
These days, hunting faces some controversy, as
animal-rights activists call the sport barbaric, and environmentalists worry
that its ecological consequences may be dire. Yet conservationism is also woven
into the history of American hunting-Roosevelt, that pivotal figure in its history,
was also among the first Presidents to enact environmental-protection laws, and
his legacy lives on among hunters who support efforts to protect certain
wildlife habitats. In any case, hunting remains one of the few activities that
allows contemporary urbanized Americans, the vast majority of whom live in
cities and towns, to interact with animals and to see forests.
But for this very reason, hunting imposes certain
dangers-after all, it asks people who may have little experience of surviving
in the woods to do so, perhaps miles from familiar civilization. Here are some
tips to keep in mind on your hunting trip:
1) Remember
the "rule of three." In general, humans cannot survive three hours in
extreme low temperatures; three days without water; or three weeks without
food.
2) Always
bring a first-aid kit.
3) Make
sure someone knows exactly where you plan to hunt, and exactly
when to expect you back. If you get trapped in the woods, you want to know
there's somebody back home who can alert authorities in the event of your going
missing. Hunt in a group, if possible.
4) Observe
basic gun safety at all times, no matter how experienced you consider yourself
to be. Don't point a gun or bow at anything you aren't sure you want to shoot.
Don't rest the muzzle against your foot, keep the safety on and the trigger
untouched until the moment you're ready to fire. Unload or unstring your weapon
when it's not in use, and keep it safely locked up. Wear hearing and eye
protection, leave the beers at home, and in general, always treat your gun or
bow as if it were loaded and ready to shoot-always.
5) Don't
hunt during periods of low visibility-children have been shot at a range of
seventeen yards by hunters who forgot this bit of common-sense advice.
6) Wear
bright-orange gear to ensure your own visibility to other hunters. If other
hunters in the area seem to behave recklessly-an increasing problem as
methamphetamine usage takes more and more of a toll on the same rural areas
that provide many with hunting grounds-get out and get home, as fast as you
can.
7) Spot-check
your gear before you leave, especially if it has been in contact with the
ground. Otherwise you may bring home unwanted "guests" in the form of
scorpions, snakes, bugs and other undesirables.
8) This
is not a complete guide. Your library or local DNR office will have information
you need-make sure you avail yourself of all of it.
9) A
good hunter is not one who laughs at danger or never feels fear, but the one
who takes danger seriously and fears the right things.
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