An Ethnography of Hunters Essays

While the duck hunting today has grown significantly in the past years, hunters today now face

Hunting was important to the early man. This was how they would find food and the necessities that they needed from animals. In document #1, the cave painting found in Lascaux, France, shows a herd of deer attacking a group of people that have bows and arrows. The painting shows the human figures using the bows and arrows to attack and kill the deer. This evidence may suggest that this group of people are nomadic; meaning they migrate to areas where a food source is available. A quote by Jacob Bronowski’s documentary, The Ascent of Man, in

The Tchefuncte culture, during the Woodland Period, was the first people to use the land to make pottery. Populations in the Woodland Period became more sedentary and began to establish semi-permanent villages and to practice agriculture. “A major change in hunting strategy occurred during the time of the Woodland Indians with the introduction of the bow and arrow.” (Prehistory, screen 1). They continued to hunt and farm, more efficiently with the bow and

Because they lived close to the river and streams, they would fish using spear, traps, hooks and line to catch any kind of fish. The Cherokees like to hunt for large animals such as deer and bear. They hunted with bows and arrows, but they also hunted small prey too such as rabbit, raccoons, turkey and squirrels. Besides the meat, the products of the hunt was used in the making of clothing (usually made of buckskin).

On one hand, poaching is produced by poverty and unemployment. Nowadays, rural communities, which live close to the natural reserve, are mostly poor with nearly no access to employment or opportunities to get a job. They see this practice as the method to meet their needs either by eating the meat or selling it to neighboring communities. Absence of education leaves them in the position of poaching as the only way to survive; “"Ever since I was a child, hunting is all I've known," Philmon says "Unemployment drove me to this."” .

Currently few people still hunt and gather, like the Bushmen, who live hard lives but still survive despite hard conditions

The Hohokam culture of present day Arizona existed from 300 A.D. to 1200 A.D. The earliest Hohokam people lived in unusually large lodges possibly with their extended family. The Hohokam men, who were traditionally hunters, hunted large game with spears until the bow and arrow was introduced around 400-500 A.D. Throughout the culture’s lifespan, its geographical range expanded by at least three to four times. As the Hohokam culture expanded and their contacts with neighboring tribes increased, trade began to flourish. A surprising variety of products were

“Since the existence of life as we know it, hunting has been the key to survival for predators, leaving their prey with the paranoia of being eaten day in, day out. Everything’s sole purpose was merely to survive. Then come the dawn of man, who would become the smartest predator to ever roam the planet, dominate the food chain and eventually alter the entire purpose of hunting altogether. Weapons and tools have changed over time, hunters no longer rely on sticks, stones, bones to kill their prey (“Evolution of Hunting: History of Tools, Weapons & Tactics”).” Over the years technology has evolved how people hunt. In todays hunting people use firearms, which makes it a lot easier to hunt and kill prey. Animals such as deer, coyotes, fox, and wild hogs are usually shot with a rifle. Since they are bigger animals and are usually easier to hit.

The Hunters and Gathers enjoyed a better standard of living than that of the Neolithic village dwellers. The Hunting and Gathering bands had a longer life expectancy due to a greater diversity of food intake, they also survived due to a class society in which the smaller group had easier mobility and faced fewer disease, and lastly the hunting and gathering bands clearly had a better lifestyle.

These advantages will be passed along to future generations thereby insuring the continuation of the species. This process referred to as “optimal foraging theory”, can be applied to human populations of hunter-gatherers. Ingold describes this objective as the ability “to maximize the balance between the energy intake from harvested resources and the energy costs of procurement” (Ingold 28). Foragers must make the decision of where to obtain food. These decisions are based on experience and sentient ecology. Hunters are faced with the same dilemma. A hunter must choose between an optimal high-yielding animal that is harder to hunt or, an easier to hunt yet less-yielding animal. Hunting decisions are based on weather, skill of the hunter, and available hunting technology. The strategies of following the cultural and ancestral hunting traditions may evolve over time through “a process of natural selection” (31). For example the older Cree hunter in the winter will travel by snowshoe and rely on his ability to find and handle any kind of animal. The younger generations of Cree hunters now utilize snowmobiles to track down high-priority animals and will specialize in hunting just one or two animals (Ingold 30). The style of hunting and the technology available for hunting has caused an evolution of

Since the beginning of time man has been hunting animals for food. Even before fire, man needed to hunt, because hunting was the only way to eat. At first man used things such as spears and rocks to kill its prey. As man evolved, they started using bows and arrows. Next came an early model of what we use today, the firearm. It is powerful yet easy to carry around. It puts the animal through less suffering and is a lot more efficient than previous techniques. Hunting was once a necessity, but now it is a tradition, passed on from father to son as a way to spend time together, enjoy the outdoors, and experience what our ancestors went through in hunting their dinner. Since it is considered a sport some think we are killing off

Our wagon train just kept on moving. As we were moving along George and Juan decided to go hunting. When George was getting his hunting supplies out the gun slipped from his hand, and he accidentally shot my foot. I was in so much pain until I got my first aid kit, and pulled the bullet out. Then the two other women in the other wagons came over to help me. I got some medication in there, and wrapped it up. I can still walk but not very fast, and I’m going to use a tree limb to help me. After a while George and Juan came back with a bison. After setting up for the night, all of us ladies started making the bison. We had the men skin it and decide how much we were going to make. We placed the meat in a pan and placed it over the fire to cook.

I always enjoy getting to spend time with my family, but at the moment I wanted to spend every second with Cameron. When Cameron asked me if I wanted to go hunting with him, but first thought was yes. I always wanted to go hunting, and there was no one I'd rather go with then him. My mom had other plans though. I don't usually fight with my mom, but tonight was different. She told me it was my decision to stay or to go home. My mom didn't realize how excited I was to go hunting at the time. I realized my mistake, but there was no going back and changing it once I

My buddy and I went out and did a lot of scouting before opening day of archery season. There was a group of deer that we had been watching with a couple of bucks, after watching them for a few weeks we had figured out their pattern, and we had gotten a lot of pictures of them on the trail camera. My buddy and I thought that we had a really good chance of getting a buck on opening day.

Hunting is a sport or activity, depending on who is asked, that is enjoyed by many and taken too seriously by others. There are many aspects of the activity that can make it fun or even boring but overall hunting is something fun to do. I have been hunting from a very young age and actually acquired the certification to get hunting license at the age of eight. Hunting has many different variables including the animals that will be hunted and the caliber of gun that is desired for use. There are many different types and calibers of weapons that are available for use while hunting. Weapons are not the only things that vary a lot in hunting but items such as animal calls and camouflage to tents and blinds to tree stand to