Hunting (Anthropology)

Le guépard médiéval, ou comment reconnaître un animal sans nom

by Thierry Buquet

Published in Reinardus, 23, 2011 p. 12-47. DOI : 10.1075/rein.23.02buq

The following PDF is the author's version, not the publisher's final layout and text.

Le guépard, utilisé... more The following PDF is the author's version, not the publisher's final layout and text.

Le guépard, utilisé comme auxiliaire de chasse dans les mondes irano-persans et arabes depuis des millénaires, et à ce titre bien connu et identifié dans ces aires culturelles, est longtemps resté en Occident un animal plus incertain, demeurant encore aujourd’hui difficile à repérer dans les sources médiévales. Son nom de “guépard” apparaissant en français seulement au 17e siècle, il ne semble pas posséder auparavant de nom en propre et porte le même zoonyme que la panthère: celui de “léopard”. De même, dans les images, il est parfois difficile de différencier les deux animaux. La présente contribution tente donc de faire le point sur ces confusions en donnant quelques éléments aidant à l’identification de cet animal sans nom dans les textes et les images. L’article apporte des indications relatives au contexte littéraire ou documentaire, principalement à la fin du Moyen Âge, où le guépard faisait partie des équipages de chasse princiers, notamment en Italie, aussi noble que le faucon, recherché comme un objet de luxe et de prestige exotique.

Ethical Issues in Tropy Hunting

by John Dobson

In Moufakkir, O. & Burns, P. (2011) Controversies in Tourism. Wallingford: Cabi.

This chapter evaluates the arguments for and against trophy hunting as a tourism activity. It begins by exploring... more This chapter evaluates the arguments for and against trophy hunting as a tourism activity. It begins by exploring debates surrounding the definition of consumptive wildlife tourism and differences that can be said to exist between wildlife leisure activities and wildlife tourism activities. Distinctions between different types of hunting are then discussed before arguments for and against trophy hunting are explored. The chapter then concludes with an exploration of the issues that surround providing animals with moral consideration and how a number of key ethical theories view hunting activities.

Obsolescence, transmission, or adaptation? Notes on some children’s performance of ritual hunting among the Seereer (Senegal)

by Aurélie TROY

draft
will be published in :TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE AND CHILDREN AGENCY : RECONSTRUCTING THE PARADIGMS OF SOCIALIZATION
Marine Carrin Tambs-Lyche and Dominique Blanc (eds)
Routledge - 2011

The purpose of this paper is to question the processes of intergenerational transmission at stake in matters of ritual... more The purpose of this paper is to question the processes of intergenerational transmission at stake in matters of ritual practice. It is an account of a work in progress: the material I will explore here is drawn from fieldwork I conducted in two Seereer villages of Senegal in May 2001 and 2011 as I had the opportunity to witness and film parts of three ritual hunts (miis) where young boys and adolescents were the main actors. The miis is currently performed before the rainy season as farmers start clearing fields before seeding. It comes into the category of a cycle of so-called rain-rituals along with the xooy (literally, the call) mostly performed by men, and its feminine counterpart the xet (get-together).

I first compare my materials with the results Marguerite Dupire displayed in a 1976 paper on the same region. My observations of the public episodes of the ritual hunts and the accounts older generations have made on the subject ¬— the way they recollect, i.e. “perceive and verbalize” such rites— will give some insights on how the transition was made from a ritual concerning mature men in the past to one mostly performed by young boys and teenagers nowadays. Have ritual hunts become obsolete at some point and been taken over by youths then? Not surprisingly for anthropologists used to these matters, the old generation’s discourse consistently vacillates between a glorification of the performances of the past (where hunters had strength and magical powers, and believed in supernatural beings wandering in the bush) and an acerbic criticism of today’s (where “kids” take a serious ritual as a game, turn it into a farce, don’t believe in any of the pre-Islamic religion’s spirits, are weak and lack clairvoyance because of their laziness, the many cigarettes they smoke or their allegedly active sexual behavior). Of course, this discourse doesn’t go without paradox: while pointing at the incapacity of children to perform the miis, the old men still recognize its importance as a ritual.

Secondly, I focus on the topic of the songs performed as the hunters get back to the village after a beat in the nearby bush of approximately twelve hours. According to the old drummers I interviewed and whose roles at this part of the ritual were to accompany the singers, none of the young hunters was able to tell the meaning of the lyrics – or be even interested in it. For them, transmission to the younger generation is an empty shell: songs certainly well known, but devoid of any deep significance. And yet, the transfer of knowledge at issue here is related to the histories of foundation of the two villages and the boundaries of their respective lands.

At this point, discussing the ecological changes which occurred in the region over the past 50 years allows me to put forward a working hypothesis. What species were and are now hunted during those rituals? A connection can be made between the extinction of species which used to be hunted such as panthers, gazelles, huge birds, and today’s prey: small birds (local species of partridges and guinea fowls), and bush squirrels mainly. Great hunters of the past went after noble prey; smaller hunters of today go for smaller catch. This could explain both a progressive loss of interest in ritual hunting by mature men and the necessity of adaptation of the ritual practice. Ecological changes forced a major re-organization of the ritual upon its actors connecting it to other categories of rituals. In my opinion and because the miis is now performed by young boys partially supervised by young men it can henceforth be analyzed as a step towards initiation even if still a part of the rain-ritual cycles.
Finally, I show that despite all the changes in ritual hunting, both young and old have performed it on the same territories, following a precise route, marked by precise trees from which leaf or roots are collected along with suufar naak (a kind of bindweed). These vegetal elements are still used for the masking of the hunters and as protections for the houses and fields of their parents. This continuity is not only the common ground where two or more generations can meet in evoking the miis; it also gives us a direction to head toward for the forthcoming investigation among children practicing ritual hunting. What do they know about these trees, true monuments of the local history and religion (when they supposedly don’t get the meaning of the ritual songs they sing)? What do they think about the efficacy of leaves with which they adorn themselves or protect their homes (when they’re only supposed to be playing)? These are a few of many questions these notes will raise, along with the discussion of such notions as obsolescence, memory/recollection, transmission/transfer of knowledge, adaptation, continuity, nature/culture.

Gaudzinski, S. 1998. Knochen und Knochengeräte der mittelpaläolithischen Fundstelle Salzgitter-Lebenstedt (Deutschland). Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 45, 163-220.

by Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser

The Middle Palaeolithic site of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt represents one of the most important exposures for our knowledge... more The Middle Palaeolithic site of Salzgitter-Lebenstedt represents one of the most important exposures for our knowledge of the evolution of hominin behaviour. Faunal analysis at the site revealed evidence for a reindeer mass-kill. Moreover, Salzgitter-Lebenstedt an assemblage of 28 bone tools was uncovered which have been manufactured by Neanderthals. Taphonomic analysis of the complete faunal assemblage, serves as a background for the study of the bone tools. It could be demonstrated that the raw material for the bone tools was intentionally selected by hominins. The bone tools are discussed within the archaeological context illustrating their unique occurrence in the Middle palaeolithic record.

An eagle-eyed perspective. Haliaeetus albicilla in the Mesolithic and Neolithic of the Lower Rhine Area

by Luc Amkreutz

Amkreutz, L. & R. Corbey 2008. An eagle-eyed perspective. Haliaeetus albicilla in the Mesolithic and Neolithic of the Lower Rhine Area, In: H. Fokkens, B.J. Coles, A.L. van Gijn, J.P. Kleijne, H.H. Ponjee & C.G. Slappendel (eds.), Between foraging and farming. An extend broad spectrum of papers presented to Leendert Louwe Kooijmans. (Also: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia 40) Leiden, 167-180.

Apart from the wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) the white-tailed eagle ranks second in presence-absence counts on... more Apart from the wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) the white-tailed eagle ranks second in presence-absence counts on Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in the Lower Rhine Area. Its presence has often sparked discussions on an aspect of hunter-gatherer or early farmerlife in the Lower Rhine Area of which we know little: the symbolic connotations of objects and animals.
The white-tailed eagle has almost always taken center-stage wherever it occurs.The consistent presence of bones and claws of white-tailed eagles at many Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in the Lower Rhine Area may offer a window not so much onto this
raptor’s importance to diet as onto less tangible aspects of
past life. We would like to take this opportunity to investigate
the existing archaeological evidence and try to elucidate
some of this bird’s symbolic meaning for past communities
with the help of ethnographic and archaeological sources.

Blood Culture and the Problem of Decadence

by Jeffrey Cain

“Blood Culture and the Problem of Decadence,” in Wild Games: Hunting and Fishing Traditions in North America. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2010 (45-61).

This paper examines the commodification of hunting practices via the deterritorializing function of capitalism... more This paper examines the commodification of hunting practices via the deterritorializing function of capitalism described by Deleuze and Guattari. It also studies counter trends-- predicted by or consistent with Deleuzean theory--that indicate a subtending authenticity displayed by certain hunting practices apparently resistant to commercial exploitation. "Blood culture" is my term for inauthentic hunting activity--a distinction drawn directly by Deleuze in his televised interviews with Claire Parnet. Aspects of "becoming-animal" and other transversal and cross-disciplinary flows of thought are also of course in play. As in some of my former work, I again argue for a Deleuzean cultural mechanics of the Actual/Virtual, a rigorous system that informs the "hunting body" as a special case of the Body without Organs. In order to track and kill game the authentic hunter must be open to multiplicity in the form of becoming animal; she or he must become less totalized, geometric, stratified, closed, and centripetal; in short, less civilized. It is important to note that the mechanics of culture I am postulating (here and elsewhere) does not derive from morality, psychoanalysis, textualism, or organicism. It is, rather, based on Deleuze and Deleuze and Guattari's concepts of the Actual, the Virtual, the Plane of the Real and the Plane of Immanence, De-and re-territorializations of various kinds, the BwO, flows, stratifications, segmentations, inorganic potentialities, percepts and affects, and numerous other conceptual artifacts culled from their works and other disciplines.

LES GRAVURES RUPESTRES DE JORDANIE DU SUD ET ENQUÊTE SUR LES PRATIQUES DE CHASSE ACTUELLES

by Saba FARES

Published in La chasse, Pratiques sociales et symboliques, Maison René-Ginouvès, Archéologie et Ethnologie (Ed.), 2006, p. 37-44

The analysis of the rock art in southern Jordan permits
us to establish an inventory of wild species and tomore The analysis of the rock art in southern Jordan permits
us to establish an inventory of wild species and to
understand hunting activity since prehistory. They also
inform us about the method of hunting (individual,
collective). The permanence of this activity today helps
us to draw up a portrait of the hunter: his morals and
physical qualities.


L’analyse des gravures rupestres en Jordanie du Sud
permet d’établir un inventaire des espèces sauvages
et de connaître l’activité cynégétique depuis
la préhistoire. Elles nous éclairent également sur la
modalité de chasse (individuelle, collective). La permanence
de cette activité de nos jours nous aide à
dresser un portrait du chasseur : ses qualités morales
et physiques.

Key words: Jordan, Arabia, Wadi Ramm, Al-Hwaïtat,
hunting, hunters, inscriptions, north Arabic, Bronzeage,
ostriches, rock art, bovids, gazelle, ibex, felids,
caracal, cheetah, camels.

Mots-clés : Jordanie, Arabie, Wadi Ramm, al-
Hwaïtat, chasse, chasseurs, inscriptions, nordarabique,
âge de Bronze, autruche, gravures rupestres,
bovidés, gazelle, ibex, bouquetin, félins, caracal,
guépard, chameaux.