An Ethnography of Hunters Essays - 2662 Words

Everyone kills, and everyone eats. Not everyone eats what they kill, but these remain two of the most intimate forms of communing with our environment, whether we recognize them as such, or not. Almost 40 000 Americans are killed each year as the result of homicidal, accidental, and suicidal uses of guns; in all, Americans wielding guns intimidate, wound, and kill hundreds of thousands every year. These were the kinds of ideas impressed upon me as I grew up in my urban home: Guns were beasts, as were knives, arrows, spears, indeed anything could become a weapon if held in a particular way. We sprayed each other with the hose instead of water guns, and spent many long hours as a family communing with nature through long walks on the†¦show more content†¦We named her Ellen. We had her for dinner. She was tough, and tasty. I felt sad, but not cruel or inhumane. I had no ritual to perform before I took her life, nor one to perform afterwards. I did not know how these things were done. I did not know what it meant to be a hunter. When the opportunity arose for me to take a closer look into the hunting culture, I only had to look in the telephone book to find what I was looking for: Turkey Creek Guns and Archery in downtown Goshen, Indiana. I called them up, explained rather inarticulately what I was interested in, and soon set up meetings with what I believed to be thoroughly encultured, currently involved, non-analytic individuals. My research took the form of ethnography, with the goal of grasping my informants point of view, their relation to life, and their visions of their world . One of my first discoveries was that I needed to learn a new language: (what was a muzzleloader? Why was a solid blade better than an expandable arrowhead? What are cat-whiskers to a hunter?) I will attempt to pull you into the hunting world through the stories of a woman and man, whom I will call Beth and David, that own and run the local guns and archery shop. For the first interview I met Beth at what I considered to be a well-known local coffee shop, and relatively common ground for us both. Beth was quite comfortable in that setting although, she informed me, she had never been inside that place before. This wasShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Robert Flaherty s Famous Work Nanook Of The North1235 Words   |  5 PagesThe challenge of accurately representing ethnography, the critical analysis and systematic inspection of everyday life across cultures, has been repeatedly attempted with myriad intentions and has subsequently evolved over time. This paper will examine four iconic anthropological filmmakers in the mid-twentieth century in their individual distinctive endeavors to contribute to and accomplish this goal of developing ethnographic film. 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