Why hunt?

[captain]

I have a female cousin who is a better deer hunter than her husband, She is a crack shot, her father was a county sheriff and grew up shooting.

 

[pescador775]

That is a BEAUTY! It is either a white sea bass or totuava, a related (protected) species of the Sea of Cortez. Good eating.

 

[pescador775]

Hunting is a product of genetics. After 250,000 years of hunting/gathering and 30,000 years of big game hunting, the male brain is programmed for it. Even little boys, whose "testosterone" has not yet kicked in, like to hunt and play war games. Females spend important energy in birthing babies and caring for the weak. When they had spare time they foraged, a very important contribution. Not all men hunt, but spend their time in sublimated competition, like office wheeling and dealing. However, big game hunting, on land in in the sea, is the natural stage for the alpha male.

 

[Cacia]

Everybody was making fun of me earlier in the thread.... they thought I was just trying to stir the pot.....of course, women have T3 too, and to varying degrees but not always a good subject to talk about. It manifests itself in our behaviour...cutting edge science and very interesting to me. Much behavior has a hormonal root. Dr Bill was talking about "recognizing genotypes" and territorialism in animals and humans today.. great stuff. Of course hormonal climate only provides the "fundamental nature" or the propensity for an activity. Socialization takes it from there, but to deny the powerful influence of testosterone on the brain is unenlightened in my view.

 

[Charlie99]

Folks raised in rural areas tend to hunt more out of necessity, availability, heritage, tradition, etc.

Folks raised in more urban areas typically don't have the necessity, availability is not as good, and any heritage or tradition that does/did exist tends to get watered down over time over lack of the former.

Put more simply, city kids think steak comes from the grocery store. Rural kids understand the relationship between a steer and and a steak, between a pig and bacon.

I suspect that most people who are opposed to hunting in general, and spearfishing specifically, do eat meat and seafood. They just don't want to be reminded of where it comes from.

 

[Charlie99]

1. The actual hunting part and looking for the creature is fun. Yes I have the same effect when I'm taking pictures of the fish.

2. The skill in which it takes to obtain the prey is interesting. A 300 yard, one bullet shot for a mule deer with wind, requires training.

3. The killing part is the most distasteful and least desireable aspect. It is a means to the end though. Testosterone is not part of it at least for me.
........

For me the most distasteful and least desireable part is the gutting and cleaning. My wife won't let me bring fish into the house until after they have been cleaned.

 

[Mandy3206]

Cleaning the fish is part of the hunt, not tastefull but needed in order to consume the game.

I hate those gun-hos that spear everything they see and leave it to rot on the pier.

Those guys give a bad name to spearfishing, you can spot them easily, loading guns out of water, diving in packs, ect.

 

[pescador775]

The primary contribution of testosterone to male behaviour takes place in the womb where, in a symphony of precision, this hormone is released by the mother thus fixing the masculine nature of the male child. If this goes right, then the resulting baby boy already has the essential programming of the male exhibited by his subsequent choices of toys and favored activities. A tale handed down from the ancient Greeks describes a desperate mother's attempt to protect her son from kidnap and assassination. She dressed the boy in the clothes of a girl. With his long locks it was difficult to separate this one boy from the crowd of girls on the palace grounds. The intruders set up two tables laden with objects, one table with dolls and the other with weapons of war. There was a rush to the tables where the only child to clammer onto the table of weapons was the young prince. In modern times, experiments to "prove" that such behavior is "socialized" consistently failed. At puberty, testosterone production is increased which results in muscularity and various changes of degree (not kind) to the brain. Changes which serve to transition juvenile male behaviour to the challenges of adult life, including copulation and the inclination to provide for one's family by any means, including hunting if needs must. However, this atavistic push to hunt can express itself at any time including pre-puberty.

 

[Johnoly]

My wife won't let me bring fish into the house until after they have been cleaned.

Seems like a reasonable request of the wife. Unless the fish would spoil, why not clean them outside. It's so much easier to spray down the cleaning table with the hose outside. I must be missing something here???

 

[Charlie99]

Seems like a reasonable request of the wife. Unless the fish would spoil, why not clean them outside. It's so much easier to spray down the cleaning table with the hose outside. I must be missing something here???

Well, she takes great exception to me showing up, handing her a couple of fresh fish and expecting her to both clean and cook them. Go figure.

In a couple locations I don't have reasonable outside cleaning facilities and end up doing the cleaning in a parking lot using some scrap lumber on the ground as a table.

SHe just doesn't like to see the messy end of preparing fish, in much the same way she won't be the one to boil the lobsters.