Publisher's Synopsis
Hunting has a long history, beginning with our hominid ancestors. The invention of the spear allowed early humans to graduate from scavenging to actual hunting. The famous cave paintings at Lascaux show a meticulous knowledge of animal behaviour and anatomy that only a hunter would have. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series traces the evolution of hunting, from Stone Age hunting and gathering to today's regulated sport hunting. Humans have been hunting since we became human-but did hunting make us human? The authors consider and question the "hunting hypothesis of human origins," noting that according to this theory, "hunting" meant hunting by men. They explore hunting in the Stone Age and how, beginning some ten thousand years ago, the spread of agriculture led to the emergence of empires and attempts by elites to monopolise hunting. They examine the democratisation of hunting in the American colonies and how hunters decimated, but then, in the twentieth century, rallied to save game animals from extinction. They describe how some European and postcolonial societies have managed wildlife and hunting, consider the difficulties of living with abundant wildlife-even as many nongame species are disappearing-and trace the implications of the increasing participation of women in hunting for the future of hunting. Series Overview: The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers accessible, concise, beautifully produced books on topics of current interest. Written by leading thinkers, the books in this series deliver expert overviews of subjects that range from the cultural and the historical to the scientific and the technical. In today's era of instant information gratification, we have ready access to opinions, rationalisations, and superficial descriptions. Much harder to come by is the foundational knowledge that informs a principled understanding of the world. Essential Knowledge books fill that need. Synthesising specialised subject matter for nonspecialists and engaging critical topics through fundamentals, each of these compact volumes offers readers a point of access to complex ideas.
