Hunting's Social Media: Charismatic Leaders

Remember this: Call Bullshit when necessary. Your sanity is at stake.

The sky was overcast somewhat with an impending assortment of rainstorms. I was walking along working a previous social problem through my head when I stopped at the epic moment of what should have been realization and looked up to see a vertical rainbow, like a stairwell from heaven; epiphany.

Days before, I had seen an old friend from high school in the same place. I remembered the last time I saw her sitting drunk under a tree after she met people previous to the time she had planned to meet me. I showed up and another person in the group said I should take her home. I looked down at her and said, “Come away from these people. They do not love you.” She argued in her drunken stupor. I decided it wasn’t my responsibility to be her keeper anymore. I bailed her out before from harm’s way. She seemed to like that place. As I saw her walking away from me after a short conversation, I decided  I didn’t desire another relationship with her, even this late in life. Sometimes, you have to let people go and fall in a pit to the bad things that can happen to them if they become seduced by negative habits, people and decisions.

I  thought of the phrase from Lost Girl when Kenzi tells Beau, in regard to another situation, “I wish I knew how to quit you”, and how it applied to a certain page that I use to enjoy, but no more. I reviewed the feelings that the content of the page made me experience; solely negative now. I wondered why I was experiencing these emotions to a virtual world. I was not the only one experiencing this from viewing the page. I looked at the administrators of this page based around the act of hunting. I wanted to see if I could make a comparison to charismatic figures. We know charismatic figures such as Jim Jones, Adolph Hitler, and Charles Manson. These are extremes of charismatic leaders but the potential lives in us all.

When navigating the world of hunting online, we must be careful not to fall under the persuasion of a charismatic personality. This type of individual will insight panic, fears, and dilutes your judgment through distraction because you will hand over your logical ability to make decisions and let them tell you what is what. This distraction is performed through sublime messages and limited conversation through propaganda that supports a certain theme. This theme is usually a compelling story of some kind that if fraught with a very bad ending or impending doom to the halls of hunting. This charismatic individual will be talking and getting you to carry out the vision of their theme. This sublime message will come in the guise of implied care on the part of the leader to the minions.

Charismatic leaders can use force, reason, or charm. Force and reason are rational evaluations. Charm is more subtle but it can only be aimed at someone who is open to it as charm is an emotional manipulation. If charm runs out then reason followed by force ensue. Online manipulation is subtle.

If you were looking to identify this type of person, they are usually preoccupied with approval ratings but are distracted from the actual goal. They may even be unhappy with the fact they are catering to an idea themselves contrary to their personality and will construct a separate social media to placate this deviation. This deviated page will indicate a destructive nature that is contrary to the theme or image they are trying to maintain.  This preoccupation is also addictive for the follower and the charismatic leader. It’s a toxic relationship that really has no substance to it. It’s a mirage or delusion. This becomes a dependency because each participant experiences a social media high. Even if you see followers of such a leader that eventually become disillusioned the leader is blissfully unaware his/her minions are no longer glamoured by him/her. This charm of the leader can hide an anti-social behavior where ego-centricities, deceit, manipulation, and selfishness are prevalent.

Collectively, in a hive-like mentality there is group narcissism where minions are charmed by a shared core value that is skewed from the original individual belief.  What the charismatic leader does is take a group of people and transform them through subtle reprogramming to become a more radical version of self by getting the minion to fully commit to the cause against another without question; just blind worship, adoration, and follow-through. Here you can think of a snake oil salesman when you ask yourself, “What exactly is that person selling?”

This snake oil salesman will use socially accepted means to propagate love and flattery to the tribe. Unfortunately as charismatic leaders are generated the concept or existence of them distracts and eventually self-destructs. Jim Jones killed his followers through forced poisonings and murder. Charles Manson went nuts and killed a starlet via his small harem, and Hilter was smited in his last hours; so no good came to them. For all their pomp and circumstance with grandiose flair and mind wheeling control they ended up dead and marked as social rapists of the mind with murderous tendencies by reinterpreting people’s beliefs to drive followers to fulfill their independent visions.

When connecting to social sites take a moment to pause and review the page:

What exactly is being sold here in the form of ideas or beliefs?

Read the comments and make an assessment of the replies of the administrator.

What is the quality of the people that are closest to the persons involved?

Do the members share a common mentality that might be derogatory?

Is there some underlining behavior that is derogatory to  types of individual that might over time distort your own behavior to people that you normally would not be inflamed by?

Are you being asked to rally around a group or person in a form of attack to defend a theme? Is this theme worth it? Is the information given to argue this movement correct, your thoughts, or are you being dictated too?

As always, in the sense of investigation these are things to remember and assess. There are enough unknown people on the internet that can hurt you.  You can give yourself permission to stand back and say to yourself, “Is this what I want or am I being a prospector digging in a mud hole looking for gold when all I am going to get is splinters in my hands?” As an online consumer of information, be careful of getting involved with people you know nothing about, blindly following behind them because they seem to have the same morals as you. Not questioning strangers, their behavior, associations with other derogatory groups and comments is self-delusion if you think everyone should be given open access to your life. Not all people are good or want the best for you. Some people will work their whole life time trying to get revenge (when really whatever bad befell them was brought on by their actions) on you which in itself is an empty time machine of monotony going nowhere fast.

You know you have fallen prey to a charismatic leader when the person has convinced you that it is a good idea to attack and hurt another human being that you do not know for the charismatic leader’s reasoning and rational. People suffer this all the time in cliques with a leader that demands loyalty and followers that will not question his/her motives on why they are causing harm on the leader's behalf. A sure way of testing this theory is to say ‘no’ to the charismatic leader then watch how the leader reacts. If it ends in a negative experience for you; be thankful. You could still be blindly following them. There is a lot of times when I tell people to man up or woman up because to many people have rings or fingers up their noses dictating the kind of human being they are supposed to be. You have a mind of your own, a mouth that can say no, two feet to walk in the opposite direction from evil, and hopefully a cell phone to dial a friend when you are in trouble. The charismatic leader in your social media life could be a little man standing on a ant hill yelling come follow me to the mountaintop.  Be your own person and don’t let anyone lead you down the primrose path. It could be littered with thorns. 

Hunting can teach you a lot.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

The Way of Camaraderie: Sisterhood of the Hunt

Remember this: The difference between Point A and Point B is the distance.

People love, need, and bond over food. Hunting should be no different. Thumbing through an assortment of cookbooks I thought about a remark I read on social media. The remark was about one woman seeing derogatory comments made against American female hunters by female hunters from the United Kingdom. It didn’t really matter what the content was because that is irrelevant when it was the fact that the altercation happened at all. This made me wonder why, when considering international sisterhood in the way of the hunt, women were acting petty, shallow, and catty. I myself have experienced a sort of prejudice from foreign fields but I based that on the individual but not in the sense of all foreigners disliking me for any reason. My mind still drifting off into the cookbook and the thought of how food was important to hunting yelled out spice trade.  After most hunts there is a meal.

Spices to make the dishes mostly are the same with variations to local availability or recipe. Depending on what culture I cook from at times I play matching music to get me in the mood. Cooking and sharing a meal brings a certain positive aspect to the endeavor with as much love as you can put into the dish. This care in swinging a pot and watching the faces of people eating the food brings me a sense of gratitude and appreciation for its source; drenching my domestic moment with an aura of positivity. This experience of feeding the people caters to the relevance of inclusion through fellowship. When you put those first few warm bits into your mouth your physical being is inspired to share and take into your mental nirvana of deliciousness. As I was thinking of these problems in the world of the female hunt it was funny when I read this passage from Elisabeth Rozin’s book, “Blue Corn and Chocolate”.

“But that was only the beginning of the story, for these new foods, venturing forth to unknown lands, were transformed and refashioned along the way. Then they came back to their native shores, brought by the many immigrants who settled America, dressed up in new seasonings, prepared with a variety of new techniques, remodeled and reworked through the traditions of their adopted cuisine.

Each of these foods has its own unique and particular history, for each traveled in a different direction and was changed in different ways, reflected through a multitude of ethnic prisms. But all those separate histories, like the people who generated them, came together on these shores, creating the multifaceted and ever-changing whole that is our palate and our cuisine. For what we eat is who we are—and we are Asia, we are Africa, we are Europe and the Mediterranean and the Middle East; indeed, our food,  like us, is the world." (Rozin xii)

Hunting, much like these ethnic foods and their magical spices, based on our interactions with local people and abroad are literally the world.

After reading this I can say I have known people that do not want their culture polluted nor do they want to share their culture either. On the other hand you have people that are proud of their culture, share the culture, and it flourishes without any compromise while taking back into their own. Why can two women on different sides of the international pond not follow suit in the sharing and fellowship of hunting? I ponder this because hunting was a sport publicized as male when women walked along the metaphorical shadows. I was very taken aback but not surprised when on social media someone saw comments where it was submitted sisters of the hunt were pulling out each other’s hair. Competition will do that to you. We should always think about the way we act.

Hunting as an activity is known for camaraderie, individualism, and friendship. As an outlet into friendship you first have an introduction which leads into likes and dislikes for commonalities. From this point trust is slowly built based on each person’s part in lieu of how one carries themselves morally or by one’s treatment of another. If you see a ‘friend’ mistreating another person one day you may be the recipient of this same behavior. The same goes for watching female hunters online saying terrible things to other females; do you want that negativity in your life or on your retinas? 

Females in the past were hunting but not publicized as much as men. Since previous years hunting has been under attack for mostly killing animals. It has been interesting for me to watch the male dominated sport being shifted through media to a family affair and the inclusion of women as a buffer to fight the onslaught of anti-hunting sentiment but one does wonder if that anti-sentiment goes away will women once more be pressed out so the sport can become male dominated? I asked this because it is not far-fetched for a person to conceive of this idea if you have had relationships before. You can think of it as someone being picked on so they go find re-enforcements to either scare the bully only to turn on the person that helped you in the first place. I think I read a comment somewhere about taking a bullet for someone only to learn later they were the ones pulling the trigger? Or a false friend that stabs you in the back instead of the chest? If you look at the past efforts of anti-hunting sentiment it was mostly viewed as female tree hugging animal lovers excluding men where now the female element has been added to counter this imbalance. Men love to watch women fight one another just take a look at the history of women’s mud wrestling. If men could stand on the side lines and watch the bikini tops go a-flying they would be there right on top of it like a fly on crap. Women are being used to buffer hunting opposition so I asked myself do they not know when they smite one another what it really means or can do in the way of measured harm. Why would one participate in such behavior in the first place if it is counter-productive to one’s efforts? If the tide of the war slowly evaporated would women slowly be pushed back to a more domesticated role as time has so eloquently established in her histories?  With this let me be clear I don’t think all men are nefarious beings bent on wrecking the lives of women. People in general do a bang up job all on their own.

In societies, we are use to categorizing different groups to make life more secure for us. We know where it belongs even if we know nothing about it. It’s the lie we live. Prejudices range from fashion choices, ethnic background, culture, weight, historical wrongdoing, status, wealth or poverty, and the list goes on. You could categorize people by the way they trim their toenails; bitten or snipped. Why as women who hunt do some of us stoop to mistreating each other in a tacky and shallow fashion?

I saw a comment made by a person from the United Kingdom that stated people from there could not understand United States hunting culture. I wondered why you have to understand anything. Just enjoy it if you travel abroad. People don’t enjoy much anymore because everything is excised down to its anatomical remnants. I think of field dressing here because by the time you hack a deer carcass up to its smallest parts there is nothing to understand but putting it in a freezer bag to forget until you decide you want to make a meal of it. Thought process gone because you know the process and it’s all utility from there.

If an outsider is unable to understand a hunting culture there are ways to explore and find it out. Always keep an open mind but beware of insulting people because since the invention of social media everyone has brittle feelings. What would be funny to you will be a horrible insult to someone else and they will not ask you to clarify.

Quite frankly it is more beneficial to make a friend than an enemy. The only time you need an enemy is to combat an enemy. This wastes a lot of time and energy so don’t make enemies. If you think someone is your enemy ask them straight out. Most of the time it is a stupid misunderstanding where both parties are to blame for lack of communication. I am sure if they hate you enough they will answer back for yeah or nay. Each person has a different perspective on the ethos of the hunting aspect.  Building relationships has become harder and harder. Social media is rift with cliques, clubs, or gangs where if you don’t smell like a hunter, look like a hunter, or kiss ass to another hunter you are not included. Clearly, I do not plan on keeping the chapstick companies in business either.

I wondered why women would act like that. I had a conversation with someone it was purposed a sort of envy. If female hunters in the states have more freedoms to hunt in a time when the United Kingdom is crunching down on hunting I can see where this is happening. It’s like passive aggressive actions through displacement but instead of kicking the dog at home (UK) you are going over to someone else’s house and kicking theirs (USA). I will say this since the introduction of social media there is a gross saturation of 'attention whores' via for the numbers. Businesses are also in stiff competition for commodity sales and 'the next best thing'. If you don't have a niche you are in the rat race and even then someone is spying over your shoulder.  (Using the UK only through example which could be anywhere really.)

I was also told recently from a source that there are male hunters that get online making female profiles to target and attack female hunters as a way to keep manliness in the hunt. This information came from a male source that had information on his brethren's misdeeds.

If you are being negative towards your hunting sisters the only thing you will acquire is alienation, forming toxic relationships with other negative people, cheating yourself out of a potential good friend, resentment, exclusion, and anger. The big thing is isolation and making your world smaller than what it should be and less rich. I would rather have chocolate than rotten fish but some people munch the rotten fish like it is good and cry out for more.

If you are good to your sisters and they show love back you are in for support, camaraderie, stable relationships that help you flourish and bring new opportunities, variety, positive experiences, and yes…..love. I would put my money on the positive side than the negative side because even if it makes great strides will only fall back into darkness and despair. Time is all that it requires.

This makes me go back to the idea of a sweat lodge where everyone goes in on equal footing to find out that down to your bare bones your suffering is the same in quality but not in quantity. In a world that is so self-centered and narcissistic people cannot see there is importance in some things and other things are just down right ridiculous to hold onto such as petty squabbles.

It would be a rational idea to spend time on someone and get to know them or their culture in a non-judgmental fashion. Why exclude friendship when the person is a perfectly good human being. (I should say here that there are socially challenged people that are perfectly good human beings but stumble and fall causing themselves some misinterpretation. If this is the case, make your peace and start again. There is nothing wrong with a do-over).

In a call for solidarity amongst female hunters, when you are having conversations on the internet or in person, think in terms of what you have in common. Do not think  of the difference, unless you can find a positive in it.  You want your life to be beautiful and full of memorable experiences through family, friends, or your own personal time. Another way female hunters can hurt each other is to spread gossip or clutching. Clutching is when more than one female spites another just for shits and giggles. Men do this too. If someone tells you gossip on another person without proof, find out if it is true. They may have no idea someone is trying to blackball them. Again, they may not care because people that participate in that sort of thing shouldn’t be in your path or life anyway. We all go into the hunting sweat lodge together and suffer the same kinds of problems. Be good to one another and hunting will be good to you. You have more to lose than gain. These facets should be recognized regardless of your biological sex at birth.

I always think in terms of making a friend but sometimes even in my experience you might have to kiss a barrel of ugly un-princely toads to find one worth keeping. That one can love you a life time. You’ll be richly rewarded. Besides, why participate in a sport when you have no class or sportsmanship?

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~

 Literature Cited:

 Rozin, Elisabeth. Blue Corn and Chocolate.  New York, NY: Alfred A Knopf, Inc., 1992. Print. pg. xii.

Life and Death In an Hour.

Remember this: Life and Death are inevitable.

While taking my morning exercise I was burning small amounts of sage as I moved along to clarify my thoughts and remove any negative energy that might cloud my thinking or my mind. There is nothing like a clear mind. I moved along the gravel path with the morning sun over my shoulder as it rose in the East. I stopped and faced the general direction with this sense of something being near. In a wheat field sixty-five yards from me were three doe. One stood at attention while the other two seemed unaware they were being watched. I thought it an amusing spectacle especially when I started to whistle and one of the doe put her head down like a white Chinese goose about to attack. She ran a little forward then back and her other companions started to bounce around in circles like children playing. It’s a great mystery; life.

As deer always do, the small pod shimmied off into the tree line to disappear. I wondered on my path to the opening in the gate to leave. I was somewhat surprised on my way back that I should encounter in the morning glory filled ditch by a sign, a dead doe. Her carcass was turned with her udders up, distended and green from impending decomposition. Alas Death. I stood over the body pondering whether the doe was pregnant or nursing babies when she got hit by a vehicle. The bloating was moderate. I thought I saw the abdominal area roll but was suspicious of death gases or even an opossum. I could see the anal area and there was no evidence of entry caused by scavenger penetration. I wondered if I should go get a buck knife and cut the area open to see if there was life inside that might be trapped but my mind overrode that with the sight of the flesh turning green. I put my hand on the lateral side but felt nothing. I decided it was better not to vulture the body and left it at rest. I walked home to wash my hands for they were now unclean. The deer’s essence was gone and the body was empty. The circuit was broken and there was nothing present.

I have been thinking lately on rituals in hunting especially rituals of purification and the role spirit, hunter, life and death evoked. What could be the mindset of attitudes and beliefs towards pre- and post- hunting rituals? Have people who hunted lost sight of their relevance, practice, or maintaining a tradition of such acts. Have some of these traditions been discarded and replaced with more utilitarian ideas? How did those rituals compare to contemporary people who hunt in present times?

Delving in the treatment of this subject I wanted to see if I could take a closer inspection to the heart of the matter.

Upon my journey into understanding the surface of purification rituals pre- and post-hunt it is apparent, “both investigator and practitioner seek the correct procedure. The criteria for correctness range from efficacy (“When done this way, the ceremony works”) to precedent (“So and so performs the ceremony this way”) to historical precedence (“I was taught by a person who did it this way”)to textual verification (“I read that it was done this way”) to inspiration (“I was told by the spirits to do it this way”) to pragmatic considerations (“This is the only way we were able to do it”). (Bucko 121)

Here we can see that there is an assortment of ways to approach the topic of how one does a particular hunting ritual and the context the ritual is passed down. What does this mean in terms of dealing with the actual hunting of an animal? If there are different traditional styles of dealing with hunting what could rituals really mean or stand for? What about negative connotations towards hunting such as guilt, atonement or apologists practices?

Regardless of the traditions the outcome is not going to matter much if we think of time as non-linear and different situations are happening at random times with varying outcomes. If the endgame is to have a kill, you will have a kill or go home empty handed. Rituals give the traditional acts meaning as supplication, appreciation, and gratitude but most opinions are steeped in the negative sense such as guilt for taking life and making amends for it. There has been in media the implication of guilt, apology and atonement around wild game hunting. This may be dealt with on a case by case basis but should never be relocated to the whole of hunting as hunters and huntresses have separate unique identities. I submit that it is not always guilt and atonement. The first bag people grab when explaining something away is the one marked ‘negative connotation’ when looking at hunters both ancient, tribal, and present day non-tribal. I wanted to find an example of "guilt".

James Serpell weighed in on the subject:

“Other evidence of feelings of actual guilt by tribal hunters is provided by British scholar James Serpell: “Although it varies in detail from place to place, the undercurrent of guilt and the need for some form of atonement for animal slaughter is common among hunting people. In certain African tribes, for example, hunters are obliged to undergo ceremonial acts of purification in order to remove the stain of murder from their consciences. In others, the hunter will beg the animal for forgiveness so that it does not bear a grudge. The Barasana Indians of Columbia regard the act of killing animals as spiritually dangerous, and believe that their flesh is poisonous unless ritually purified first. Generally speaking, their anxieties about killing and eating game increase the larger and more anthropomorphic the animal involved. Among the Moi of Indochina, expiatory offerings are made for any animal killed by hunters, because they believe that it has been taken by force from its spiritual guardians who may decide to seek revenge. Moi folklore abounds with cautionary tales of evil befalling hunters who have failed to make necessary restitutions. Significantly, if an animal is caught in a trap, no offering is required because the Moi believe that the guardian spirit deliberately pushed the animal in, in order to punish it for some misdeed. Similarly the Chenchu hunters of India propriate the spirit world for any animal killed by themselves, but consider it unnecessary if the prey is killed by their hunting dogs, not by the hunters. The remains of animals after they have been eaten are also treated with ritual respect in many cultures. The bones are often carefully collected, reassembled in something like their original order and provided with a decent burial. (Mason 111)

Serpell speaks of the treatment of the animal's body and bones with a certain amount of assurances that the spirit of the dead animal lives on somehow. Humans do not have proof of spirit but we can't deny that there is something there either. Killing the animal in a certain way also made a difference in your degree of karma. I thought of Kosher food. Its matters in the way that food is killed because you are taking a kind of negative energy into yourself once you eat the flesh. When considering retribution on the part of the animal spirit that is owned by a spirit of the forest we can investigate another example of ritual in the hunting act.

Here we find the hunting act based around a fear of retribution on the part of the animal’s spirit or later as we will read the guardian or spirit owner. Let us consider the Tingchim. “We have seen that Tingchim’s three regular hunters perform a ritual in the forest each time an animal has been killed whereby particular pieces of meat are offered to the hunter’s latsen who acts as his personal supernatural helper and protector during the hunt. In this case, the latsen is not the owner of the wild animals but is worshipped as the ‘owner of the hunting, the hunt, and the gun’.Thanks to the help of this particular latsen, of which there may be more than one, the hunter and consumers of the meat will not suffer the consequences of having taken it from its nopa owner as long as the hunter first offers the correct share to all the latsen who helped and protected him against the dangers of the forest. (Balikci 211)

 

The psychology of these rituals are very interesting indeed. Sigmund Freud postulated that purification seemed to be the culprit. Here “the “primitive”rituals Freud describes may have been for purification rather than atonement: cleansing rather than penance is required if warriors are to resume social life without becoming a threat to communal health and stability.” (Feifel 120) In ancient times this would make sense due to disease or if the hunters were dealing with animal by-products that were not preserved well or left for too long before preserving. There was also the idea of death, because death is represented as present at the moment the heart stops beating and the brain dies. As a polluting decay from visually watching the body decompose back into the ground I am sure this was a mystery. Humans realized their mortality. With this mortality realized it would not be too hard an idea to accept that early humans thought they too could be carried to the grave. Of course hunters do not believe that unless they are jumped by a bear or shot by a another hunter.

Let us revisit the Tingchim where Balikci reiterates the hunter performs a ritual for gratitude for what he has as a blessing on himself. I then think this must have also been based loosely around some kind of cross contamination of the meat products for fear of sickness. “Immediately after killing the animal the hunter will perform the ritual in a hut or other secluded place where no one will be able to hear or see him perform it. No hunting rituals are ever performed at home. First, I was told that the head and the four limbs of the animal are cut and displayed around a leaf that represents the body of the animal. Small pieces from the entrails are mixed and arranged in little piles directly on the leaf, one pile for each of the latsen the hunter may have to thank. The offering ritual is whispered so that no one may hear the name of thelatsen. It is said that if the ritual was not properly performed, consuming the meat would make people sick in which case the hunter would have to return to the forest in order to perform a second ritual.” (Balikci 211) This ritual reminded me of the pgymy ritual that involved the woman and men during sun up before a hunt.

I also wanted to put forth an example of a known ritual which is the Lakota sweat lodge. Ritual aside because I am dwelling on symbolic meaning or all around meaning during a sweat lodge “the sweat serves to intensify suffering both symbolically and physiologically, it is ultimately concerned with alleviating that suffering by displacing it from everyday life to the ceremonial realm, where it can be controlled. Humor is used in that process to make suffering easier to bear. Narratives objectify suffering and build solidarity by providing the group with knowledge of a person’s hardships. Finally, prayer and song invoke the intercession of divine powers for the alleviation of one's suffering and the continuance of one’s life." (Bucko 43)

I thought this interesting especially if the sweat lodge precedes a hunting expedition where purification would mean solidarity between hunters, emptying out of impure spirits for when the wild game was killed the spirit of the animal could go into the hunters body by breath before it goes into the ether. At these times the spirit is where power seats itself especially when needed for war. Breath in the sweat lodge could be almost in accord with breathing the last breath of your prey. During the sweat there is prayer for what one needs and asking for guidance to bring about the realization of one's life purpose through spirit intervention. The sweat is not about the liquids coming out of your pores but the water being put on the rocks where water is poured and life is consumed. I was also intrigued by the idea that if one purifies themselves pre-hunt what about the fact that death has been turned loose and now the empty or purified human vessel is a container for "negative energy" or filled with the spirit of an animal that has to be released at some point?

I also found it fascinating when you look at sweats or rituals in the past. The rituals and traditions were centered around individualism and not the family. In present time, tradition is now about the hunting family through advertising which is the binding force that keeps everyone together but in the old days in some cultures it was these rituals that were rites of passage into adulthood that make the man or woman. Now we have children unable to grow up, make decisions, or fend for themselves when the going gets tough. The  pivotal moment of being set out alone in the wildness to fast and find the spiritual path to their futures is only experienced in some cultures. Other groups think it is a rite of passage to go to prom but that will only get you a bill for a dress or suit, DUI, or pregnancy. How is that the road to adulthood in a positive way? That is a stereotype I know but you don't have to look to far to see the disabled youth of today falling by the wayside. 


This reminded me of a berry juice concoction that was made before a hunt or war which caused the drinker to defecate till empty. This was useful because you didn't want to leave feces around for the prey or other people crossing your path that would kill you over competition. Also there was the liklihood you would be out in the heat anyway without water and this could make you sick. Rituals that seem mundane actually had valid reasoning behind them. Maybe not all I state but deep in there it lives.

When you look at examples in brief it makes you rethink what the rituals actually mean. Up to this point the population has depended on archeological explanations but general stuff is no different.

It is evident that in countries outside the US and certain cultures or locations inside the US that rituals of purification pre- and post- hunt are taking place but the contemporary hunter does not carry on the latent traditions of times past. I can say I have observed foreign counties outside the United States that maintain tradition for cultural reasons and tourism dollars.

Revisiting the pre- and post- hunting rituals I get a sense that somehow they were based around the appreciation and gratitude of being provided the opportunity for a successful hunt. One always feels worthy when you are finally able to make contact with the wild game you pursue. I wondered if in our century when instant gratification reigns over much of our life that we have tossed aside rituals without realizing traditions helped us to remember the value of food, family, prey  and self when in the presence of life and death. As traditions go I wondered if in contemporary hunting society if it is not true that the hunting act is more utilitarian. If tradition is more of a ritual on vacaction experience when one visits a culture that keeps it alive for cultural identity, monetary gain, or tourism. Maybe that is the point we are getting to; death of culture, tradition and ritual. People are throwing out what they think they don't need because of the new 'conscious thought process". I am not saying that is a bad thing but its something to think about. I believe personal ritual exists maybe in forms of inherited rituals or some that are made up on the spot because of good luck such as a lucky shirt or underwear. On the other hand if you consider retaining taxidermied animals much in the way of the Tingchim where the body or body parts have to sit in a certain position (forever in this case) to manifest a certain outcome. It makes you wonder if people do know the value of what they have or that their tradition of perfoming a ritual is clinging to moments that are fleeting. Hunters live in a time of dishevel when very little care is given to the treatment of his or her pursuit or thought and the deeper meaning of the concept of ritual and tradition especially in the realm of social media where everything is a commodity.  

One day all of us will experience life and death in an hour; probably our own.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~



Literature Cited:

Balikci, Anna. Lamas, Shamans, and Ancestors Village. Religions In Sikkim. Koninklijke Brill NV; Leiden, the Netherlands. 2008. Pg. 211Print

 

Bucko, Raymond A. The Lakota Ritual of the Sweat Lodge. History and contemporary practice. USA: University of Nebraska Press. 1988. Pg.121, 143 Print

 

Feifel, Herman. Death and the Quest for Meaning.North Bergen, NY; Jason Aronson, Inc. 1997 Pg. 120 Print

 

Mason, Jim. An Unnatural Order: The Roots of Our Destruction of Nature. New York, NY: Latern Books. 2005 Pg. 111 Print

Conservation: Two Management Strategies In Africa.

 

 

Remember this: Interference can be a beneficial or negative occurrence. Depends on how you approach things. Pack your bags….we are going in the AOFH time machine.

 
"Apart from the hostile influence of man, the organic and the inorganic world are...bound together by such mutual relations and adaptations as secure, if not the absolute permanence and equilibrium of both, a long continuance of the established conditions of each at any given time and place, or at least, a very slow and gradual succession of changes in those conditions. But man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords. The proportions and accommodations which insure the stability of existing arrangements are overthrown." (Marsh 1874:34)~George Perkins Marsh~

 I was thinking about the world if homo sapiens did not exist, refrained from participation, and now that people were present in the reality of Nature, what effect could humans illicit. These are easily asked questions with complicated answers based on all the available information since Homo sapiens could chisel or paint on a rock. Much of this information lays dormant on book shelves in Academia. Its sits there yet we do not revisit or learn from its intelligence. Why? If you think of the world in reoccurring cycles then why can the same event but not a perfect recreation happen again or to a different extreme?

The main concept I mulled over was Nature in the absence of human intervention exists in a state of balance which changes very little over long periods of time. My personal opinion is the wobbly effect of the Earth where it is constantly trying to right itself when negative forces oppose it. Because of this Nature is constantly in flux due to the actions of organisms on the environment and each other.

 If one reviewed natural resource management, balance or equilibrium is the state where there is no net change in a system. If a natural state is self-regulating and is truly at equilibrium but then deviates away from the balance then the system would compensate a change and move back to a steady state.

I wondered where I could find an example of human intervention or lack thereof in regards to resource management on wildlife landscapes that were contrary to expected outcomes. These outcomes depending on the influence of potential factors thought to kick Nature out of balance (such as human intervention) or what seemed to be back to a balanced state (leave Nature alone) only to find the ecosystem became more out of control.

Management strategies of National Parks have always been of interest. Management strategies have consisted of: leaving the natural area alone and preserve the landscape and animals, manipulate the ecosystem through a utilitarian approach, and the watch theory; you appreciate the existing ecosystem or tear the ecosystem apart mechanism by mechanism.

The example exists in history between Kenya's Tsavo National Park and Krueger National Park if you compare management styles of its resources. Let us jump in the time machine and take a closer inspection.

 Let us consider Krueger National Park.

At the time of this inspection Krueger was a fenced area. The following is in regard to the time in question and not the present day. Present days affords a much greater area.

 "The Krueger National Park is a 22,000 km square north to south, oblong-shaped area along a south (800 mm) to north (400 mm) summer rainfall gradient in the northeast of South Africa. It is underlain by basaltic and granitic basement rocks, which influence the vegetation. The eastern basalt areas are open to woodland savannas with a dense shrub and grass layer with mopane (Colophospermum mopane) dominant in the north and marula (Scleocarya birrea) and knobthorn (Acacia nigerscens) in the south. (Gertenback 1983) the entire park is fenced, and numerous boreholes and dams provide additional drinking water for wildlife." (Ray 209-10)

 At one point in Krueger National Park, managers pursued preservation management using the hands-on approach. To control the balance of Nature workers intervened by culling herds, groups, or individuals. Deep wells and dams were constructed to provide a water source; water being an essential requirement for life. There was also the practice of burning vegetation to propagate new growth, soil nourishment, seed germination, and browse facilitation or control. Management of wildlife and the landscape also controlled disease.

Let us consider Tsavo National Park.

Tsavo National Park consists of designated East and West locations. The surface is flat and covered with low dry vegetation on the east. In the west park there are height, dry plains and ancient lava fields. Lava fields are usually good sources of soil enriching nutrients. There is natural occurring springs.

We have arrived in 1948 and travel back and forth between the late 1960s. Tsavo was deemed a national park. In 1963 hunting was banned. In Tsavo there was vegetation, rhinoceros, elephants and other animals. Local people were evicted and the area was used solely for wildlife viewing for safari. Now I might add here that this ritual of evicting locals from the land to turn the property into a reserve, animal corridor, or national park seems to be a habit of African governance. We see this today in the Masaai or you could swing a read to Loliondo problem of leasing an area for hunting to foreign entities. There is also the issue of monitoring or ending hunting for eco-tourism (which I wonder if you revisit Tsavo in 1963). Of course there is always the impending issue of human habitation.

 Managers of the Park’s resources took the hands-off approach of letting nature take its course. Eventually wildlife consumed all of the food. With this lack of sustenance mortality rates increased on the part of the species dwelling in the park. Managers of that period argued Die-off was a natural occurrence of Nature’s progress. Managers continued minimal intervention. An ensuing drought made conditions worse. Animals associated with trees died and land became grass. This grass caused grazing species to increase. Managers realized eliminating people and letting nature take its course led to dramatic alterations of landscape and wildlife instead of propagating a stable ecosystem as hoped for.

Of course these two differing styles of reserve management at the time was a very good indicator of how varied the approach of caring for a natural area could pose in the way of methodology, action, and function once plans are applied. These two different modes of approach were designed with the idea of maintaining habitats and species in a particular area but the forethought of thinking in turns of immediate or long term outcomes depending on the different approaches did not seem to be a consideration except on the part of the Krueger National Park. The approach of getting involved with the ecosystem and nurturing the landscape, water sources, and animals in an appropriate way in regards to the long term function of a whole was the better plan. Nature has seen a competition of sorts for bacteria, animals, and plants where too much of a good thing is not always a good thing. In this case whoever is the mightiest can tromp all over other players in a much bigger game without realizing how important the minute species are…namely decomposers.

 The overall goal of managing a resource is to maximize production of featured species through a utilitarian approach in regard to conservation. Conservational biology makes decisions on use, management, or protection in order to prevent depletion and insure the complete ingredients in ecosystems, refuges, reserves or any habitat with inhabitants will continue. High rates of use, waste, and lack of regard for restoration should not be considered if it is overexploited to an irreversible end.

When I reflect on the two different reserve management style while excluding the present day situation it is interesting to see how letting Nature take over and tend her business versus human intervention could widely vary.

I thought about George Perkins Marsh’s comment but thought this may be true if man has no care one way or the other for ecosystems or ecosystem inhabitants. Given the expertise of managing a reserve for the betterment of the landscape humans can be very beneficial if not encouraging of life itself. Of course there are times when through trial and error such as the above Krueger-Tsavo case that you have to do a little indirect experimentation without knowing it to see what options are available. A good example is Edison and his light bulb. Man is a disturbing agent in the negative sense but in the positive sense that in his ability to disturb humans can recognize impunity if they wish, correct, and regulate an ecosystem for the benefit of self and other forms of life. Nature on the other hand can take care of a lot of things if you wish to view Nature as an organic omnipotent being with powers but then when upon inspection you view individuals in a system that become for lack of a term “lawless”; Nature has a harder time regulating the individual. On the other hand the best laid plans and efforts do not always give the predicted results. We can see this in terms of the effect poaching has had on rhinoceros. Even with the advent of patrols, laws, and conservation efforts animals are still being removed for local and international gain even at the expense of extinction. That would take replacing illegal money-making schemes with a legal lawful enterprise that would relegate the need to exploit jeopardized animals through alternative jobs for people that are poachers. Find them another way to support their family or themselves but then people can be callous. or just like to live on the edge of death. 

I did think after reviewing this that it will be interesting to watch the issues going on in Africa such as leasing property to foreign entities for hunting, evicting people to make way for corridors and national park areas, national park management in the face of poaching and changing land areas. Also what effect this will have on the ecosystems that exist around these issues. Granted there are plenty of issues not stated here but as a work in progress to see what will work and what will not might either end in headache or and adventure. Either way……I hope nothing is lost and I’ll be watching.

Written by : W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~

Literature Cited:
Weddell, Bertie Josephson. Conserving Living Natural Resources In the Context of a Changing World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2002. Print.

Jusina C. Ray, Redford, Kent H., Steneck, Robert S., Berger, Joel. Large Carnivores and the Conservation of Biodiversity. Washington, DC. Island Press, Inc. 2005. Print. pgs. 209-210.






 

Down In The Gully With The Wild Bunch.



Remember this: A bird of a feather..........

I had planned for a week to go to this falconry meet in Darlington. Last year I missed it so this year I decided I was going to go. It was a 40 minute ride as I went by myself. Once I got over there, Dr. A G., welcomed me and put me in with this man we will call McMillan who was the falconer. So there were several teenage boys there. As I was walking up from parking my truck, I heard Dr. G telling McMillan I was a 'girl from the county over'. McMillan turned to me as I was walking and said some profanities then turned his head. As I was walking up I thought, "Oh shit! Please don't make me go through this today." Dr. G shot him a look of 'don't be rude to my guest'. I had talked to Dr. G on the phone previously. I decided I wasn't going to let anyone ruin my good time. They were strangers to me and I was a stranger to them. No need starting off relations on a bad foot.
So we walked off into the woods after turning Max, a red tailed hawk out, who belonged to McMillan. We treked down into the woods. As they went along they would find vines to shake on trees to wake the squirrel from their nests.
I had my doubts on this because the day was windy and cold. Usually even the bigger animals do not come out. It has also been a full moon so they do their eating at night then sleep all day. Squirrels usually go into a real deep sleep that is almost like being dead but they are not.
This raptor is trailing us above from tree limb to tree limb. I'm trying to be nice and limit my questions so as not to be annoying. The teenagers are walking everywhere. McMillan said this would distract the bird and Max would become bored or hunt on his own. There is scat all over the woods, areas where squirrel have been digging, turkey feathers from dead birds, rabbit and fox holes, and tree scrapings made by deer. The place we went to almost reminded me of North Carolina because it was full of hills. Finally we came to this lowland place by the river. One side went over into a steep drop the other into a deep gully that had a stream bed at its bottom that fed down into the river. Finally after some shaking, hollering, and knocking McMillan runs a squirrel out.
I heard the word, "Squirrel" and thought, man they look like a pack of coon hounds. So this squirrel ran up a pine tree then over to its nest in another tree. McMillan had treed the squirrel. The squirrel ran across the gully by way of the canopy. Next thing I saw was a bunch of kids bailing into this gully on their back sliding all the way down to land in the mush. I was at this point standing on the opposite side from whince the squirrel had come. Two other young boys were over there with me. I started laughing and told them to wait because the squirrel would come back most likely to the same Pine tree. The sight from my side looked like something from Clan of the Cave Bear. I was standing there resting on my walking stick; one big kid was resting up against the tree and the other sitting on the ground.  The others were across the way beating on this tree I couldn't even hug, with hands and sticks, yelling in excited voiced, tossing things and rolling around in the leaves while trying to crawl up this hill. I put my hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. The bird just sat up in the tree. I am sure he was amused too.
I did have my concerns about someone breaking a leg or sliding to their death much like Sonny Bono.
One of the kids I asked to pass the time: What are you going to school for? He says Cryptozoology.
The kid sitting asks me: What is that?
I said: That is when shit may not be real and you go looking for it to prove it exists. (Much like love or a good decent person.)
The Crypto kid seemed perturbed and said: Its a valid science.
The kid with braces says: Like what?
I said: Bigfoot or the Lockness Monster. Once again I found myself holding down my mouth.
The kid with braces looks at the Crypto kid and says: You can look at the sky long enough and swear you see a UFO.
 I almost pissed my pants holding in a belly laugh. That kid with braces looked at me with a sly metallic grin and walked off.
Finally Wormy, the  squirrel decides he wants to watch the humans run around in circles or at least back across the gully. Here come Wormy the squirrel, there went the wild bunch. They came back to where we were standing. The bird came over to the squirrel nest then hijacked it. The squirrel fell out then got away. By then, McMillan and the Wildbunch were beat. I was poking around in holes and tree logs. By this time I had walked down into the stream bed. So giving up they decided to climb back over the other side. I was almost up past the guys when I heard McMillan say, "Jesus Christ, she's gonna get to the top of the hill before us." (I was really starting to get a clue this man didn't want me there? lmao). I was just there for a good time. Maybe I threatened him in some way?
This one boy was out before me. I asked him did the others come out. No answer. We walked on to find McMillan. He was out on the main highway with another kid. The kid that was with me had to go back for the other two.
At this point, McMillan decides he wants to hold a conversation with me on the side of the road. I figured he was satisfying some weird curiosity. So I answered his questions. We finally got off the road and back to the barn. The boys decide to go find something to eat. Dr. G decided to take these people off hunting somewhere else. I was left to stare at McMillan. At this point I figured this man didn't like women.
McMillan then surprises me and says: Would you like to go off into the woods with me alone?
I said: Sure, what did you have in mind? (Okay I did have my concerns.)
McMillan: You follow me in your truck. We'll go down the road and walk another spot with less people.
I said: Okay. I'm there.
We go down the road to a different spot that is in some Pine trees down this dirt road.
As we are walking through the woods I thought he was more concerned in finding out about my bank account. He was pretty interested in the vehicle I was driving. So for myself I avoided any questions about work. I would rather someone like me for me and not what I can do for them. I was there for the experience not the questionaire. He asked me if I was married and had kids. I wasn't even annoyed because usually when I walk around in any wooded area I don't think about much. I just look at the ground, see what I can find, and try to be myself or free at least.
At some point I don't know when it occured but I most have said something to that man or he was testing me.
He walked me through the briars, bogs, an alligator pond/marsh, and swamp, swamp, swamp. lmao. My shoe got stuck and I walked off without it then had to two handed pull it out of this black goop I like to call a tar pit.
There were no squirrel. McMillan pulls out his telemetry box to find the bird Max. We follow the sound to the end of another marshy spot.
After all that McMillan made my day. He redemned himself.
He looks at me and says. I think......I'm going to let you call down the bird.
I went stupid.
Blank stupid.
McMillan had trained this bird for four years and said it was skitish around people. I almost thought: God is he setting me up for some dashed hopes. Very daunting thoughts there.
I said. Great. But still stupid.
He hands me his leather glove and I put it on my left hand. I was holding a small piece of liver. Shaking it. Max was above me. McMillan gave me a bigger piece.
I laughed and told him the bird wasn't going to fly down because we didn' t find him a squirrel.  Max is in the center of the marsh in this tree. He flys over my head. I turned around. He's above me and McMillan is blowing a whistle but the bird is staring at me. So in three eloquent dives from tree limb to tree limb, he flys toward me then hangs in the air and lands as gentle as a snowflake on my glove. That was one of the more beautiful things I had ever seen.
In his face he looks weary.
I had the bird. He ate the liver then flew up to a lower branch. I handed the glove to McMillan and said: That was a special experience. I thank him for it. He took out another piece of meat and the bird flew down to the glove. He hooked Max up and we went back to the trucks through the woods. Of course there were more personal questions on his part but I did a fair job at dodging most of them.
We went back to the barn. We were standing around when the Game Warden and a cop showed up.
Its not a party until the cops show up.
It was a great time.
I'll have to send that Dr. G a Thank you note.
I was really in quite the good mood.

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~