Hunting game for food

Hunting for food, clothing, and shelter is an important area in human history. It predates the human civilization we know these days, in many ways. Many discoveries are being made that confirm that notion. A recently discovered fossilized Asian spearhead is more than 16,000 years old, for example. There is also evidence that we used larger animals for food nearly two million years ago.

The first type of hunting required, as far as the professionals can tell, involved weapons such as spears or bows and arrows fired from a distance. Believe it or not, our ancestors captured their food using the identical method we use to take the bus to work when we are late. We ran after him. Before he heard long-range weapons being used, primitive man had no other way to catch his dinner than to be persistent and wear it down during a long walk, often even in the oppressive midday heat. Some of the early hunters chased antelope more than 20 miles in temperatures of more than 100 degrees. Persistent hunting would be the order of the day. African hunters would chase a Kudu, which is an early version of the antelope, scaring the animal into flight. They would chase the beast at a rapid pace and, while the fastest Kudu would always be ahead, the hunters would catch up with him when it took time to rest in the shade. The hunter would finally finish off the animal with a spear, but not until he was at close range. This type of hunting is still practiced in southern Africa.

With changes in human society, hunting evolved. As we began to grow our own food and raise animals, hunting became a specialized task. No longer just the traditional male endeavor, hunting became a certain duty with merchants acquiring precise training. The other trend was for hunting to become the sporting and leisure domain of the upper grades. It was here that the English word game became common.

Hunting has had other effects on our society as well. Various animals have been used to aid the hunter, but none are now as critical to us as the dog. The application of the ancestors of the wolf to recover prey and be our faithful travel companions has differentiated the dog. Their domestication, which took thousands of years, is considered an exceptional achievement. The link between hunter man and dog goes back so far that the same word for hunting in ancient Greek comes from the term dog.

Perhaps the most famous type of hunting is the safari, which was popularized by the American author Ernest Hemingway. The word itself comes from Swahili, which means long journey, and the most common type of safari occurs in Africa. It was often several days or weeks of camping while stalking or hunting big game, but in an increasingly modern sense, it also included journeys through the African wilderness to hunt or watch the fundamental game. Unlike his predecessors who ran over their prey years before, the modern African hunter often acquires a special license and enlists the help of local professionals. There is even a modern form of safari in which no animals are killed. The photographic safari is precisely what its name indicates and a Polish photographer used the phrase “hunting without blood” for the first time.