Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt

by Ted Kerasote

AN ARDENT ENVIRONMENTALIST AND HUNTER SEEKS OUR PROPER RELATIONSHIP TO THE ANIMAL WORLD

For all readers who are perplexed over humanity's proper relationship to animals, Ted Kerasote's provocative exploration of the ancient human urge to hunt will dramatize the issues that fuel this controversial debate. In his opening section, "Food" the author travels to the frozen shores of coastal
Greenland, living and hunting with Inuit villagers-true hunter-gatherers-who are utterly dependent for sustenance on the seals, polar bears, and narwhal that they can wrest from their punishing environment. In "Trophies," Kerasote accompanies the first Western sportsmen permitted into a remote
stretch of Siberian wilderness, one of whom uses unethical stratagems to bag the worlds most coveted hunting trophy. In "Webs," we meet a hunter caught between these two extremes-the writer himself. Stalking elk near his home in Wyoming, seeking a winter's worth of meat, Kerasote encounters the pall
of himself that yearns to make the kill and take the wild creature's life force into his own body.

Nearing the end of his odyssey, the author attends meetings of the Fund for Animals with the organization's director, a vehement opponent of hunting. Kerasote also examines the ecological consequences of eating food produced by our agri-business system and transported in fossil fuel-consuming
refrigerator trucks; next he considers the environmental impact of the death of the prey that has given its life to the hunter. Scrupulously balanced, Bloodties is a memorable book for all lovers of the outdoors-both hunters and nonhunters-and a landmark in the evolving discussion of our proper
relationship to the animal world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Conservation

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Ted Kerasote's writing has spanned the globe and appeared in dozens of periodicals and anthologies, including Audubon, National Geographic Traveler, Outside, Salon, and The New York Times. He is also the author and editor of six books, one of which, Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age, won the National Outdoor Book Award. He lives in Wyoming.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Dannaldson · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are not a hunter, you should read this book. I've never read a better defense of (and critique of) hunting. Some people hunt for subsistence. Some people hunt for meat just because they like game. Some people hunt to acquire a trophy. The first two are easy to defend, the latter more difficult. And yet, we are a hunting species. How can we justify hunting in a modern world? This book makes a strong case that hunting is part of who we are as humans.

[Jason S Barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

Anyone who love's wild things will love this book. Hunters, conservationist, meat eaters and vegans can all gain insight into what the true cost of living is.

[Wallace Kaufman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began this book because I remembered "Out There" which I read and recommended as a judge for the Rutstrum Wilderness Book Award some years ago. Also, a good friend and lifelong hunter recommended it during our on-going discussion of the role of hunting and my recent blogs proposing that hunting is diminishing in value to conservation and has no justifiable role in a civilized society--rare cases of necessary predator control or subsistence hunting being exceptions.

Bloodties is always well written, but seldom convincing as a justification of hunting, and only partly satisfying as an explanation of hunting and hunters. The first chapters are a stay with Inuit hunters of Greenland. They take great joy and pride in killing seals, polar bears, and narwhals. They live a marginal life at the edge of the glaciers, but they do have modern motor boats, synthetic clothing, electricity, and rifles and they have Danish subsidies.

We also get the old tropes (reported, not endorsed) about thanking animals for being food. This is the ultimate anthropocentric view of life. If you don't believe me, ask a seal or polar bear.

In the chapters on a wealthy trophy hunter we get to the heart of the question--why do people hunt when they don't have to. Yet even here we find more empathy and explanation than analysis that gets to the core issue--should hunting be an honored part of a civilized society? What is it that really motivates this man and others like him to shoot and kill the very animals they say they all but worship?

[Bpaul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Understand that my mediocre score on this book is because I am researching writing something in this ballpark at some point, so this gives me high expectations and sharp focus.

It's deserving of a 4 or even a 5 star rating, depending on your connection to the subject.

I deeply respect that he went and lived with aboriginal hunters, and spent time with trophy hunters, and hung out with anti hunters. That's really putting your feet where your head is.

I respect, too, that he went to the trouble to check into the fossil fuel costs of hunting locally vs. "market vegetarianism." I've been wondering about this myself.

I enjoyed some of his writing when he was describing his hunt quite a bit.

But, overall, I felt the book was too disjointed, stylistically. He jumped from straightforward, journalistic and relatively opinion-free chapters on being embedded with these different hunting cultures, to really mellifluous and frankly stylistically overblown chapters about his own life. It felt forced and almost sanctimonious to me.

Now, when that more flowery style had been going for a while, there was some enjoyable reading in there for me. Especially when he got into his descriptions of his hunts, as opposed to more personal details about his own life that I couldn't find relevant to the argument he is making in this book.

In the end, it's amazing that an explicit hunter was able to write a book that has been praised by both PETA and pro hunting organizations. I mean -- that's almost beyond amazing.

I also agree with him about the ethics of hunting, and the openness to the experience that he displays well in the book.

If the style wasn't so disjointed I could easily give this a 4 stars, and from merely the perspective of being ground breaking it deserves a 5.

But as I said, I'm being picky because it's so close to what I am working on, and I wanted it to be smoother.

[Liv · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second Ted Kerasote book Ive read and one of his earlier ones. I really enjoyed this book and his style of writing which is well informed, researched and presented. Its split in three parts looking at the different types or cultures of hunting. He starts in Greenland describing traditional or subsistence hunting with local greenlanders, from past to present.The second part describes big trophy hunting mainly with US hunters and a trip he takes with several of these hunters to the Russian far east. The third part discusses what hunting means to him and the role it plays in his life in rural Jackson hole. I found the first two parts very interesting, adventurous and entertaining. At times humourous but also capturing the different "cultures, opinions and approaches to around hunting brilliantly. The third part I found a little tedious. He describes in great detail, often in a pseudo spiritual voice, what role hunting plays in his life ( he only eats meat which is wild/locally caught by himself or friends). He is most definitely an environmentalist. Its great in many ways, but just drags on a little. IN the final chapter he does a nice job of wrapping everything together into the conclusion. Its easy to romanticize nomadic/traditional hunters when the realities are often very different, and incredibly harsh. Similarly, Its easy to malign trophy hunters and to dismiss the role that they play in wildlife conservation. At the end of the day, All people, all hunters, play a role in different ways, good and bad. Dismissing or applauding or pre judging any of them out of hand isnt constructive. We need to be able to talk to and understand the different players, their needs and wants and drivers, if we are realistically going to effect change.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was extremely well-written. I was not expecting a lot because the other Kerasote book I read was terrible. I think he does a great job of presenting both sides of the hunting issue (not counting the crazy just kill anything cause we can side) and doesn't give any answers. It is clear that the author is struggling with the moral issues of hunting, and that makes you feel ok for struggling too.

[Jo Deurbrouck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I doubt Ted thought of this as adventure or travel writing when he wrote this book, but ten years after I first encountered it, I still recall it as one of my most enjoyable, thoughtful armchair journeys.

[Stacey]

I may try to pick this up again another time but I just can't get through it. Too much detail about hunts & hunters with not enough philosophical discussion (which I actually think is what Kerasote does best. oh well.

[Joshua Finnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I fully absorbed the impact of this book in undergraduate. Kerasote outlines a powerful critique of urban vegetarianism and the villification of true sustainable hunting practices.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Three very different approaches to the idea of hunting, one of which is set in and around Kelly, Wyoming.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best book available on the nature and meaning of hunting. Kerosote is a sensitive and intelligent writer. Skip the last chapter of The Omnivore's Dilemma and read this instead.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, beautifully written book on the web of life, the costs of feeding ourselves, and our relation to the natural world.

[Jose Pacheco]

I got three chapters into it and couldnt stay engaged