Bloodties

Why do people hunt? What possesses humans to kill their fellow creatures? In Bloodties, naturalist Ted Kerasote explores such provocative questions, taking readers on adventurous journeys to the ends of the earth while dramatizing the debate over our proper relationship to the animal kingdom. In Greenland, where Inuit haul harpoons on their dogsleds to hunt seals, Kerasote finds remnants of one of the planet's last hunter-gatherer peoples; they stalk their prey for subsistence, much as their ancestors did, despite their new love affair with VCRs. Then, in Siberia, newly opened to Western sportsmen, Kerasote accompanies trophy seekers, wealthy sportsmen intent on bagging record-sized snow sheep while engaged in questionable hunting practices. Finally, Kerasote recounts his own relationship with elks he shoots in Wyoming, the painful but albeit spiritual transaction that occurs when we consciously acknowledge the lives we take to feed us. These ethical paradoxes and moral dilemmas make Bloodties a critical book for anyone grappling with the humans' role on Earth. Part outdoors journal, part anthropology, Bloodties is a beautifully written, evocative work of contemporary ecology.

First sentence: Seals, seals, seals, said Nicolai Jensen, kissing the air with his five puckered fingers, indicating, across Kullorsuaq's frozen bay, how it would look when the basking seals of spring sunned themselves on the ice.

Year

1993

Language

English

Publisher

Kodansha Globe

Editions

1

Pages

288

ISBN

9781568360270

Data source: Wikidata