Why do we hunt?

Farago, Sandor

Hunting is an integral part of the history of humankind. Hunting for survival, and the cooperation it required, played a crucial part in the evolution of Homo sapiens. The ancient hunters' need to communicate led to the development of speech, while successful hunting depended on our ability to make tools. Even after the emergence of Homo sapiens, hunting remains an organic part of human culture. Its persistence is also a result of evolution. The first depictions that can be considered art dealt exclusively with themes of wild animals and hunting. However, as animal husbandry became widespread, hunting was no longer necessary for survival. In the Middle Ages, it served as a form of training for battle, and people only began to think of hunting as a sport in the 19th century. Wild animals are a natural and renewable resource of the land, and through proper game management their utilisation can be kept at an optimum level. Huntsmen, relying on the ancient instincts that evolution gave the primeval hunter, can play a part in this. The hunting instincts are most people are sublimated into other - sometimes harmless, sometimes brutal - activities that are forms of virtual or symbolic hunting. Therefore, hunting is necessary, and "wise management" that is in harmony with nature, can ensure the necessary conditions for it.

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