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A Hunter's Shadows: A Personal Exploration of Hunting

Hunting has a long history in the U.S. that has evolved as the country has progressed. In a way, each hunter also has their own history that evolves as they age. This collection of essays is a look into my history with hunting and some of the ways it has evolved. On initial read these essays have an obvious common thread of hunting and they follow me as I rediscover moments in my life that have influenced my journey to where I am today as a hunter. But the essays also go beyond the act of hunting and delve into my relationships with influential people, places, and landscapes in my life.
One of the goals in crafting these essays was to explore various reasons why I choose to be a hunter and to examine why I made an unconscious decision to stop killing animals in 2007a reprieve that would end while writing this collection.
Another goal was to make these essays relatable to a wide audiencehunters, non-hunters, and anyone considering hunting. Hunters, perhaps, will recognize some of the struggles, questions, joys and heartbreaks addressed here. For non-hunters, my hope is that I have offered a honest look into hunting that may lessen some stereotypes. For someone considering hunting these essays provide candid fodder for what it is like to hunt and some insight into the potential internal struggles that hunters carry.
I knew the core of writing these essays would be to explore my connectionpast, present, and futureto hunting. But like many things in life, what begins as perceived simplicity quickly becomes a much greater task. The more consideration I gave this topic, the more I realized that this journey would not be as simple as trying to find out answers to "this is why I hunt" or "this is why I no longer hunted." As I have discovered these essays do not provide a concrete answer to my many questions. Instead, they have established a foundation for my continued exploration into why I desireor desire notto call myself a hunter.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MONTANA/oai:etd.lib.umt.edu:etd-05302014-111234
Date20 June 2014
CreatorsGiese, James
ContributorsPhil Condon, Dan Spencer, Elizabeth Covelli Metcalf
PublisherThe University of Montana
Source SetsUniversity of Montana Missoula
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05302014-111234/
Rightsrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Montana or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

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