Southern Hunting in Black and White: Nature, History, and Ritual in a Carolina Community [Hardcover]

Stuart A. Marks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1991 | ISBN-10: 0691094527 | ISBN-13: 978-0691094526

For many Southern men living in or close to rural landscapes, hunting is a passion. But it is not a timeless activity in a cultural void. Whether pursuers of fox or raccoon, deer or rabbits, quail or dove, Southern hunters reveal for Stuart Marks complex patterns of male bonding, social status, and relationships with nature. Marks, who has written two outstanding books on hunting in Africa, was born and has long lived in the South. Examining Southern hunting from frontier times through the antebellum era to the present day, he shows it to be a litmus test of rural identity. "Drawing on the latest anthropological theory, statistical sources, extensive interviews, and historical research, [Marks] has crafted a multifaceted account of Southern hunting. Relations of race, property, gender, and region appear in fresh guises in this innovative and intriguing study. The portrayal of the contemporary state of hunting is especially interesting, revealing both the continuities with the past and the new pressures on the sport".--Virginia Quarterly Review

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (April 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691094527
• ISBN-13: 978-0691094526
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,376,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Schizophrenic study of racial, economic and social aspects of hunting, August 14, 2009

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Southern Hunting in Black and White (Paperback)

Marks taught for many years at a small college in a rural county in North Carolina. While there he also made an ethnographic study of hunting in this community. The richest parts of this book look at the racial, economic and social meaning of hunting in his study area. He also provides individual chapters for types of game, such as fox hunting, deer hunting, and small game hunting. Other parts provide background on the political and social history of hunting in the South, game regulations in North Carolina, and other such topics.

Several chapters are quite interesting. But he never pulls the whole book together effectively. The various research styles of the chapters also do not fit together well. They include a historical chapter based on secondary sources, a sociological chapter based on a survey and state data, and ethnographic chapters on particular groups of hunters.

The latter chapters are particularly frustrating, for Marks relies heavily on interviews reported verbatim over several pages. There is too little interpretation, and little attempt to bring together the views of multiple informants.

Still, there is ample good material here, depending on your particular interest.