Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt (Paperback)

by Ted Kerasote (Author) "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..." (more)
Key Phrases: Gros Ventre, United States, North America (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The last 20 years have brought many changes in American culture, among them a widespread belief that animals should be granted moral rights: protection from cruelty, from laboratory testing, from the destruction of their habitats. Some advocates argue that protection from hunting should be added to the list. Ted Kerasote provides a lively rebuttal in the pages of Bloodties, a book that takes us into the homes of hunting cultures in Greenland as well as into the mausoleum-like palaces of wealthy trophy hunters in America. Killing for food, Kerasote argues, constitutes an honorable activity, while collecting heads to mount on a living-room wall is indefensible. People on either side of the hunting debate will find much to think about in this well-written book.

From Publishers Weekly
Naturalist and author Kerasote examines the ethics, mythology and cultural value of hunting.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha Globe (August 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568360274
• ISBN-13: 978-1568360270
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #337,043 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars another hunters view, February 17, 2000

By	Jeffrey Swett (new hampshire) - See all my reviews

This book won't appeal to the hunter who views a succesful day only by the weight in the game bag, nor will it appeal to the anti-hunter who thinks all hunters want to do is kill. It will appeal to those who look for a deeper understanding of why they, and other people, hunt. This book should appeal to those who keep a copy of WALDEN, or A SAND COUNTRY ALMANAC within easy reach on the book shelf.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent, balanced discussion of the ethics of hunting, February 16, 1999

By A Customer

The author presents an intelligent, balanced discussion about the ethics of hunting ­ arguably one of the best ever written. Kerasote, hunter, environmentalist, and ethicist, presents three examples of hunting: subsistence hunting with the Eskimo, big game trophy hunting, and a personal hunting trip. Although an intensely personal book, Kerasote provides a much wider and reasoned view of both sides of the hunting issue than is normally presented in most discussions on the subject. Some of his envronmental arguments are particularly telling.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern reflections on hunting, both discouraging and encouraging, December 13, 2005

By	Robert Schmidt (Honolulu, HI & Logan, UT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"I put him in my mouth and began to feel the land pass through my body."

--Ted Kerasote on eating an elk he had killed.

This is not a "how to hunt" book. Bloodties: Nature, Culture, and the Hunt is a book on why people hunt. And Kerasote gives it to you with both barrels (pun intended). From Greenlanders making the transition from traditional subsistence hunting to a world full of modern gadgets, to the wealthy trophy hunters looking for ways to get their trophies and names immortalized in the Safari Club International Record Book of Trophy Animals, to Kerasote himself growing potatoes and hunting elk to put food on his own table, the issues involving why we kill wild animals for food and pleasure are debated. Kerasote also searches out Wayne Pacelle, currently chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the United States (but at that time an advocate with Fund for Animals), to get a perspective on why people should not hunt.

I've used Kerasote's book as a text in a wildlife course over a four-year period. For college students from a wide variety of majors, it has proved to be engaging, thought-provoking, astonishing for some, irritating for others, and a book most students don't try to sell back at the end of the semester.

If I had a suggestion for this book, it would be that it needs the perspective of a "Dick and Jane" hunter. Kerasote himself does not fit this bill. If you are a statistically average recreational hunter, you won't see yourself categorized here. However, I guarantee that you will relate what you are reading to what you do and why you hunt.

"I like to think that someday my bones will fertilize the grass that will make his grandchildren fleet."

--Ted Kerasote on the consequences of eating an elk he had killed.

This is a good book, well worth the effort to track down and read... the perfect gift for the thoughtful and reflective hunter.