Human hunting

Human hunting refers to humans being hunted and killed for other persons' revenge, pleasure, entertainment, sports, or sustenance. There have been historical incidents of the practice being carried out during times of social upheaval.^[1] A 2016 report by Daniel Wright, senior lecturer in tourism at the University of Central Lancashire, predicts the hunting of the poor will become a hobby of the super-rich in a future plagued by economic and ecological disasters and overpopulation.^[2]

Historical examples[]

In Ancient Greece, the upper class of Sparta regularly practised the stalking and killing of members of their servile helot population; such murders were carried out both by the secret police (Crypteia) as a means of keeping the helots cowed and unlikely to revolt, and as part of the military training (agoge) for Spartan youths.
During the California genocide, indigenous people were hunted down and killed for bounties, in revenge for the killing of white settlers.
During the Spanish Civil War, the killing practice became popular among the sons of wealthy landowners. The hunts took place on horseback and targeted landless peasants as an extension of the White Terror. They were jokingly referred to as "reforma agraria" referencing the mass grave the victims would be dumped into and the land reforms the lower classes had been attempting to attain.^[3]^[1]
Between 1971 and 1983, serial killer Robert Hansen flew many of his victims into the Alaskan wilderness, then released them so that he could "hunt" the women with a rifle and a knife.
On July 18, 1984, 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty walked into a San Ysidro McDonald's and committed the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at the time (being surpassed 7 years later by the 1991 Luby’s massacre). Beforehand, Huberty kissed his wife Etna goodbye before telling her he was "going hunting... hunting for humans".

In fiction[]

The topic of hunting humans has been the subject of many works of fiction.

Probably the most famous in English is "The Most Dangerous Game", a short story by Richard Connell, which was adapted dozens of times for film, radio and television.^[4]
The 1993 action film Hard Target, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, was partly inspired by Richard Connell's book, and revolves around exploited trophy hunting of homeless veterans.
In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy novel series and its HBO television adaptation Game of Thrones, the character Ramsay Bolton, first debuted in the second book A Clash of Kings (1998), loved hunting naked young women in forests with hounds as part of his sadistic sport.
The 2005 horror film Wolf Creek, along with its 2013 sequel and 2016 spin-off television series, evolve around a sadistic serial killer Mick Taylor (played by John Jarratt), who hunts, tortures and murders backpacker victims for sports in the Australian Outback.
The Brazilian movie Bacurau (2019) explores the story of a small poor village in countryside Brazil called Bacurau, where white rich foreign tourists traveled to hunt the villagers down. The movie got two nominations in Cannes, Palm d'Or and the Jury Prize, have winning the last one. The movie also got the trophy for Best Picture in the 2019 Munich Festival.
The 2020 satirical film The Hunt evolves around the hunting of "deplorables" by upper middle class people in revenge of the former propagating conspiracy theories about the latter.

References[]

^ ^a ^b Hochschild, Adam (2016). Spain in Our Hearts. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 37. ISBN 9780547973180.
^ Wright, Daniel (April–May 2016). "Hunting humans: A future for tourism in 2200". Futures. 78–79: 34–46. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2016.03.021.
^ Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Penguin. p. 77. ISBN 9780143037651. This sort of activity was jokingly referred to as the 'reforma agraria' whereby the landless bracero was finally to get a piece of ground for himself.
^ Dixon, Wheeler Winston (August 24, 2010). A History of Horror. Rutgers University Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780813550398.

Notes[]

[:0-1] Hochschild, Adam (2016). Spain in Our Hearts. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. pp. 37. ISBN 9780547973180.

[2] Wright, Daniel (April–May 2016). "Hunting humans: A future for tourism in 2200". Futures. 78–79: 34–46. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2016.03.021.

[3] Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Penguin. p. 77. ISBN 9780143037651. This sort of activity was jokingly referred to as the 'reforma agraria' whereby the landless bracero was finally to get a piece of ground for himself.

[4] Dixon, Wheeler Winston (August 24, 2010). A History of Horror. Rutgers University Press. p. 42. ISBN 9780813550398.

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Human hunting

Contents

Historical examples[]

In fiction[]

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]