A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History

by Matt Cartmill

What brought the ape out of the trees, and so the man out of the ape, was a taste for blood. This is how the story went, when a few fossils found in Africa in the 1920s seemed to point to hunting as the first human activity among our simian forebears-the force behind our upright posture, skill with tools, domestic arrangements, and warlike ways. Why, on such slim evidence, did the theory take hold? In this engrossing book Matt Cartmill searches out the origins, and the strange allure, of the myth of Man the Hunter. An exhilarating foray into cultural history, A View to a Death in the Morning shows us how hunting has figured in the western imagination from the myth of Artemis to the tale of Bambi-and how its evolving image has reflected our own view of ourselves. A leading biological anthropologist, Cartmill brings remarkable wit and wisdom to his story. Beginning with the killer--ape theory in its postWorld War II version, he takes us back through literature and history to other versions of the hunting hypothesis. Earlier accounts of Man the Hunter, drafted in the Renaissance, reveal a growing uneasiness with humanity's supposed dominion over nature. By delving further into the history of hunting, from its promotion as a maker of men and builder of character to its image as an aristocratic pastime, charged with ritual and eroticism, Cartmill shows us how the hunter has always stood between the human domain and the wild, his status changing with cultural conceptions of that boundary. Cartmill's inquiry leads us through classical antiquity and Christian tradition, medieval history, Renaissance thought, and the Romantic movement to the most recent controversies over wilderness management and animal rights. Modern ideas about human dominion find their expression in everything from scientific theories and philosophical assertions to Disney movies and sporting magazines. Cartmill's survey of these sources offers fascinating insight into the significance of hunting as a mythic metaphor in recent times, particularly after the savagery of the world wars reawakened grievous doubts about man's place in nature. A masterpiece of humanistic science, A View to a Death in the Morning is also a thoughtful meditation on what it means to be human, to stand uncertainly between the wilderness of beast and prey and the peaceable kingdom. This richly illustrated book will captivate readers on every side of the dilemma, from the most avid hunters to their most vehement opponents to those who simply wonder about the import of hunting in human nature.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Animals, Philosophy, Anthropology

347 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 1990

Reviews

[Father Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

My inclination is to give this book three stars, but the sheer quantity of wonderful material Cartmill assembles earns it a fourth. The author writes from a perspective of reductive materialism, considering social realities through the lens of various attitudes to hunting. As a hunter, I was greatly intrigued by much that Cartmill did to sift through this cultural history and present a treasury of what has been said and done in the midst of the hunt. The bibliography alone is with the price of the book. Cartmill does an excellent job of compiling this material in readable form, but his own opinions are regrettably droll. To end such a book with the insinuation that the human-animal distinction should more or less be abolished without coming right out and saying it seems cowardly and dishonest, and makes me suspicious of the way in which he organized the book. That insinuation came as a real surprise to me, given the attention he paid to the phenomenon of hunting and the largely successful enterprise of at least attempting to give hunters a fair say. In particular, the analysis of the Disney film Bambi and its philosophical and cultural antecedents gave me a great deal to ruminate upon.
What is so surprising about Cartmill's ending is that anyone who pays close attention to the uniquely human way in which an activity like hunting takes on cultural, linguistic, social, and political overtones should be inoculated against then slouching into a crude Darwinism that levels those distinctions into meaninglessness. One can excuse a biologist or ecologist for making that conceptual leap (or conceptual self-immolation), especially those who lack grounding in cultural history; for someone whose specialty is that very cultural history, it comes across as lazy, and therefore intolerable.
Nonetheless there is much raw material here worth exploring, and so I would restrict my recommendation of this book to those who aren't easily afflicted by the stupefying touch of scientism.

[Michelle Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cartmill’s book is just as much a history of thought about nature as a history of hunting. Seamlessly weaving in philosophy and literature about the natural world and animals with more specific texts about hunting, Cartmill in these three chapters demonstrates how attitudes towards hunting changed from the scientific revolution to the period before WWI. In lucid prose, he details the shift from mechanistic philosophies of the pre-Enlightenment and Enlightenment periods to the nature-as-spirit beliefs of the Romanticists to the brutal hierarchical attitudes of Darwinism, always considering the way these transitions viewed, caused, and/or worked to relieve animal suffering. His conclusions are careful to account for the gray areas; he explains, for example, that in the Victorian period the Romantic and Darwinian views existed simultaneously and were in fact often in direct competition in public discourse, especially as people began to question the rightness of imperialism. If anything, the book’s title makes it seem a narrower work than it actually is, thus downplaying its contribution to the history of man’s relationship with nature. This is not to suggest that it is a poorly-balanced piece, but rather to applaud its ability to keep hunting always in a broad perspective. In doing so it is a solid basis for all future work under the umbrella of animal studies.

[Friedrich Haas · Rating 2 out of 5]

An exhaustingly comprehensive overview of hunting / warfare / our basic nature, over time. It started me in one of my favorite areas, ancient times, started losing me in the medieval ages, recaptured my interest with Disney, and leaves me in the present day, almost. having been printed in 1993, it now needs a chapter on the politicization of hunting by the gun manufacturers and their political party servants. Hunting looms large in our human cultures, though most people throughout time have never participated. It has been more about how we feel, than in how we survive. It is good that the changing view has been encapsulated here.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't wait for this book to end. I thought it was going to be really interesting but it just drug on and on. This book had the potential to be great. He mostly talked about the history. It would have been more interesting if he explored both sides of the por/anti-hunting issue. The book is filled with paragraphical quotes. I found myself just skipping over them because for the most part they didn't add anything to the story. He also goes off on tangents and I couldn't see the point. Glad it is done with and sorely disappointed.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a really interesting book. While the initial focus is hunting, of course, it does do a lot of side-stepping into evolution. Very academic, very interesting, but I wish it would have focused a bit more on the sociological aspects. Cartmill delves deeply (perhaps too much so) into the hunting hypothesis, but it becomes a bit too familiar-- for lack of a better word-- by the time the book is finished. Definitely worth the read, but I was ready to put it down.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have given this book five stars because what it included was excellent. Well researched. I learned a lot. However, it was missing an important set of perspectives: indigenous voices. Indigenous peoples were mentioned only as seen and understood by Europeans. I think there is the potential for a whole other set of ideas there, maybe a second volume.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debunking the Killer Ape theory. Brilliant stuff. Thoughtfully written and insightful. If you know anyone who likes to argue that humans are genetically predestined to be violent and war-like (and you disagree) check this one out.

[Laurel Braitman]

This is a fabulous book about hunting throughout human history. It is not preachy but thoughtful and incredibly rich with explanations of so much about our relationships to animals and the world that we take for granted.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly what I wanted, research-wise, but still pretty darn good.

[E. Napier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. Fascinating.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best history book I have ever read.