Human hunting refers to humans being hunted and killed for other persons' revenge, pleasure, entertainment, sports, or sustenance.[ citation needed ] Historically, incidents of the practice have occurred during times of social upheaval. [1]
The topic of hunting humans has been the subject of several works of fiction.
Catharism was a Christian quasi-dualist or pseudo-Gnostic movement which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. Denounced as a heretical sect by the Catholic Church, its followers were attacked first by the Albigensian Crusade and later by the Medieval Inquisition, which eradicated the sect by 1350. Many thousands were slaughtered, hanged, or burnt at the stake, sometimes without regard for "age or sex."
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to exploit the animal's body for meat and useful animal products, for recreation/taxidermy, although it may also be done for non-exploitative reasons such as removing predators dangerous to humans or domestic animals, to eliminate pests and nuisance animals that damage crops/livestock/poultry or spread diseases, for trade/tourism, or for ecological conservation against overpopulation and invasive species.
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, what is now southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political aspect. It resulted in the significant reduction of practicing Cathars and a realignment of the County of Toulouse with the French crown. The distinct regional culture of Languedoc was also diminished.
The Waldensians, also known as Waldenses, Vallenses, Valdesi, or Vaudois, are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the Poor of Lyon in the late twelfth century, the movement spread to the Cottian Alps in what is today France and Italy. The founding of the Waldensians is attributed to Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave away his property around 1173, preaching apostolic poverty as the way to perfection.
"The Most Dangerous Game", also published as "The Hounds of Zaroff", is a short story by Richard Connell, first published in Collier's on January 19, 1924, with illustrations by Wilmot Emerton Heitland. The story features a big-game hunter from New York City who falls from a yacht and swims to what seems to be an abandoned and isolated island in the Caribbean, where he is hunted by a Russian aristocrat. The story is inspired by the big-game hunting safaris in Africa and South America that were particularly fashionable among wealthy Americans in the 1920s.
The Pointer, sometimes called the English Pointer, is a medium-sized breed of pointing dog developed in England. Pointers are used to find game for hunters, and are considered by gundog enthusiasts to be one of the finest breeds of its type; however, unlike most other hunting breeds, its purpose is to point, not retrieve game.
Royal hunting, also royal art of hunting, was a hunting practice of the aristocracy throughout the known world in the Middle Ages, from Europe to Far East. While humans hunted wild animals time immemorial, and all classes engaged in hunting as an important source of food and at times the principal source of nutrition, the necessity of hunting was transformed into a stylized pastime of the aristocracy. More than a pastime,l interaction, essential training for war, and a privilege and measurement of nobility. In Europe in the High Middle Ages the practice was widespread.
Wolf hunting is the practice of hunting wolves. Wolves are mainly hunted for sport, for their skins, to protect livestock and, in some rare cases, to protect humans. Wolves have been actively hunted since 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, when they first began to pose a threat to livestock of Neolithic human communities. Historically, the hunting of wolves was a huge capital- and manpower-intensive operation. The threat wolves posed to both livestock and people was considered significant enough to warrant the conscription of whole villages under threat of punishment, despite the disruption of economic activities and reduced taxes. The hunting of gray wolves, while originally actively endorsed in many countries, has become a controversial issue across the globe. Most people see it as cruel, unnecessary and based on misconceptions, while proponents argue that it is vital for the conservation of game herds and as pest control.
In paleoanthropology, the hunting hypothesis is the hypothesis that human evolution was primarily influenced by the activity of hunting for relatively large and fast animals, and that the activity of hunting distinguished human ancestors from other hominins.
Animals in sport are a specific form of working animals. Many animals, at least in more commercial sports, are highly trained. Two of the most common animals in sport are horses and dogs.
The Predator, also known as Yautja, is the titular extraterrestrial species featured in the Predator and Alien vs. Predator science fiction franchises, characterized by its trophy hunting of other "challenging" species for sport. First introduced in the film of the same name, the creatures returned in the sequels Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010) and The Predator (2018), and the prequel Prey (2022), as well as the crossover films Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007). In 2023, the species was licensed to Adult Swim to appear officially in the seventh season of the animated series Rick and Morty, introducing the Skin Thieves clan.
The Most Dangerous Game is a 1932 American pre-Code horror film, directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray and Leslie Banks.
Cathar castles are a group of medieval castles located in the Languedoc region. Some had a Cathar connection in that they offered refuge to dispossessed Cathars in the thirteenth century. Many of these sites were replaced by new castles built by the victorious French Crusaders and the term Cathar castle is also applied to these fortifications despite their having no connection with Cathars. The fate of many Cathar castles, at least for the early part of the Crusade, is outlined in the contemporary Occitan "Chanson de la Croisade", translated into English as the "Song of the Cathar Wars ".
Mark Gregory Pegg is an Australian professor of medieval history, currently teaching in the United States at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. His scholarship focuses upon heresy, the inquisition, the Albigensian Crusade, and the history of holiness. Apart from these specific scholarly pursuits, he writes more broadly about what shapes and defines the medieval West from 200 to 1500. He is the author of The Corruption of Angels: The Great Inquisition of 1245–1246, A Most Holy War: The Albigensian Crusade and the Battle for Christendom, and Beatrice's Last Smile: A New History of the Middle Ages.
Boar hunting is the practice of hunting wild boar, feral pigs, warthogs, and peccaries. Boar hunting was historically a dangerous exercise due to the tusked animal's ambush tactics as well as its thick hide and dense bones rendering them difficult to kill with premodern weapons.
A professional hunter is a person who hunts and/or manages game by profession. Some professional hunters work in the private sector or for government agencies and manage species that are considered overabundant, others are self-employed and make a living by selling hides and meat, while still others guide clients on big-game hunts.
Coon hunting is the practice of hunting raccoons, most often for their meat and fur. It is almost always done with specially bred dogs called coonhounds, of which there are six breeds, and is most commonly associated with rural life in the Southern United States. Coon hunting is also popular in the rural Midwest. Most coon hunts take place at night, with the dogs being turned loose, trailing and putting the raccoon up a tree without human assistance. Once the raccoon is in the tree, with the dog at the base, it is referred to as "treed", with "treeing" being the active verb form.
Proto-Protestantism, also called pre-Protestantism, refers to individuals and movements that propagated various ideas later associated with Protestantism before 1517, which historians usually regard as the starting year for the Reformation era. The relationship between medieval sects and Protestantism is an issue that has been debated by historians.
"The Most Dangerous Game" is a highly influential 1924 short story by Richard Connell. It tells the story of big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford becoming the hunted when trapped on a jungle island owned by General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat who has turned to hunting man after growing bored of hunting animals. This story has been adapted into many works across many forms of media, including film, radio, television, and others.
'Sons of landowners,' writes the historian Antony Beevor, 'organized peasant hunts on horseback. [...]'
In 1233 the Inquisition was officially unleashed on the Waldenses, and the assault continued for centuries. [...] the Church hunted Waldensians as a group and individually.
If the Cathars could be deprived of their customary refuges, they would be vulnerable to an active policy of heresy hunting. 'We will purge', promised Count Raymond,'these lands of heretics and of the stench of heresy [...].'
The army, as if led by the Furies, was employed for years in hunting Huguenots. The history reads as if diabolism were let loose.
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.
Scholars who subscribe to sociobiological explanations for violence and conflict in early human societies [...] argue that biological drives predetermine human behavior. Though initially displaying such behaviors when hunting game and developing tools for such activities, hunter-gatherers eventually used their developing aggressive techniques against each other [...].
Warfare developed along two separate paths. The hunting of large game animals was critical to the development of the first path. Early hunters, working as a group in pursuit of game, sometimes engaged in attacks on members of competing groups of hunters [...].