Australians are reacting against being distanced from risk and the realities of life and death by taking up hunting, according to anthropologist Dr Carla Mack, who studied the subject for a PhD.
In an interview on ABC radio, Dr Mack talked about society’s increasing aversion to risk, our changing relationship with nature, and the portrayal of nature as “benign and humans as very aggressive,” saying much of this explained the apparent rise in the popularity of hunting and firearms.
She tells ABC radio that risk aversion and management have become “very cumbersome and restrictive of the things people want to do”.
“Increased interest in hunting and firearms goes along with that,” she says.
Her comments back up anecdotal evidence that many Australians are shrugging off the ‘politically correct’ ideas fostered by animal rights campaigners and the Greens, and beginning to re-engage with aspects of human behaviour that have been vilified.
“The sanitation of our day-to-day lives, where people don’t have to engage with death … is not sustainable and not realistic,” Dr Mack says.
Presenter Linda Mottram, contrary to the stereotypes of ABC listeners and Sydneysiders generally, reveals she is toying with the idea of raising a calf for meat.
You can listen to the interview here.
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