One way to “think like a sociologist” is to look at the unremarkable “normal” things of everyday life as if you’ve never seen them before. Put another way, sociology often asks you to look at the familiar as though it were strange. For example, have you ever seen a picture of a hunter standing next to an animal they just killed? While this is a common practice, if we look at it from a critical point of view we can see a whole lot of sociology going on. In this post, Stephanie Medley-Rath shows us the deeper meaning behind the norms of death pose/hunting success photographs to explore the meaning behind the photographs.
Two years ago I wrote about some of the reasons people deer hunt. Last week, the website Sociological Images shared images of the death poses animals are placed into after a successful hunt. The author, Lisa Wade, posed this question,”Why do they do it?” Wade goes on to say:
- Maybe it had something to do with the relationship to nature that hunter culture endorses. Instead of a destructive, violent relationship to nature that would be represented by picturing animals in their death poses, these pictures suggest a custodial relationship in which humans take care of or chaperone a nature to which they feel tenderly. That is, they don’t destroy nature with their guns, they tame it.”
Since my initial post on deer hunting, I have conducted research on Christian deer hunters to learn why they hunt. On the surface, it seems that hunting could be understood as not Christian because it involves killing. What I have learned, however, is that the Bible lends support to hunting. Though condoned by the Bible, the Bible does not give an unrestricted hunting licence. My research supports Wade’s interpretation of these hunting photos in that they do reflect a hunting culture that works to take care of nature rather than destroy nature.
Thus far, this interpretation fits nicely within the symbolic interacationist theoretical framework. Recall that symbolic interactionism focuses on how people act based on the meanings people have of the situation, which in turn shapes social interaction. In the case of death pose or hunting success photography, what is the meaning behind this particular style of photo?
Wade is correct in her assessment that the death pose/hunting success photos demonstrate the caretaker role many hunters identify with. Christian hunting media promotes the message that hunters have a responsibility to care for nature and with 51% of hunters identifying with evangelical Christianity,[1] this perspective is mainstream in hunting culture.[2] This photo style reinforces the image of hunters as caretakers rather than as destroyers of nature. A quick search of the term “deer hunt” on google images shows that this style of pose is fairly standard. Deviations included the hunter standing with the deer after it has been hung up or with the deer laying in the bed of a pick-up truck. In those two instances, the knowledge that the deer is in fact dead is much more glaring than in the normative pose.
While these photos do communicate a caretaker role, what else do they communicate to the viewer? For the most part, death pose/hunting success photos tend to emphasize the individual over the community. For an American deer hunter who is hunting on land he or she owns, the role of others in the hunt may be minimal to nonexistent (if you ignore the fact that few hunters are self-taught). Land ownership means the hunter does not need to secure permission to use someone else’s land to hunt. And, while certainly not an easy task, the average deer weighs between 155 (female) and 203 (male) pounds, making moving the deer by one’s self doable. But what about hunting internationally or hunting bigger game than a white-tailed deer? Hunting internationally typically involves hiring professional hunters and guides to assist in the hunt. The work of the group is made invisible when the photo that gets published is that of the lone hunter with his or her kill. In other words, these photos reinforce hunting as a somewhat solitary activity done without the support of other people.
Overall, hunting photography like other types of photography follows certain conventions or norms. When I studied scrapbookers, I asked participants what they would photograph at a child’s first birthday. The need to have the photo of the child with cake all over her or his face was so strong that one of my participants staged the photo because her daughter wanted nothing to do with the cake on her birthday. The point is that not only do hunters take photos in standardized ways, so do parents of one-year-olds.
Dig Deeper:
- Do you agree that the way in which animals are posed communicates the hunter’s role of caretaker to the animal? Why or why not?
- Why did the author use “death pose/hunting success” to describe the photos? What is the difference in our interpretation of these photos when they are described as “death pose” compared to “hunting success”?
- The author argues that these hunting photos emphasize individual effort rather than the group effort in a successful hunt. Do you agree? Why or why not? Can you think of another example in which individual effort is emphasized over that of the group?
- The author argues that photographers follow norms. Go to Pinterest and search “family photo.” Identify at least two norms among family photos. Pick one of these norms to explore what the norm communicates about families.
REFERENCES:
[1]Duda, Mark Damian, Martin F. Jones, and Andrea Criscione. 2010. The Sportsman’s Voice: Hunting and Fishing in America. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc.
[2]Of course, it remains unknown if evangelical Christians are drawn to hunting because hunting culture already promoted a caretaker role which fits within their religious framework or if the religious framework emerged as a way to justify continued participation in the hobby.