Human Hunting
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Human-hunting is the
hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
and killing of human beings for other people's
revenge Revenge is defined as committing a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. Vengeful forms of justice, such as primitive justice or retributive justice, are often differentiated from more fo ...
, pleasure,
entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...
,
sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...
s, or sustenance. Historically, incidents of the practice have occurred during times of social upheaval.


Historical examples

* In Ancient Greece, the upper class of
Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
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. * In Europe, authorities sometimes hunted down adherents of "heretical" religious minorities, such as the Waldenses in the Alps the Cathars in the Languedoc, Anabaptists in Germany, and the
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
in France. * In Netherlands, heathen hunts, also known as "heidenjachten," were a practice during the 18th century that involved hunting and persecuting the Roma people. * The Mexican government, particularly the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, introduced a bounty system in 1836, offering rewards for Apache scalp. The bounty for an Apache male scalp was 100 pesos, while for an adult female Apache, it was 50 pesos, and for a child under 14, it was 25 pesos. * During the Selkʼnam genocide, livestock companies used employees and third party hunters to hunt down the Selkʼnam to make way for
estancias An estancia or estância is a large, private plot of land used for farming or raising cattle or sheep. Estancias are located in the southern South American grasslands of Chilean and Argentine Patagonia, while the ''pampas'' have historically bee ...
(large ranches). * During the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
of 1936–1939, 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. * Between 1971 and 1983, serial killer Robert Hansen flew many of his victims into the
Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
n wilderness, then released them so that he could "hunt" the women with a rifle and a knife. * There are allegations that during the Siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1996, some “rich” foreign tourists paid the Army of Republika Srpska to take part in organized “human safaris” where Serb soldiers would take the “tourists” to various sniper positions so that they could “hunt” the local populace.


Other examples

* Some accounts of early human violence associate the development of
warfare War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of State (polity), states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or betwe ...
– aggression against humans – with the practice of hunting game. * In 2016, Daniel Wright, senior lecturer in tourism at the University of Central Lancashire, wrote a paper on the possible future of tourism where he discussed how the hunting of the poor ("hunting humans") could become a hobby of the super-rich in a future plagued by economic turmoils, ecological disasters, and global overpopulation.


In fiction

The topic of hunting humans has been the subject of several works of fiction. * Probably the most famous in English is " The Most Dangerous Game", a 1924 short story by Richard Connell, which has been adapted dozens of times for film, radio, and television. *The 1985 novel, '' Blood Meridian'', by Cormac McCarthy, features a fictionalized version of John Joel Glanton and his posse of outlaws staged in the mid 19th century. The novel depicts the hunting, genocide, and evidential scalping of native Apaches and indigenous Mexicans. * The 1993
action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
'' Hard Target'', starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, partly inspired by Richard Connell's book, revolves around exploited
trophy hunting Trophy hunting is a form of hunting for field sports, sport in which parts of the hunted wild animals are kept and displayed as trophies. The animal being targeted, known as the "game (hunting), game", is typically a mature male specimen from a p ...
of homeless veterans. * The
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
features Kraven the Hunter, a big game hunter, hunting super-enhanced humans including
Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...
for glory. * The 1995 film '' Jumanji'' and its TV series features Van Pelt, a big game hunter who engages in human hunting among his poaching. * The 1999 version of Tarzan features Clayton, a big game hunter, threatening to hunt Tarzan for sport. The
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
features him threatening to get Tarzan stuffed during the final boss level. * '' Batman Beyond'' features the Stalker, a big game hunter cybernetically enhanced, seeking to hunt
Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...
for glory. * In George R. R. Martin's ''
A Song of Ice and Fire ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin. Martin began writing the first volume, ''A Game of Thrones'', in 1991, and published it in 1996. Martin, who originally envisioned the ser ...
''
epic fantasy High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot. Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Pres ...
-novel series and its
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
television adaptation '' Game of Thrones'', the character Ramsay Bolton, who first appeared 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 2000 cult classic Japanese film of ''Battle Royale'' features 42 high-school children sent by a totalitarian government to battle each other to death. * The 2004 stealth video game ''Hitman: Contracts'', the mission "Beldingford Manor" tasks the player with assassinating Lord Winston Beldingford and Alistair Beldingford, an aristocratic father and son who indulge in human hunting. The player is also tasked with rescuing Giles Northcott, their captive they plan on hunting. * The 2005
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
''Wolf Creek'', along with its 2013 sequel, and 2016 spin-off television series, evolve around a sadistic
serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
, Mick Taylor (played by John Jarratt), who hunts, tortures, and murders backpacker victims for sport in the Australian Outback. * The 2008 onward books series and 2012 onward films of ''The Hunger Games'' features a dystopian future where contestants are chosen by means of a lottery and forced to battle to death. * The 2018 Jack Reacher novel '' ''Past Tense'''' by Lee Child has a major plot-point of a motel operator in a remote town conducting "a people hunt" for a rich clientele. * The Brazilian film '' Bacurau'' (2019) tells the story of a small poor village in countryside Brazil called Bacurau, where white rich foreign tourists travel to hunt down the poor villagers. The movie got two nominations in Cannes, Palme d'Or and the Jury Prize, winning the latter. The film also took home the trophy for Best Picture at the 2019 Munich Festival. * The 2020 satirical film ''The Hunt'' revolves around the hunting of "deplorables" by upper middle-class people in revenge for the former propagating conspiracy theories about the latter. *In the Japanese
manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
'' One Piece'' Chapter 1096 (titled "Kumachi"), the Celestial Dragons are hunting some of their
slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
and the natives of the island called God Valley for amusement.


See also

* Blood sport * Bounty hunter * :Fiction about death games *
Genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
* Gladiators * Headhunting * Lynching * Premeditated murder *
Psychopathy Psychopathy, or psychopathic personality, is a personality construct characterized by impaired empathy and remorse, along with bold, disinhibited, and egocentric traits. These traits are often masked by superficial charm and immunity ...
*
Serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
* Sexual sadism disorder * Spree killer * Thrill killing *
War criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...
*
Witch-hunt A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or Incantation, incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the ...


References

{{Hunting topics Blood sports Homicide Hunting by game Killings by type Murder