A passionate pursuit: foxhunting as performance

Sociological Review, 2004

Early in the morning a farmer, dressed in dull green and brown work clothes, a dog at his side, leaves his house and walks quietly along a hedgerow towards a wood. At the edge of the wood he takes two cartridges from his pocket and puts them into his shot gun. He removes the safety catch. With the gun ready he continues slowly and quietly along the edge of the wood-an unobtrusive presence in the landscape. All of his senses alert, his eyes scan the near distance. He is not interested in the occasional pheasant that flaps out of the trees and into the field, nor the rabbits feeding along the hedgerows. His aim, if his aim is true, is to shoot one of the local foxes that might turn their attention to his poultry or lambs.

Journal of Rural Studies, 1999

The paper's title is inspired by that de"nition of the word &fox' which implies &to ba%e, to trick by slyness, or to delude' (Oxford English and Collins Pocket Dictionaries).

2005

This article is based on extended fieldwork carried out in the United Kingdom and particularly in Kent between 1997 and 2001. The discussion addresses key social and cultural issues highlighted by the contemporary British debate on hunting with hounds and their political, legislative and economic significance. As social anthropologists with a research interest, and subsequent participation, in hunting with hounds in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, we find this debate fascinating. It must be understood in the context of the Judeo-Christian ethic and its influence on Western views of nature and on the relationship between humankind and the natural environment. Western attitudes toward hunting belong to a historically identifiable process; from the mediaeval view of nature as an object of romantic conquest — hence, hunting as a ‘noble sport,’ a special rite of passage into manhood — to the 17th century Puritanical condemnation of hunting as morally and socially debasing, to the 19th c...

Human Ecology Review, 2005

This article is based on extended fieldwork carried out in the United Kingdom and particularly in Kent between 1997 and. The discussion addresses key social and cultural issues highlighted by the contemporary British debate on hunting with hounds and their political, legislative and economic significance. As social anthropologists with a research interest, and subsequent participation, in hunting with hounds in Britain and elsewhere in Europe, we find this debate fascinating. It must be understood in the context of the Judeo-Christian ethic and its influence on Western views of nature and on the relationship between humankind and the natural environment. Western attitudes toward hunting belong to a historically identifiable process; from the mediaeval view of nature as an object of romantic conquest -hence, hunting as a 'noble sport,' a special rite of passage into manhood -to the 17th century Puritanical condemnation of hunting as morally and socially debasing, to the 19th century Evangelical concern for animal rights.

Cardiff University SHARE eJournal Blog (Of Beasts & Men series), 2018

The common interaction between both humans and foxes has led to a variety of differing relationships between the two. In this article, a discussion of the differing roles and interaction dynamics seen in past societies is made in comparison to what we can see in modern history and contemporary societies. Further, the piece also discuss the potential issues that modern perceptions of the fox may hold over current archaeological study.

Environmental Communication, 2012

On June 7 th , 2010, media reports appeared that nine month old twins living in East London had been rushed to hospital following a 'suspected fox attack': the babies had been seriously injured. This story received sustained and intense coverage for several months, and became the focus of debate over the role and behaviour of urban foxes, and how they and humans should coexist. Using textual analysis to unravel the various discourses surrounding this moment, this paper discusses how this incident became such a prominent 'media event'. Alongside the more immediate contexts of the 'silly season' and a period of political transition, we argue that this incident breached a series of spatial boundaries that many societies draw between people and the 'natural world', from the 'safest space' of a child's cot, to the categorisations made of animals themselves. We discuss the consequences of such boundary breaches, including confusion over the assignment of responsibility for, and expertise about, the figure of the 'urban fox'.

The Learned Pig, 2017

Article describing the project 'Foxing,' a commission and exhibition at PEER London, 2017. The project aimed to meet foxes, or meet foxes halfway. It took two main strands, one working with a fox rescue centre, in intimate proximity with foxes, but in a contained situation; and the other, in which the artist engaged local wild foxes in interspecies participatory art.

Warszawskie Studia TeologiczneXXXIII/2/2020, 166-182, 2020

In this short essay I demonstrate that the contemporary discussion on animal rights has some problematic presuppositions concerning the role of philosophy. I argue that what is necessary is not so much to resolve the alleged cultural dispute than to re-learn how to approach it contemplatively. A certain type of hunting can offer a highly dramatic and personally transformative encounter with the animal world through which we can consider our participatory relationship with nature. Thus, after a short methodological introduction, I identify the type of hunting that may allow for such an experience. After the dramatic aspect of hunting is described and analyzed, I explain how the encounter with the quarry illuminates man’s paradoxical place in nature and its subordination to humanity. I finish by phenomenologically describing what the gaze of the hunted animal communicates and how witnessing it restores the contemplative context in which an authentic human response might be given to nature.

Environmental Communication, Vol. 6, Issue 4: 494-511, 2012

On June 7th, 2010, media reports appeared that nine month old twins living in East London had been rushed to hospital following a ‘suspected fox attack’: the babies had been seriously injured. This story received sustained and intense coverage for several months, and became the focus of debate over the role and behaviour of urban foxes, and how they and humans should coexist. This paper discusses how this incident became such a prominent ‘media event’. Alongside the more immediate contexts of the ‘silly season’ and a period of political transition, we argue that this incident breached a series of spatial boundaries that many societies draw between people and the ‘natural world’, from the ‘safest space’ of a child’s cot, to the categorisations made of animals themselves. We discuss the consequences of such boundary breaches, including confusion over the assignment of responsibility for, and expertise about, the figure of the ‘urban fox’.