Introduction

This volume examines the cultural history of European and North American hunting from the Middle Ages to the present day from the perspective of gender as well as animal studies. It demonstrates that the hunting and killing of animals was (and still is) a highly codified activity that creates, reinforces, and sometimes undermines a variety of differences. This construction and deconstruction of difference applies not only to the relationship between “humanity” and “animality” but also to the relationships between human agents with respect to their gender. By applying a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, this collection dissects the many ways in which hunting—often classified as a “typically male” activity—participates, on the one hand, in the naturalization of gender differences and related binary asymmetries but, on the other, can sometimes open up a space in which gender boundaries become unsettled and blurred. More than any other activity, the practice of hunting—which is controversial at least in terms of animal ethics—seems to lend itself to the negotiation of both what is perceived as human and what as animal and what is seen as masculine and what as feminine.