UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, APRIL 2013…
Certainly, terror and dehumanization are also components of lethal raiding by humans, but human males seem to diverge from the chimpanzee pattern of transferring this kind of unchecked thrill to hunting. Yes, hunting is stimulating for humans. Across the United States, each late autumn and early winter sees innumerable deer hunters infected with buck fever, an affliction that presents symptoms that are alternately comical (potshots at hapless—and, I might add, completely antlerless!—Guernseys; self-conducted digital amputations, assisted by wayward lead) and tragic (adrenaline-induced cardiac arrest; the Dick Cheney “friendly fire” treatment). And, as paleobiologist R. Dale Guthrie emphasizes in his book The Nature of Paleolithic Art, modern hunter-gatherer men worldwide are preoccupied with planning and reliving hunts: “They give graphic descriptions of their most recent hunts, ...
