Human hunting
Human hunting refers to humans being hunted and killed for other persons' revenge, pleasure, entertainment, sports, or sustenance. There have been historical incidents of the practice being carried out during times of social upheaval.[1] A 2016 report by Daniel Wright, senior lecturer in tourism at the University of Central Lancashire, predicts the hunting of the poor will become a hobby of the super-rich in a future plagued by economic and ecological disasters and overpopulation.[2]
Historical examples
- In Ancient Greece, the upper class of Sparta regularly practiced the stalking and murder 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.
- During the Spanish Civil War, a real-world version of this 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 grave their quarry would be dumped into and the land reforms the lower classes had been attempting to attain.[3][1]
See also
- Blood sport
- Death games in fiction
- Gladiators
- Headhunting
- Lynching
- Premeditated murder
- Psychopathy
- Sexual sadism disorder
- Thrill killing
References
- ^ a b Hochschild, Adam (2016). Spain in Our Hearts. New York, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 37. ISBN 9780547973180.
- ^ Wright, Daniel (April–May 2016). "Hunting humans: A future for tourism in 2200". Futures. 78–79: 34–46. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2016.03.021.
- ^ Beevor, Antony (2006). The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Penguin. p. 77. ISBN 9780143037651.
This sort of activity was jokingly referred to as the 'reforma agrarian' whereby the landless bracero was finally to get a piece of ground for himself.