Manhunts (ebook)

Argumento de Manhunts (ebook)

Touching on issues of power, authority, and domination, Manhunts takes an in-depth look at the hunting of humans in the West, from ancient Sparta, through the Middle Ages, to the modern practices of chasing undocumented migrants. Incorporating historical events and philosophical reflection, Grégoire Chamayou examines the systematic and organized search for individuals and small groups on the run because they have defied authority, committed crimes, seemed dangerous simply for existing, or been categorized as subhuman or dispensable.

Chamayou begins in ancient Greece, where young Spartans hunted and killed Helots (Sparta's serfs) as an initiation rite, and where Aristotle and other philosophers helped to justify raids to capture and enslave foreigners by creating the concept of natural slaves. He discusses the hunt for heretics in the Middle Ages; New World natives in the early modern period; vagrants, Jews, criminals, and runaway slaves in other eras; and illegal immigrants today. Exploring evolving ideas about the human and the subhuman, what we owe to enemies and people on the margins of society, and the supposed legitimacy of domination, Chamayou shows that the hunting of humans should not be treated ahistorically, and that manhunting has varied as widely in its justifications and aims as in its practices. He investigates the psychology of manhunting, noting that many people, from bounty hunters to Balzac, have written about the thrill of hunting when the prey is equally intelligent and cunning.

An unconventional history on an unconventional subject, Manhunts is an in-depth consideration of the dynamics of an age-old form of violence.

"Easily accessible despite being packed with multi-facetted philosophical discussions and layers of archival treasures. . . . I read the book in what seemed like a single, long, fascinated breath."--Gitte du Plessis, Theory & Event0Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1 The Hunt for Bipedal Cattle 4
CHAPTER 2 Nimrod, or Cynegetic Sovereignty 11
CHAPTER 3 Diseased Sheep and Wolf-Men 19
CHAPTER 4 Hunting Indians 29
CHAPTER 5 Hunting Black Skins 43
CHAPTER 6 The Dialectic of the Hunter and the Hunted 57
CHAPTER 7 Hunting the Poor 78
CHAPTER 8 Police Hunts 87
CHAPTER 9 The Hunting Pack and Lynching 99
CHAPTER 10 Hunting Foreigners 109
CHAPTER 11 Hunting Jews 120
CHAPTER 12 Hunting Illegals 134
conclusion 149
postscript 155
Notes 157
Index 185