From Animal to Trophy
In today’s trophy hunting industry, the animal seems to be considered only as a commodity, which value depends on the potential trophy it represents. It is thus easy conclude that this activity forms the most basic kind of relationship with the animal, at least from an affective point of view. But an ethnographic approach allows us to note that in this situation, the status of the animal is more complex : the conquest of the trophy implies symbolic constructions which aim is, more than denying the livingness of the animal, to make it into peak condition for being killed, or, more precisely, for being changed into a trophy. From the physical frame (the hunting area and the basecamp) to the practical one (ethic constraints, avoidance), everything converges in order for this trophy to embody the most authentic wilderness, and to allow it to gain a grand symbolic value. The trophy becomes then for the hunter a kind of sublimation of the animal, which existence is appropriated by the owner so that he can eternally enjoy it, just like a bashful lover. Finally, the hunting safari embodies a kind of relationship to the wild animal that seems to exist more widely in the Western world, and that can be found especially in camera safaris.