Fowl Play

Abstract

This article focuses on the affective and performative capacities involved in waterfowl hunting. I analyze my own performance as a researcher, disguised as a hunter, shooting videos and photos, capturing audio, and consuming wild birds. Camouflaged in cypress boughs, nestled into phragmites and surrounded by Canada goose and mallard decoys, I study the art of mimesis enacted by my hunter guides.

Food studies are limited if approached only through dishes (products) and their representation (images, words). Performance theory provides helpful ways of understanding what is missing if we try to apprehend cuisine strictly through documents, records, and material remains. In this piece, I revisit my video and photo documentation from a morning spent on the St Lawrence River in Montreal with two lifelong hunters. These archives breathe new life into my reflections of that day. Through sensory ethnography I peel back layers of deception and disguise that ultimately obscure the complex inter-species relations at play in the production of wild cuisine.

Notes

1 Roland is a pseudonym.

2 According to a study from 1998 to 2019 by Statista, Canadian chicken consumption has risen by almost 20 pounds per capita (2021). The three meats compared in this study are: chicken, beef and pork.

3 According to a 2019 report by The Conference Board of Canada entitled ‘The Economic Footprint of Angling, Hunting, Trapping and Sport Shooting in Canada’: ‘While recreation is the primary motivation for participating in all four activities according to the survey respondents, one-quarter of those who hunt also do so for food or sustenance. There are 1.3 million hunters in Canada. Hunting spending totalled $ 5.9 billion in 2018. The resulting contribution to GDP [Gross Domestic Product] was $ 4.1 billion. Hunting supported 33,000 jobs and generated just under $ 2 billion in labour income’ (2019: Executive Summary). From this, it can be adduced that only a very small number of Canadians hunt their own fowl for consumption, relying instead on the affective labour of others.

4 Pierre is a pseudonym.