Telling better stories: Toward critical, place-based, and multispecies narrative pedagogies in hunting and fishing cultures

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the ethical and educational functions of storytelling in fishing and hunting practices and pedagogies. I explore various psychological, anthropological, and ethical theories surrounding storytelling as a way of encouraging deeper, more robust engagement among humans, nonhuman animals, and myriad beings that exist alongside of us in our multispecies communities. Drawing on animal studies, narrative theory, and critical pedagogy as well as ongoing qualitative research, I offer potential ways of incorporating a wider “ecology of stories” into situated hunting and fishing practices to engage more ethically with the people and beings that dwell in a given place.

Keywords:

• hunting and fishing
• narrative ethics
• place-based pedagogy

Disclosure statement

No financial interest or benefit has arisen as a result of my research. There are no conflicts of interest included in the collection of information, data, or in my publication.

Notes

1 I would like to express deep gratitude to the undergraduate research assistants who have helped me collect data and think about this project in several different ways, especially: Chanel Davis, Alex Walter, Sarah Scheffler, Lindsey Bradley, Joy Riso, Nick Morelli, Carter Keegan, and Jay Cooney.

2 Throughout the article I utilize various terms to refer to humans and other animals as well as to the natural world. My work seeks to undo some of the damage of anthropocentrism and the unequal dualisms of human and animal, culture and nature. There are no satisfactory and simple terms that signify a sense of continuity between humans and other animals, and so I first introduce the term “nonhuman animals” here to acknowledge that humans are animals as well, albeit of a different kind. Subsequently, I use the term “animal” to avoid wordiness and to maintain coherence with several of the interview excerpts and quotations that maintain that terminology. In addition, I interchangeably utilize the terms “more-than-human world” from the work of David Abram (1996) and “multispecies communities” to acknowledge that spaces we think of as uniquely or entirely human are often embedded in various ecologies, constituted by many significant interspecies relationships.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Culture & Animals Foundation’s Research Grant (2016).