Eating wild game

Abstract

This chapter presents the results of a qualitative sociological study on wild game meat consumption in a Southern France region, the department of Hérault, with a Mediterranean climate and a garrigues and vineyards landscape. Wild boars now tend to proliferate in this region, causing more and more crop damages. In France, the federations of hunters pay for these damages. Traditionally, game meats are mainly consumed by the hunters and their family, or circulate non-commercially within their networks. In connection with the interest of the local hunters’ federation in setting up a marketing chain of hunted meats, the study focused on the eating habits of large wild game meat. Based on the theory of practices, the study identifies three main forms of this practice: wild game meat is mainly considered as a familiar food, a healthy food or an ethical food. These forms are characterized by different supplying, cooking and eating habits, social situations of consumption, aims and meanings associated with eating game meat. They are linked to close membership or distance from the hunting community, to gender roles and relations to nature, animals, wildness and hunting. Finally, the findings suggest that eating wild meat is a path taken by some people to build a new ethic of predation, in a context where meat consumption is being socially questioned.