Gutta på jakt1
Research among very young hunters (boys aged 15 to 21) in two semi-urban areas outside Oslo demonstrated that for some youngsters with a working-class background and working-class occupational prospects, hunting may be an arena for the reproduction of typical male working-class culture – even in areas that are not typically rural. The hunting culture that these boys are socialized into is typically informal, collective, has a certain element of physical machismo and – not least – it represents a “productivist” perspective on humanity’s relationship to nature and entails a mastery of “tools” like guns, GPS-units and even dogs. These cultural traits correspond to core elements in a typical working-class culture, such as it has been described in numerous studies. However, economic and social change has eroded the material basis for this culture, and its reproduction is now partly relegated to the sphere of leisure. Importantly, the young informants expressed a deep admiration for their fathers and other male relatives (who were hunters) and their lifestyle, and exposed a strong sense of continuity across generations, unlike the popular notions of classless, reflexive identity projects in the so-called post-industrial era.