The duck, duck, dynasty of hunting shows: Column

• Duck Dynasty has blown the charts with 11.8 million viewers.
• These hunting shows take advantage of our craving to reconnect with our ancestral past.
• Civilization has brought us to a point where we no longer need to kill animals to survive.

Some speculate that the A&E reality show Duck Dynasty has blown the charts (with 11.8 million viewers!) because of its wholesome family focus. I'm sure that doesn't hurt, or maybe it's the sexy beards, but I've come to the conclusion that the reason is deeper.

Duck Dynasty and similar shows all tap into our primal hunter instincts; they take advantage of our craving to reconnect with our ancestral past, to a time when we hunted and lived off the land.

PETA may not like this, but the burgeoning pattern of outdoor hunting shows, such as Survivorman, Yukon Men, Call of the Wildman, and Gator Boys, all replicate the hunting stories that have mesmerized us around campfires for millions of years. (Perhaps if the shows were about euthanizing cats and dogs, PETA would embrace the concept).

Paleoanthropology posits that human evolution was mostly influenced by the activity of hunting. Hunting distinguished us from other hominids and was what we spent much of our time doing. Civilization has brought us to a point where we no longer need to kill animals to survive. Vegetarians are just as healthy, if not healthier, than meat-eaters – but our instincts to hunt have not changed.

As a young teen, I would hunt and fish with my, now deceased, father in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. My most memorable experiences with my dad involve spending time in nature, camping, tracking, hunting and fishing. That is where I felt connected to nature and my own ancestral past. It was never about bloodlust but about the experience with nature.

Satisfying our craving to hunt was once about being in sync with nature, exercising our muscles, and filling our bellies with lean meat.

Today, however, millions of Americans try to satisfy that craving by watching the Robinson families hunt on plasma TVs, while lounging on the couch, snacking on buttery popcorn.

Eliyahu Federman writes on religion, culture, business and law at the Huffington Post and elsewhere. He is an executive at 1Sale.com.

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