Heritage is defined as:

Tradition, customs and practices inherited from ancestors

I see myself as a person who very much respected Ishi; the last wild 'Indian' in the United States.
He passed on his knowledge of hunting; and his life; and his respect for his family and for animals; through Pope and Young.

This can be read in the writings of many about Ishi.

Pope and Young both seemed to inherit not a sport; as Gene Wensel says is a 'game, like baseball, football, and basketball.

Nor does Wensel think that bowhunting is a game; he describes games as 'horseshoes, chess, and bowling' as examples.

He says bowhunting is: ' an instinct'.

Now I remember a college professor that said there are no human instincts. That class was the only one in over 200 credit hours that kicked me out of class on the first day.

I believe that bowhunting is an instinct that is our heritage. I personally think it is best expressed in traditional bowhunting.

I am curious as to how many others think traditional bowhunting is a heritage.

Unless you are a Australian aborigine, then Archery is YOUR heritage!

It's a heritage. Same as foraging.

What Steve said, although there is one obscure reference to children from a tribe on Cape York playing with bows as toys only, but it isn't substantiated.

My wife was talking to me and I accidently clicked the wrong box.  I voted for the bottom one and meant to click the top one.  So one vote for the bototm box needs to be chamnged to hertitage.

A PRECIOUS heritage, that my ancestors (and probably yours) learned (or were exposed to) on both sides of the ocean, IMHO. (Just for info - Irish, English & Native American in my background.)

I think hunting period is our heritage. Not necessarily traditional bowhunting.  Traditional equipment is just our choice of tools to use.

Man climbed to the top of the food chain by the grace of god and the big brain he bestowed on us that allowed us to invent the bow and arrow. It's ability to put lots of meat on the ground allowed for humans to rise in population and is one of the basis for modern civilization, so yes I believe it is our heritage.

CKR

Are we allowed to use the word heritage or did the politicians make that a no no to. Seems to me the rite to keep and bear arms was our heritage to at one point until the politicians got hold of that.
 I think its a way of life and yes a heritage.

I agree with Madness522.  

Hunting is the "heritage," bowhunting was just a more efficient method than spears, which was more efficient that rocks, etc., etc., etc.

In all honesty, improving technology is also our "heritage."

Hunting and gathering are a set of ancestral knowldege and instinctual behavior inate in all humans.  While some humans have not actualized this in modern times, and others have willfully chosen to ingnore this inate ability, there are those of us who in one form or another whole heartedly grasp our ancestral heritage and persue  hunting and gathering for our sustenance physical spiritual or both.

I voted that it is, indeed, a heritage. Is it my heritage? No. Nobody passed down the knowledge or the love of the bow to me. So, it might be a heritage for some folks, those blessed with a rich family bowhunting tradition, lots of guys simply picked it up. It will be a heritage for my kids.

It is heritage to some, but I still believe it's heritage. It's history and heritage. It's not my heritage. My heritage is boats, jungles, fishing and sugar canes! Hahaha. But it doesn't mean. I can't embrace someone elses heritage? Besides for me it's something more. It's a mental and physical connection to the body. I guess it's kind of zen to me. Is that weird?

QuoteOriginally posted by madness522:
I think hunting period is our heritage. Not necessarily traditional bowhunting.  Traditional equipment is just our choice of tools to use.

Agee!.  Me too.  

Plus there isn't one definition of traditional bowhunting.

emphasis on OUR [tradgangers]

Even if purely recreational bowhunting had first begun with Will & Maurice Thompson, which it didn't, that's a long enough period of history for me to consider it an American heritage.

ttt