What does hunting represent for Corsican men ? How comes  that they are so attached to hunting?

Hunting has an important place in Corsica; we can say that it has always been part of our environment, our way of life and our culture. Historical, cultural, social and economic conditions may explain this fact.

Corsica has remained close to its weapon, to defend itself or to protect itself from the invader and even from its neighbor (vendetta), or from the way they need to hund, or to celebrate (elections, births, parties, weddings ..), or whether it is for bad things (theft, dirty affairs) Even today, only few of them don’t have a gun hanging from a nail (on the wall)

The transmission of the hunting instinct or spirit was made by communication. Vertical communication among elders, adults who participate in the education of youngsters and are the spiritual representatives of the hunting instinct and spirit. Horizontal communication with the more or less senior hunters who give the example to others and carry with them this legacy of elders. They represent the actual support of the instinct and the spirit told (above). This way of thinking, reasoning, behaving before, during and after hunting is a fundamental element of our culture and contributes to maintaining and diffusing it in a natural way.

The social and geographical conditions make out of a Corsican man, more a man from  the countryside than from the city. Agriculture and breeding have occupied much of human activity over the past few centuries, until a few decades ago. The geography of Corsica has multiplied the units of exploitation around the villages of wool and mountain. Contact with nature. Does the instinct of hunting come from there also? Farmers and shepherds who care less about hunting are few, as they are every day in the maquis or close to it. Their family linked and their neighborhood intersect with this mixture of nature, animals, maquis and hunting.

Corsica is a so-called "poor" country. It must have been so once also but pride makes us hide the truth. The economy has never been developed. It was mostly a food economy. Everyone struggles to get food from agriculture or breeding. Hunting must also have been a means of obtaining some supplement (a need) and a way of forgetting difficulties of life (a pleasure).

Ernest Papi, Extrait de la revue « A pian d’Avretu » n°18, mars 1995