Atlatl (pronounced AHT-lah-tuhl) is an Aztec word
meaning "spear-thrower" -- spear-thrower the thing, not spear-thrower
the person.
It looks like the prehistoric hunting weapon, which goes back
to the earliest human times in what is now Middle America,
may be making a comeback.
National Geographic News (24 January 2006), reviewed
progress to have the "Stone-Age spear throwers" made legal
for hunting in Pennsylvania.
So it looks like we're finally catching up to "Stone-Age"
New World hunters.
(I didn't say "Mesoamerican" hunters, because technically
there was no "Mesoamerica" until the people in current-day
Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras began settling down in agricultural
villages in the "Preclassic.")
For thousands of years before the "Preclassic" hunters in
what is now Middle America -- during what is known as the "Early
Hunters" or "Paleo-Indian" or "Lithic" stage -- made their
living with the atlatl.
For Topic 3 have a look at the National Geographic article Ancient Spear Weapon OK'd For Deer Hunt in Pennsylvania.
Read the article on atlatl hunting in the National
Geographic News, and then post your reaction to it on the
forum. The article can be found at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/01/0124_060124_atlatl_deer.html
In October 2007 it was reported
in the Duluth News Tribune that the Arrowhead
Bowhunters Alliance 2007 hunt in
Duluth, MN, is "off to a productive start.... 'We’re
over 140 deer,'" Phillip Lockett president of the Arrowhead
Bowhunters Alliance, which conducts the hunt for the city
said of the harvest. “That’s really good. I think
last year at this time the count was about 75” (Sunday,
September 30, 2007).
"Last fall, 251 hunters registered
for the [Duluth, MN, city] hunt, and 195 of them took a total
of 564 deer, 86 percent of them antlerless. This year,
314 hunters registered and passed shooting proficiency
tests to become eligible for the hunt.
Lockett said no problems have been reported
in this fall’s hunt. For more information on the
hunt, including a venison donation program, go to www.bowhuntersalliance.org."
For more information on the Duluth Hunt go to <http://www.bowhuntersalliance.org/readarticle.php?article_id=28>.
University of Minnesota Campuses