Fewer than 6 percent of Americans are hunters. But we love to put them in the White House. Actually, Eisenhower, Johnson, Carter, Bushes father and son1—half the presidents of the last 50 years have been avid hunters.

Its more than the macho2 thing. All over the world, masculinity is a prerequisite for power, but few hunters are in residence in presidential palaces from Italy to France to Japan.3 Like cowboys, hunters are quintessentially4 American.

From the earliest days of the American colonies, democracy and hunting were intertwined5. Many settlers despised the British system, where all game was owned by the crown or private estates and only wealthy landowners could hunt.6 As early as 1623, Plymouth Colony decreed that fowling, fishing and hunting were “free” to all.7

In 1842, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the landmark New Jersey case of Martin v. Waddell, in which one side had claimed exclusive ownership of oysters from beds adjacent to his land along the Raritan River; the court ruled that “dominion and property” in the nations lands and waters belonged to the people.8

The ruling fit the country. America was a vast frontier, teeming with wildlife on uncharted lands.9 Generation after generation set out to tame the wild territory, facing tremendous hardship for the limitless opportunities that beckoned.10

Our heroes were hunters, pioneers and Indian fighters. Daniel Boone11. Davy Crockett12. Teddy Roosevelt, by far the biggest hunter ever to occupy the White House, was also a prolific writer who envisioned successions of great hunters and political leaders taking the nation to world power.13 Americans were unique among“civilized” nations, shaped by rugged14 individualism and the violence and possibility of the frontier.

More than a century after the census declared the American frontier closed, the ethos lives on through popular culture—movie westerns, television, political imagery.15 Presidents chop wood on the ranch and talk of projecting American power to the other side of world.16 It helps if they can knock down17 a few birds.

Few other nations were formed through the violent subjugation18 of the frontier, and few other nations view hunters—or guns—as we do.

In Germany, for example, hunters are respected as stewards19 of the communitys land. They are responsible for wildlife management in the way that fish and game officers are here. The most highly trained among them—more than two years of study and apprenticeship on top of the six to nine months of classes followed by written, oral, practical and shooting proficiency tests required for a hunting license—are honored as jagermeister.20

Only a jagermeister, or “master hunter,” has the stature to lease a communitys aggregated lands,21 bringing in other hunters to help care for the private resource in exchange for the right to hunt. Presenting oneself as a swaggering big-game hunter would be a good way to lose the privilege entirely.22

In America, its a good way to win the White House.

More is at play here than our fascination with frontier culture.23 We also like big-T personalities.

Big-Ts, a.k.a. T-Types, are at one end of a continuum of human behavior on which psychologists assess the importance of risk or excitement as a motivating factor.24 The “T” stands for “thrills” (as opposed to aggression, which is Type-A). Big-Ts are risk-takers; little-ts are risk-averse.25 Big-Ts are action-oriented types, either mentally or physically. They like intensity, independence and conflict; they dislike structure and control.

Virtually all American presidents are on the big-T end of the scale26. So are many hunters (and, for that matter, animal-rights activists). The writers of the Declaration of Independence were big-Ts, as were the pioneers and many among the waves of immigrants who left behind everything they knew in a bold move for a better life.

These are the observations of Frank Farley27, a Temple University psychologist who named the personality type 20 years ago and believes it is responsible for Americas domination of science, technology and popular culture, not to mention world power.

“We are a big-T nation,” he said.

A key attribute of a big-T is the ability to stand firm, even to thrive, amid uncertainty. Imagine a hunter faced with a charging grizzly28—or a president responding to a terrorist attack.

In times of national economic downturn, voters have a gut-level attraction to the biggest of the big-Ts.29 They are our frontier heroes, able to shoot the bear between the eyes and destroy the enemy we dont understand.

1. 本句提到的總統(tǒng)依次為艾森豪威爾、安德魯·約翰遜、吉米·卡特和布什父子。

2. macho: 男子的，男子氣概的。

3. 縱觀全球，（具備）男子氣概確為（獲得）權力的先決條件，但從意大利到法國再到日本，總統(tǒng)府邸里身處任期的人（指總統(tǒng)）鮮有是獵手的。

4. quintessentially: 典型地，典范地。

5. intertwine: 交織，纏繞。

6. 許多移民鄙視英國的制度——在英國，所有的獵物都歸王室或私人莊園所有，只有富有的地主才可以打獵。

7. Plymouth Colony: 普利茅斯殖民地，位于馬塞諸塞州；decree: 命令，頒布……為法令；fowling: 打鳥，捕鳥。

8. 1842年，美國最高法院判決了新澤西州里程碑式的馬丁訴韋德爾案，該案中的一方宣稱對其拉里坦河沿岸土地附近河床中的牡蠣享有私有權；而法院裁決，國家的土地和水域的“統(tǒng)治權和所有權”屬于全體人民。

9. teem with: 充斥著；uncharted: 圖上未注明的。

10. tremendous: 極大的，巨大的；beckon: 召喚。

11. Daniel Boone: 丹尼爾·布恩（1734—1820），肯塔基州墾荒先驅，也是美國歷史上最著名的拓荒者之一。

12. Davy Crockett: 大衛(wèi)·克羅克特（1786—1836），美國拓荒傳奇英雄及國會議員。

13. prolific: 多產(chǎn)的，作品很多的；envision:想象，展望。

14. rugged: 粗獷的，堅毅的。

15. census: 人口普查；ethos: 性格，特質(zhì)；imagery: 形象化的描述，意象。

16. chop: 砍，伐；ranch: 農(nóng)場。

17. knock down: 擊倒。

18. subjugation: 征服。

19. steward: 管事，管理員。

20. 他們中受訓程度最高的人——除六到九個月的課程以外的兩年以上的學習和見習期，之后要參加獲取狩獵許可證所必需的筆試、口試、以及實踐和射擊熟練度的測試——被尊稱為“狩獵大師”。

21. stature: 高度水平，高度境界；lease: 租借；aggregated: 聚集的。

22. swaggering: 大搖大擺的；big-game:大型獵物。

23. at play: 起作用的；fascination: 迷戀。

24. a.k.a.: also known as, 又名，也叫作；continuum:連續(xù)性，統(tǒng)一體；assess: 評估。

25. big型人是危險的接受者，而little型人是危險的排斥者。

26. scale: 天平。

27. Frank Farley: 弗蘭克·法利，美國坦普爾大學（Temple University）的心理學家，上述人格概念的提出者。

28. charge: 猛攻；grizzly: 北美洲灰熊。

29. 在全國經(jīng)濟蕭條時期，選民們會本能地受到big型人中最強大的人的吸引。