"Який то звір нехай буде од мене, слуги вашої милості, ласкаве прийнятий". З історії мисливського промислу в Гетьманщині кінця XVII століття

Background. Hunting occupied an important place in the economies and socio-cultural life of pre-modern societies. Hunting and hunting culture in the Cossack Hetmanate were replicas of those traditions and practices that were formed within the framework of the cultural model of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. If trapping was traditionally an independent segment of the economy that provided food rations with additional products, then hunting was to a greater extent a courtly entertainment of the nobility that emphasized their social status and material capabilities. Methods. The research is based on the cataloging of all references to hunting, which are contained in the correspondence of Cossack and Mercenary Officials with Hetmans of the last quarter of the 17th century. The collected material is divided into thematic blocks (seasonality, hunting tools, etc.) and each of them is analyzed. The textological method in the analysis of correspondence shows the social symbolism of hunting and hunting gifts. Results. The article presents a reconstruction of the hunting activities of Hetman’s mercenaries (kompanijci), which played a supporting role in their welfare and at the same time were training military practices. The range and seasonality of hunting coincided with the forest-steppe strip of the Dnieper region, where the kompanijci carried out their duty to guard the borders. The main objects of hunting were the so-called "red beast" - boar, moose, wolves, foxes. In addition to hunting, the mercenaries also practiced fishing, which supplied valuable products of the Dnieper ichthyofauna - sturgeon, pike, zander, and caviar. Meat and fur of wild animals, which were the object of hunting, had a high status of "knightly" products in the kitchen and everyday life of the Hetmanate. In the correspondence of mercenary officers with the commanders of mercenary regiments, hunting and hunting trophies were important as a way of obtaining status gifts, which representatives of the Cossack nobility exchanged among themselves. Disussion and conclusions. The exchange of hunting gifts marked a complex system of patronage and client networks that formed in the Hetmanate in the end of the 17th century. They reached the lowest floors of the officials hierarchy, whose members were the organizers of hunting sessions, and ended with hetmans, colonels and church hierarchs, as recipients of status gifts. The model of hunting industries based on the our reconstruction allows to extrapolate it to the functioning of hunting and the practices of exchanging hunting trophies as status gifts, and to other regions of the Cossack Hetmanate. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2023.156.6

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