The Na'vi as Spiritual Hunters: A Semiotic Exploration

Pat Munday

Deploying what he calls "postmodern semiotics,"ÃfâEURSÃ,Â? science and technology professor Pat Munday focuses on the affinities between the hunting practices of the indigenous Na'vi and those of non-indigenous American hunters. He pays special attention to gender, noting that Na'vi hunters are both male and female, as are contemporary American hunters, both indigenous and non-indigenous. Munday finds in the practice of hunting a spiritual alternative to the dualisms of mainstream Western culture. He suggests, moreover, that such a spiritual hunting practice has affinities with the animistic spirituality expressed in Avatar and that this frame makes sense in the light of biophilia hypotheses.