Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend (original) (raw)
Related papers
Between the Species: An Online Journal for the Study of Philosophy and Animals, 2007
The world is filled with monsters. The Yeti, Sasquatch, Mono Grande, Big Foot. It is filled, at least, with accounts of such monsters; for although we have witnesses and photographs and documented accounts, few believe that such creatures are more than constructs of the imagination. This strong denial is interesting from a sociological perspective, but it also says much about our concepts of human and animal as well. If such creatures exist or are even imagined to exist, the boundary between the human and the animal is eroded. It is not important-at least not for the particular task of this investigation-whether or not they do exist. Like most, I imagine that there are better explanations for the reported sightings than maintaining the existence of reclusive monsters. I, too, am a slave to the scientific paradigm of the world. But I see no reason not to allow for the possibility of such creatures. Regardless, this is not the crucial matter, for it is merely our experience of the possibility of such Others that I want to investigate. How do we make sense of our given humanity in a world where such creatures might exist? How do we know what is human and what is animal if we admit the possibility of a creature described as neither or as both? How might the comfortable, constructed moral boundaries of our community be called into question? And what do the stories of encounters-stories that are reported as truth-say
The "Truth" about the Bigfoot Legend
Western Folklore, 1990
The ambiguity inherent in belief legends makes it all but impossible for the folklorist to presume to know the "truth" about Bigfoot. Such assertions are likely to be at the root subjective, and they draw folklorists into the legend debate, a process they would do better to observe than to participate in. Observations of the debate process within culture can reveal a great deal about the Bigfoot legend. One can better understand how emergent beliefs become legend in a contemporary context and how traditional beliefs withstand challenges even in a dynamic, information-filled setting. The debate within culture is occurring on two levels: in the published writings of Bigfoot researchers and in the memorates and conjectures of ordinary people who are especially interested in Bigfoot. The second part of this paper briefly describes the debate about Bigfoot's nature as reflected in the popular press. The third part examines the extent to which the published debate has influenced the thinking of active bearers of the legend in Central Ohio and the memorates they tell. In his article "Humanoids and Anomalous Lights: Taxonomic and Epistemological Problems," David Hufford argues that it is possible that some reports of Bigfoot may not be legend at all; rather, some might be reports based on what he terms an "objectively real referent" that sometimes becomes embedded in a traditional narrative and sometimes not. Hufford asserts that "large hair-covered bipeds" reported in different parts of the world under a variety of names might actually exist. Accounts of Bigfoot's size and appearance are quite similar across the United States and Canada, according to Hufford. My thanks to Bill Ellis for sharing his material on Bigfoot with me.
Bigfoot is dead! Long live Bigfoot!
2020
'Bigfoot is dead! Long live Bigfoot!' is an experimental critical essay and manifesto, exploring alternative ways to address cryptozoology, instead of an empirical scientific definite approach. It is not a seek for Bigfoot. It is not a debunking piece. It is not a sceptic review. It focuses on the act of failure around hunting Bigfoot, from failing to be named, to failing to be seen on screen, to failing finding home, to Bigfoot hunter failing to capture Bigfoot. I identified two kinds of Bigfoot - the unhuntable and huntable. My piece is an investigation to the queerness of Bigfoot culture, and ultimately suggesting the Poor Image (Steyerl) is a perfect battleground where the unhuntable Bigfoot, the huntable Bigfoot, hunters, believers and sceptics can roam free altogether.
Introduction: Extraordinary, Ambiguous and Unsettling
Ethnologia Actualis, 2021
In the Pacific Northwest during the 1970s, regional sightings of Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) were the subject of news stories and informal speculation. Opinions ranged from dismissals of the monster as "just folklore" to a full embrace of cryptozoology, the study of mythical animals. In 2019, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made its Bigfoot files from the 1970s available to the public. 1 The 22-page document follows a paper trail based on a request made by Peter Byrne, an Oregon resident and Bigfoot enthusiast. Byrne supplied the Bureau with an unidentified hair sample he had collected. When the results came back, the hairs "were determined to be from the deer family." Forty-three years later Peter Byrne dismissed the FBI findings. "I've interviewed far too many people with credible stories," he told a reporter from Portland's KGW news station. At 93, Byrne was still hiking the Oregon Coast Range in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the elusive creature 2. I understand Bryne's doggedness. I too have interviewed numerous people, mostly citizens of Olympic Peninsula tribes, about their personal encounters with Bigfoot. People I know and trust shared frank, sincere and detailed accounts of encountering "Him" on rain-swept highways or along fishing trails (Murray 2019). Besides hearing some great stories, I learned this about monsters: the cultural 1
RECONSIDERING BLACKFOOT ORIGINS
An internet publication, 2017
Blackfoot people claim they have always resided in their defined traditional territory on the Northwestern Plains of North America since time began. Today their treaty reserves and reservation remain as fragments within that defined territory. When the primary Blackfoot subsistence economy of buffalo hunting vanished in the late 19th century, various efforts were made by Blackfoot chiefs and White recorders to document Blackfoot culture and oral stories, many of which described the creation of the Blackfoot people and their traditional landscape. Various academic opinions subsequently emerged about these traditional stories to interpret how the Blackfoot came to be where they are. This essay reexamines those recorded traditional oral stories, subsequent academic opinions and collateral research.