Bigfoot

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*Krantz, Grover S., Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry into the Reality of Sasquatch, Johnson Books, 1992, ISBN 1-55566-099-1  
 
*Krantz, Grover S., Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry into the Reality of Sasquatch, Johnson Books, 1992, ISBN 1-55566-099-1  
  
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[[Category:Myths and legends]]
 
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Revision as of 12:47, 25 April 2011

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Cryptid Petting Zoo

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Hiding with Schrödinger's cat

Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch) is a mythical creature alleged by some to live in remote North American forests in the Pacific northwest and in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Patterson-Gimlin film was the first video footage which claimed to show a real Bigfoot. From that video the creature is seen to have large breasts and appears to be female.

As there is zero real evidence for the existence of Bigfoot the study of the "beast" is considered to be a pseudoscience.

Bigfoot is sometimes described as a large, bipedal hairy hominoid creature, and many believe that this animal, or its close relatives, may be found around the world under different regional names, such as the Yeti of Tibet and Nepal. Bigfoot is also one of the more famous examples of cryptozoology, a subject that has been dismissed as pseudoscience by mainstream researchers.

Contents

History of the Bigfoot myth

There have been many stories among indigenous peoples of the Northwest Pacific over the centuries regarding 'Bigfoot' like creatures. It was only in the 1950's when the Bigfoot phenomenon went, well, big. A guy named Eric Shipton photographed what he called 'Yeti' footprints in 1951, and after that everyone had Yeti on the brain. There were countless sightings, all of which were undoubtley made up or reported by some people with wild imaginations. The most ridiculous stories involved the Bigfoot creature kidnapping people and whisking them away to hold them captive or et them or whatever, it was never elaborated on. A common theme in the stories involving someone coming face to face with the creature usuaully ended up with the human and beast forming some form of emotional bond and understanding.

In 1958, bulldozer operator Gerald Crew found Bigfoot footprints in Del Norte County, California and had them plastered for proof. This is where the term 'Bigfoot' was first used. Locals had been calling the track-maker 'Big Foot', which was shortened to Bigfoot in the papers. The Associated Press decided it was news worthy, cementing Bigfoot's place in folklore. The fact that the family of Ray Wallace, a recently deceased logger, claimed he had forged the footprints and that the wife of the editor of the Humboldt Times, which first reported on the story, exposed her husband as being in on the hoax didn't stop people from sending out hunting parties looking for the creature.

Probably the most famous sighting happened in 1967, when Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin purported to have captured the bibedal ape on tape. Even though scientists deemed it a fake and it was most likely just a guy in a ape costume, Patterson profited from showing the short film in movie houses across the Pacific Northwest and appearing on a number of talkshows. He went to his grave swearing it was real.

Bigfoot and science

Bigfoot and his current cave companion

Bigfoot and science actually don't know each other particularly well. At best, they could only be said to be on a nodding acquaintance with one another. Mainstream scientists and academics generally "discount the existence of Bigfoot because the evidence supporting belief in the survival of a prehistoric, bipedal, ape-like creature of such dimensions is scant" (from Skepdic). In addition to the lack of evidence, they cite the fact that while Bigfoot is alleged to live in regions that would be unusual for a large, non-human primate, i.e. temperate latitudes in the northern hemisphere, all other recognized non-human apes are found in the tropics, in Africa, continental Asia or nearby islands. The great apes have never been found in the fossil record in the Americas. No Bigfoot bones or bodies have been found.

The issue is so muddied with dubious claims and outright hoaxes that many scientists do not give the subject serious attention. Napier wrote that the mainstream scientific community's indifference stems primarily from "insufficient evidence ... it is hardly unsurprising that scientists prefer to investigate the probable rather than beat their heads against the wall of the faintly possible" (Napier, 15). Anthropologist David Daegling echoed this idea, citing a "remarkably limited amount of Sasquatch data that are amenable to scientific scrutiny" (Daegling, 61). He also suggests mainstream skeptics should take a proactive position "to offer an alternative explanation. We have to explain why we see Bigfoot when there is no such animal" (ibid 20). Most who have expressed an opinion consider the stories of Bigfoot to be a combination of unsubstantiated folklore and hoaxes.

Grover S. Krantz concedes that whilst "the Scientific Establishment generally resists new ideas ... there is a good reason for it ... Quite simply put, new and innovative ideas in science are almost always wrong" (Krantz, 236).

On May 24, 2006 Maria Goodavage wrote an article in USA Today entitled, "Bigfoot Merely Amuses Most Scientists". In it she quoted John Crane, a zoologist and biologist at Washington State, "There is no such thing as Bigfoot. No data other than material that's clearly been fabricated has ever been presented."

Other regions

There is a similar myth in the Himalayan region about a large, hairy creature they call "Yeti".

In the Appalachian region, we simply call them "Grandpa gone bad". In spite of their primitive appearance, they are usually fine hands with a homemade still.

See also

Don't see

Snowbeast. Seriously you shouldn't. Ever. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Footnotes

  • Daegling, David J, Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend, Altamira Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7591-0539-1
  • Napier, John Russell Bigfoot: The Sasquatch and Yeti in Myth and Reality, 1973, E.P. Dutton, ISBN 0-525-06658-6
  • Krantz, Grover S., Big Footprints: A Scientific Inquiry into the Reality of Sasquatch, Johnson Books, 1992, ISBN 1-55566-099-1
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