Well, I'm sure there is plenty of room for more than one paper or article on this aspect of the subject.
Personally, I think there are some aspects to Bigfoot stories that are very hard to rationalize if the creature is *just* a large ape.
Unfortunately a lot of researchers who prefer to think of Bigfoot as just a flesh-and-blood animal tend to not like dealing with such reports of shape-shifting and high-srangeness.
Bart Nunnely's new book which I highlighted today too - "Mysterious Kentucky" - also includes some Bigfoot accounts that go far beyond the idea that the creature is a mere physical flesh-and-blood entity.
Thanks for the link, Nick. Recently read Hunt for the Skinwalker by Kelleher (sp.?)and Knapp, which contains a chapter in which the authors review some pertinent (to their arguments, anyway) Native American beliefs about the paranormal aspects of Bigfoot/Sasquatch. However, the Amerindians also gave supernatural attributes to many "real," flesh-and-blood animals (e.g., coyotes, crows) in their mythology, of course. It would be interesting to see whether the continent's native traditions (and especially in the Pacific NW) consistently mention the same kind of abilities for the creature, other than the familiar "Sasquatch is the guardian of the forest." Until then, I think that the "Bigfoot is a paranormal or interdimensional being" argument is not necessarily strengthened by emphasizing certain aspects of Native American traditions.
I have been working with this theory now for sometime...they just got to press before I did...lucky folks
ReplyDeleteSally:
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm sure there is plenty of room for more than one paper or article on this aspect of the subject.
Personally, I think there are some aspects to Bigfoot stories that are very hard to rationalize if the creature is *just* a large ape.
Unfortunately a lot of researchers who prefer to think of Bigfoot as just a flesh-and-blood animal tend to not like dealing with such reports of shape-shifting and high-srangeness.
Bart Nunnely's new book which I highlighted today too - "Mysterious Kentucky" - also includes some Bigfoot accounts that go far beyond the idea that the creature is a mere physical flesh-and-blood entity.
Thanks for the link, Nick. Recently read Hunt for the Skinwalker by Kelleher (sp.?)and Knapp, which contains a chapter in which the authors review some pertinent (to their arguments, anyway) Native American beliefs about the paranormal aspects of Bigfoot/Sasquatch. However, the Amerindians also gave supernatural attributes to many "real," flesh-and-blood animals (e.g., coyotes, crows) in their mythology, of course. It would be interesting to see whether the continent's native traditions (and especially in the Pacific NW) consistently mention the same kind of abilities for the creature, other than the familiar "Sasquatch is the guardian of the forest." Until then, I think that the "Bigfoot is a paranormal or interdimensional being" argument is not necessarily strengthened by emphasizing certain aspects of Native American traditions.
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