Bigfoot Accounts

            The physical characteristics of the Appalachian Trail variant of the Man-Ape legend encapsulates the mood of the human inhabitants in their status between modern society and the primal nature of the forests that surround them. Sightings reported from remote or rural locations, isolated from industry and dense population from cities, come across as fleeting moments of fear and anxiety about seclusion of the forest. The accounts of Bigfoot at night focus on fear of the unknown and of unfamiliar nature. Hikers who go missing on the winding trails in the Appalachian Mountains are usually found alive or die from misadventure. The local belief is something abducts them. Whether that something is a Man-Ape or just man, the presence of an unknown, hidden force repeats throughout the area.

            The appearance of the Bigfoot sightings have similar characteristics even across hundreds of miles of the Appalachian Mountains. Height and weight range from 6 to 10 feet tall and anywhere between 500 and 1000 lbs. in proportion to height. This range of heights and sizes are effected by the location the sightings took place. This variance in Bigfoot size coincides with the density of the forests of the area in each sighting. The Appalachian Trail crosses 14 states from Maine down to the southwest of Georgia. The elevations and foliage density change as the Trail crosses southwest across the east coast of the United States. Maine through New York has high elevations coupled with consistent snowfall in low valleys. The New England region forests contain spruce, juniper, birch, maple and pine. Diversity of tree trunk thicknesses and bark/leaf coloring within this area correlates with the fur coloration and noted heights of Bigfoot sightings in Northern areas. The dark red or brownish black hair with a dark toned skin are more common in these types of forests across the Appalachian Trail. The relatively close proximity of the trees in the mountains appears to affect the attributes of the Man-Apes, which include extreme climbing skills, enhanced agility for a creature its substantial size, and grant them enhanced vision to differentiate between all the shades of green and brown within their habitats.

            This is not to say that the beast in the woods is always imaged as a predator. The location of sightings of Bigfoot vary from abductions/killing to benevolent animal. The other side of the Man-Ape predominantly found in suburban, more closely situated farms, and river valley towns, depicts benevolent creatures who co-exists with their human neighbors. Even though the tone of this variant of the same legend drastically differs from the hiking trail monster, the two break down into an overarching message of respect the land, to the mountains, and to nature itself. As if personified, nature becomes a force that can give and take away at a moment’s notice. Fear of the unknown clarifies into fear of chance. The uncertainty of uncontrollable nature leads humans to create the dual-purpose Bigfoot legend along the Northeast in order to give the unbelievable an explanation.

            As the legend moves southwest, the forest composition and bramble density changes as elevations decrease. Pennsylvania down through North Carolina slowly decrease from the 2000 range down to 1000 ft. above sea level. Spikes of elevation in North Carolina are outliers with sharp rises to over 6000 ft. While snowfall is not as common in this region as New England’s Northern Appalachian Mountains area, dense forests up the mountain sides with sheer cliffs protect the snow that does appear so it remain as long as the mountain side is shaded from the sun. The central and southern piece of the Trail contains primarily oak, maple, and hickory trees. These forests are less closely compacted and contain fruit bearing trees within their regular ecology. Rocky features of the landscape, including frequent cave systems and steep drops with sinkholes, contribute to the legend constructing to display the fur tonal range in dark to light browns and grays.

            As one gets further south, the legend develops from a curious story to a mode of warning for travelers. The human population and urban sprawl of the Northern Appalachian area restrict the abilities of the Bigfoot appearances to mostly benign or benevolent actions. White tailed deer and occasional bear are the predominant wildlife within these forests. Lynx, wolves, and a higher population of bears occur as the Trail turns south. With less human interaction and the limitations of the landscape to allow for human intervention, the legends spoken in Central and Southern Appalachian convey a concern for protecting one’s self from the unknown forces of nature that the forests hold.

            The Appalachia region of North America contains a human population of 26,000,000 people over New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. Industry over the last 200 years consists of logging, mining, and fur trapping. Within the Modern periods, mining, tourism and manufacturing have become the dominant industries of the area. With the high influx of travelers through these areas and the reliance on natural resources, the development of the legends varies as the amount of hardships differ across the region. Accidents in mines and in logging mills contributed an ever-present risk to the new inhabitants of the region. Similarly, chronic alcoholism made the possibility of these accidents more likely. In mining and logging focused areas such as North Carolina and Tennessee, the Bigfoot legend has fearsome qualities such as killing local wildlife and domesticated animals but leaving their remains easily spotted by humans. Missing hikers along the trail are said to be abducted or killed by the Man-Apes that dwell within the woods, and the further one treads off the hiking path the less likely it is for one to return to civilization unharmed. While death through misadventure often the case, the cause of the death can be attributed to the unseen presence of the Bigfoot as it protects its home from invading predatory humans.

            The legend of Bigfoot attempts to give meaning and understanding to nature, to animals, and sheds light into the unseen darkness that dwells in the deepest of the forests. The sightings and regional variants across Appalachia are a shared cultural experience between local and tourist alike. Lower elevations and urbanized areas contain aspirational, earth-bound Man-Apes. These sightings are met with wonder and awe. Comparatively, the sightings in higher elevations and low population rural areas contain accounts of violence, damage to livestock and property, and display an air of fearfulness of the wilderness.

            The transmission of the Bigfoot legend comprises private and public accounts within the region. Shared among friends and family, stories of encounters are understood as brushes with the unknown and are attribute to the legendary monster. The images and videos that appear of Bigfoot often come to public light as proof that something unnatural or paranormal had taken place. Sightings are region specific, these attributes of the legendary creature’s physical description and actions are tied to the location rather than the human population that transmit the legend. The leaping abilities of the Skunk Ape, for example, can only be demonstrated within the tall trees of the Everglades. Placing the Man-Ape within the Appalachian Mountains would make this physical ability useless as the trees are shorter. This connection to the land can give the legend a legitimizing feeling as it is recounted to others. Site specific details can be verified by the people in the area, if you can go out and see where the legend takes place then having that demonstrable detail makes the rest of the story more believable. In the Bigfoot legend remote or rural locations that are isolated from industry and dense population are the most common setting. The experience of the sighting tends to be brief and have little physical evidence of occurring. Accounts will focus on the lack of light, on fear of the unknown, and the noises or smells of the forest. The presence of nature, which differs greatly from the urbanization of most of the East Coast of the United States, brings an anxiety that can be understood through the construct of the legendary Bigfoot.

Analysis

            Nature is represented within the Bigfoot legend through the setting, the supporting background histories, and in the creature itself. The physical location where the monster resides reflects the appearance and behavior reported in sightings. As the Appalachian forests are coupled with the mountains, the remote and difficult terrain offer a questionable setting for a legend to exist. There are miles of undisturbed forests along the sides of mountains and cliffs. These areas hold the unknown. If unobserved, how can one ensure something isn’t living there out of our sight? Nature within this context is the catalyst for the legend. The physical description is dependent on the foliage. Browns and reds of the fur mirror the tonal changes within the trees that populate the east coast. Within this legend, it travels and changes as the landscape changes. Elevation and latitude play an integral part of the variants of Bigfoot accounts. The forest density and elevations within New York compared to North Carolina highlight this change. Further from urbanization and human populations, the legend takes on more serious and concerning tones. The peaceable creatures that may roam on the fringes of the woods transform into a warning against legitimized dangers that exist outside of society and within the realm of the wild.

            The land acts as a metaphor as the Bigfoot story moves southward. Where animals and forests are scarce due to industrialization, the legend is met with wonder and awe. In rural and isolated areas where the land actively is in conflict with humans, the legend acts as a guide to provoke fear and respect to the landscape from those humans who struggle to survive against it. This representation of nature within the legend brings about a feeling of community within those who have experienced the unexplained phenomena that can be ascribed to Bigfoot encounters. The narratives in this setting allow the anxieties of a changing world, urbanization creeping into unsettled forests, and let people express these fears outwardly in their sightings of a monster that embodies the act of resistance to the changes of modernity. By being able to give words to psychological and interpersonal problems, the sightings solidify a community around the legend and the location where it is experienced. Within the Bigfoot legend, the more fearsome encounters are described predominantly within the more challenging areas of the Appalachian forests. The stories that are shared of the same legend can provide an attachment to the setting and to those who already have similar experiences. As a people, they can band together to understand their trauma of an unexplainable event.

            The monster positioned between the known human world and the unknown natural world. Changes in the legend reflect changes within the people who have these encounters. As a group, sharing their stories of an indescribable situation they have gone through gives them autonomy over their personal narratives. The groups who share these stories are readily able to accept a person’s account as truth because of their own experiences. These are safe places to discuss their paranormal experiences without fear of skepticism. Told within a shared experience, the encounter with Bigfoot within the woods shifts the legend from generalized over a region into a personal experience that is unique to an area and to the persons who have lived through it.

Kelly Nulty graduated from the University of Oregon with an M.A. in Folklore in 2017. Her MA terminal project, ’Every Ape and His Brother: A Bestiary of Man-Ape Legends across North America,’ she presented her findings on the legend of the man-ape as it transcends national and cultural boundaries across North America and discussing the differences that shift between the legends as it changes over time and across different climates. Additionally, she graduated with an M.L.I.S. in Information Systems and Technology from the University at Albany in 2019. From her MLIS, the Sasquirer was created as a news and media database website to help facilitate others in their search for all Man-Ape legends.

Kelly has a B.F.A. in Photography and a B.A. in Philosophy & Religious Studies from State University of New York at New Paltz. As an artist, the subjects of many of her pieces explore her ties to philosophy and conceptualization of the unconscious mind. From history to possible futures, her artwork can be seen on her portfolio website at www.Yllek.com.

            Within the Search Tools for Sasquatch guide, we will cover different aspects of folklore research. As the man-ape legend is rooted within the forests and mountains, study of regional ecology will be explored with regards to the specific locations man-ape legends have been frequently spotted:

General Advice for Researchers:
            The first step is assessing how specific or broad the subject is, all man-ape related information or a particular species of legend. Once this is known, research can begin as each legend spans a small region of the world and will narrow down the results.

            Legends are just as alive as the communities that they derive from, they grow and change with the people and the landscape. Extra details or events are altered or added for each region. Nature and humanity are what make up these legends, not the man-apes themselves. It is how the community responds to unexpected events. When someone experiences an encounter with the unknown, it is how their community responds that will allow the spread of their tale to everyone else.

Search Instructions:
            Where do we go from here? To search through databases and search engines, we need to select some keywords or topics to our query. In order for this to be a useful guide, we will select a topic and show how to get the desired results.

For databases-
            The study of the man-ape legend spans a broad selection of subjects. For looking up the correct databases to get results, it is important to focus on what sort of data you’re looking for:

Suggested subjects for database selection:

Depending on the scope of the search, certain keywords would be preferable to others.

Of the creature: bigfoot, sasquatch, skunk ape, tornit, fouke monster, yeti, wendigo
Of the regions: Appalachia, everglades, Fouke, Arctic, tundra, Pacific Northwest/PNW
Of the results: evidence, foot prints, DNA, hair sample, encounters, legends, history, tales, groups, experiences

There are many things we can get out of these key terms in order to construct a good search.

Let’s use ‘sasquatch,’ ‘history,’ and ‘evidence’ together to get started.

Visting AnthroSource database, we do a general search with just the first keyword ‘sasquatch’ to see what broad results come up. For additional help on using the AnthroSource database, visit their help page.

Adding ‘history’ and keeping ‘anywhere’ within the document to search brings us

Let’s add ‘evidence.’

The first result is a review of Still Living?: Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma by Myra Shackley.

            “The bulk of the text is composed of reports of sightings, with little analytical in- formation on physical evidence. Therefore, while the book is well written and may appeal to a general audience, it lacks an in-depth, sci- entific approach to a singularly fascinating topic. … For example, the Patterson film, perhaps the most discussed and analyzed data source in Bigfoot research, is treated only superficially.”

That certainly won’t do for us then.

Our second result sounds like it won’t be of use because of the title, “Bad Hair Days in the Paleolithic: Modern (Re)Constructions of the Cave Man” by Judith Berman. When we look into it the article discusses the idea of the cave man through history and regions of the world.

            “For example, hairy, often fearsome wild men and monsters abound, from China, South Africa, and, as we have seen, the New World.' Legends of a mysterious Wild Man are also found cross-culturally: the Yeti (Nepal and China), the Abominable Snowman (Siberia), the Almas (Mongolia), and Sasquatch (North America)… By the eighteenth century, the Wild Man is believed to exist and to occupy a place between animals and humans in the natural world. In these schemes, he is illustrated in a Missing Link lineup, along with hairy apes and wild-looking "primitive" humans.”

This article meets our requirements for ‘sasquatch,’ ‘history,’ and ‘evidence.’ It discusses the history of the cave-man as an idea in human society, the wild-men legends, and how it relates to our modern versions.

Next we look at a search engines to see how we can phrase our query to produce quality results.

For news reports and non-academic media, using search engines in a very similar way to databases will produce the best results for our topic.

Let’s keep using our keywords ‘sasquatch,’ ‘history,’ and ‘evidence’ together again. Using Google search, enter in our first term ‘sasquatch. To incorporate the other two terms to narrow our search, add a + before them in the search bar. This will select results which will contain both keywords in the results given.

Within the last year will give us some of the latest sasquatch stories. Our results will be limited to the last twelve months but won’t be sorted by date, it will still be within the parameters of our search instructions firstly. Our date restriction just reduces the amount of results to the latest results.

These tips will guide along the way to find the results of our topic key phrase. For recent news articles, go over to the News tab on the menu. It is advisable to remove the + as news articles are shorter and these limitations will reduce the results. Being broader here allows for more results, but less precise.

Annotated Bibliography

            Throughout this bibliography, We cover how believers come together from their shared experiences and how they retell their own stories to one another. By having these legends told and retold through groups they are able to have a long lasting text documentation of their works thus far. The study of cryptozoology can only grow from here. The benefits of being able to share beliefs of hidden animals with one another. When persons in the society they are from shun the extraordinary believer, communities form to help persist the belief in these beings existance.

Annotation 1:
Bynum, J. (1992). Bigfoot--a Contemporary Belief Legend. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 49(3), 352-357.

            In this article by Joyce Bynum we learn the recorded details of the Bigfoot legend in our area of North America. The European ‘ape-men’ of the 1400s were described similarly to common depictions of Bigfoot, bristly beasts who emitted shrill noises and gave off a pungent odor. In North America around the late 1800s, pioneers in the Pacific Northwest reported stories told by Native Americans of a furry, man-like animal called Sasquatch, or Bigfoot. Soon daily papers carried reports of sightings of such an animal by both Natives and settlers alike. The Butte Record newspaper of California in 1870 has a record of the locating of a male "gorilla or wildman," joined by a female, who was around five feet high and was exceedingly wide, with dim cinnamon-shaded hair, and who shrieked and played with smoldering sticks from a discarded campfire. Other nineteenth century newspaper records recounted sightings of animals who were up to seven feet tall.

            Contrasted with the depictions in papers of the nineteenth century, observers in the twentieth century have bit by bit come to a consensus on Bigfoot's fundamental characteristics: he is seven or eight feet tall, has an awful smell, a piercing shout, and possesses great physical strength. Bigfoot enthusiasm culminated in the 1960s and 70s with Doug Wendt's film, Sasquatch Among Us, pamphlets committed solely to Bigfoot research, and by numerous newspaper accounts on the subject.

            The content of the article gives an excellent look into the published origins of the legend. Bynum runs down the differences between the mediums, newspaper, journal and visual medias, to articulate how the descriptions of the creature evolved as people told and retold the tale. As a compilation of history for our specific location in the Pacific Northwest, this information is key to our local legend.

Annotation 2:
Holloway, M. (2007). Bigfoot Anatomy. Scientific American, 297(6), 50-53.

            In this article by Marguerite Holloway, we are introduced to the observed biological traits of the legend of Bigfoot. From the films, photographs and eyewitness accounts, we get a sense of how the creature could be structured. In 1996 Jeffrey Meldrum traveled to Walla Walla, Washington, to meet with Paul Freeman, a man made famous by his casts of Sasquatch footprints. Arriving unannounced, Meldrum talked with Freeman about his collection. Freeman said he had discovered tracks quite recently that morning, yet they were bad, not worth casting. The 14-inch-long prints Freeman showed to him were interesting, Meldrum says, in light of the fact that some prints turned out at a 45-degree angle, suggesting that whatever had made them looked over its shoulder while in motion. Meldrum made impressions of the prints and stated it would be tricky to fabricate the running foot shaped impressions, "unless you had some device, some cable-loaded flexible toes."

            The anatomical structures caught in those prints, casts of others he has analyzed, unidentified fur/hair, recordings of animal calls and certain witness testimonials all left Meldrum convinced that Sasquatch was a mystery that warrants further study. Meldrum reacted to critics, who claim he is blindly accepting dubious evidence, by citing the body of evidence he assessed and rejected as questionable. Meldrum called for specialists to put aside their kneejerk dismissals of his work, asking them to either engage his research on its merits or work to disprove it on scientific grounds rather than simply dismissing it out of hand.

            This article is entirely speculation, but without having solid evidence it is the most common occurrence in the study of Bigfoot to speculate on its anatomical structure. This article is useful in the study of the unknown creatures that appear on films and stories as they have similar physical traits that can be defined by the observers as unique to this particular species, if it exists. By cataloguing the most commonly sighted attributes, a rough picture can be put together about how the creature functions in its environment.

Annotation 3:
Sykes, B. C., Mullis, R. A., Hagenmuller, C., Melton, T. W., & Sartori, M. (2014). Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1789), 143-146.

            In this biology report by Bryan Sykes, we learn how different samples of supposed Bigfoot hair was analyzed and the results of those studies. Mitochondrial DNA sequencing was employed to identify 30 hair samples from unidentified primates. Generally the hairs were from a scope of known surviving vertebrates. In spite of the extensive variety of age and state of the submitted hair shafts, which ran from new to historic examples more than 50 years of age, only one of the samples yielded a human grouping. Except for this example, none of the submitted and investigated hairs specimens gave a grouping that couldn't be matched with a surviving mammalian species, frequently domesticated animals such as dogs, cows and pigs.

            While it is important to remember that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and the scientific study can't invalidate the presence of abnormal primates, neither has it found any evidence in support. As opposed to continuing in the view that they have been 'rejected by science,' advocates in the cryptozoology group have more work to do with a specific end goal to deliver persuading confirmation for odd primates and now have the means to do so. The strategies portrayed here put an end to many years of uncertainty about species distinguishing proof of irregular primate specimens and set a thorough standard against which to judge any future cases.

            Often there is little to no evidence of extraordinary things for us to investigate further into. By having such a multitude of samples of unidentified hair and fur, we have a good opportunity to see what the mysterious evidence left behind by Bigfoot sightings could be. While most of the samples were sourced from household and farm animals, one sample was from the human grouping. As there isn’t yet evidence of what Bigfoot DNA is, we can at least get from this study one sample of Bigfoot hair has ape origins. How close to human DNA is a bit difficult to say, the one human grouped sample couldn’t be identified down further than 97% possibly human which can still include the chance it’s of other great ape origins, like chimpanzees and the like.

Annotation 4:
Blu Buhs, J. (2010). Wildmen on the Cyberfrontier: The Computer Geek as an Iteration in the American Wildman Lore Cycle. Folklore, 121(1), 61-80.

            Within this article by Joshua Blu Buhs, he links shift towards counter-culture found in geek subculture with the ideas of the ‘wildman’ existing as an outsider of the traditional society. Wildmen are known throughout societies across human existence, men who refuse to follow civilization’s rules and set out to live alone in the wilderness. They are simultaneously what it is to be human and give an alternative to the status-quo. American versions of the wildmen appear throughout the 19th century as circus and freak show attractions. The displays in these shows showed a racial hierarchy during a time of strife in the nation. The dark haired creatures were wild and uncivilized verse their well-off, white viewers who were ‘proper’ society. Popular culture interests in the wildman returned in the 1950s with the news of the British Abominable Snowman in the Himalaya Mountains. Sightings of our country’s Bigfoot and the Sasquatch rose as more interest in these legends became prominent in magazines, news stories and local newspapers. During this time Bigfoot appeared as a symbol of cultural resistance, the mostly male working-class audience could associate with its refusal of traditional values with society and praised its basic, primal nature. In the 1980s, Bigfoot became domesticated with movies, TV shows and family friendly stories of the creature being depicted as docile, vegetarian and more like a pet than predator.

            The author ties the wildman motif into the transformation of the side-show ‘geek’ into its modern day equivalent of computer ‘geek.’ The original geek was a performer who would do anything for money, the typical attraction being biting the heads of live chickens and snakes. The term was kept solidly in this attractions realm until the 1970s when the word was used as a pejorative for the counter-culture of hippies to mean ‘people who do anything for drugs.’ In the mid-80s, the term rose through college students to be ‘pencil geek,’ or someone who would do anything, even debase themselves, for a good grade. As computer technology grew throughout the late 80s to early 90s, this would include early adoption of the home PC and learning its workings. Computer users were seen as the fringe of society, focusing on learning this new ‘beast’ and the term geek had a more wildman associate with it. Going against the social norms, these early users saw themselves as pioneers of a new, digital frontier.

            The cultural background on how the wildman can tie into the human need for freedom outside of the constraints of civilization was beneficial to explore how the Bigfoot legend could have come about outside of the actual creature existing. The ideas of freedom and the evolution of language follow along together in the ideas of the outsider geek with the outsider wildman. Both exist in an area the majority of the population would consider uncivilized, the computer geek being socially awkward and the wildman shunning society. This article breaks down how the Bigfoot legend in media portrayals can be tied to social changes throughout its written history in the United States.

Annotation 5:
Dendle, P. (2006). Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds. Folklore, 117(2), 190-206.

            In this article by Peter Dendle we explore the idea of Cryptozoology as a medium for undiscovered animals which are only written of in folklore until science confirms their existence. The “hidden animals” are written of in fantastic and exotic ways, often having magical attributes and ties into local legends. Once these creatures are catalogued and ‘officially’ discovered by scientists, they lose their extraordinary qualities and become less mystical. The cultural significance to these creatures is tied to their state of liminality, once they are confirmed existence they lose the features that attract them to wanting believers in the unknown possibilities of the world.

            The world today is mostly discovered, all land masses having complete satellite scans and only a few rare outlets exist for people to dream upon. Dendle offers the explanation of the persistence of the legend of Bigfoot and other cryptozoology figures as a desire to pioneer the unknown. He offers a possible cultural answer for why we as humans still desire these unknown creatures, our collective guilt over causing extinction to many species of animals’ causes us to want new, undiscovered species to exist. The Tasmanian tiger, the passenger pigeon and countless other species that were documented and plentiful but humanity managed to wipe off the earth are listed as possible reasons humans create fictional species today. Dendle suggests that Cryptozoology offers a magic of the world that has since been lost by civilization and the destruction of nature’s own species.

            This article is pretty interesting in its way of tying current Cryptozoology with the environmental losses of extinct species. It does explain some of the older species which were once thought to be magical and pretend, the platypus, the giant squid and the panda being such examples. These are not explained well as to why these creatures would be different from the modern day creatures if only todays are based on cultural guilt. It’s an interesting theory to why we make legends today but not why the same cryptozoology stories that aren’t proven yet have such long histories beyond the extinction of species.

Annotation 6:
Regal, B. (2008). Amateur versus Professional: The Search for Bigfoot. Endeavour, 32(2), 53-57.

            In this article by Brian Regal we learn the history of the first explorers of the frontiers of the Americas as classified ‘amateurs’ in their field and how the field of exploration and discovery shifted into the realm of ‘professionals’ once the groundwork was completed. In the early years of our country, from the start of colonial times in the 1700s, people sought after monsters of folklore in their new homes. Regal describes this need for discovery as something tied to the idea of the pioneers that first settled in the unknown lands of the Americas. The desire to be ‘first’ to find something excites people.

            After the American Revolution, the newly formed government hired on ‘professionals’ to catalog and explore the country that lay before them. These professionals were middle to upper class educated men verse the lower class uneducated formally pioneers that carved the way for them in the decades prior. This transition of hard working amateurs leading the way in discoveries continued on until the Pacific Ocean was hit in our country’s spread across the continent. The ties to modern cryptozoology lay within this amateur versus professional battle. In the fields of biology and zoology, only after the professional declares its existence does the animal move from realm of fiction to reality. The field of cryptozoology exists today as an area where the creatures it catalogues, by amateur pioneers, are often not taken seriously by the professional scientists despite having a history of proven evidence. This article goes into the history of proven animals that were once mythical, narwhals, great pandas and giant squids as examples. The field of discovery shifted to the amateur being less of a pioneer and taking on the descriptor of ‘monster hunter’.

            It is this change in the 21st century that lead to the professionals taking the amateurs less seriously than before. By pursuing the ‘monsters’ solely, they appeared to be taking the exploration for discovery less seriously than the historical counterparts. This article gives an interesting history of how the origins of cryptozoology grew from original folkloric animals documentation to the monster hunters of today. Following the changes in socioeconomic classes between the first pioneers who sought these monsters to the backgrounds of the modern monster hunters gives us insight on how class dynamics inform scientific discoveries.

Annotation 7:
Coltman, D., & Davis, C. (2006). Molecular Cryptozoology Meets the Sasquatch. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution, 21(2), 60-65.

            In this study Dave Coltman and Corey Davis of the University of Alberta cite several examples of creatures being discovered that had only been known of in local legend and myth. Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, a creature of local legend in Vietnam, was confirmed in 1992 after the discovery of the creature’s horns in possession of local hunters. In 2003 an african monkey unbeknownst to modern science, Lophocebus kipunji, was discovered in Tanzania after photographs and recordings of the creature could be confirmed. Coltman and Davis point to these discoveries as the impetus of cryptozoological researchers to continue the hunt for creatures such as Sasquatch.

             In the article, the authors cite several recent sightings of the mysterious beast. One of these sightings yielded physical evidence in the form of fur. Coltman and Davis were able to genetically sequence the fur. Their results, like the base assessment by the technician at the Department of Environment, were that the fur belonged to a bison. They concluded, “There are several possible explanations for these results. First, as suggested from molecular analysis of hair from a suspected Yeti, the Sasquatch might be a highly elusive ungulate that exhibits surprising morphological convergence with primates. Alternately, the hair might have originated from a real bison and be unrelated to the Sasquatch.”

            In this article by Mary Kay Zabel we see how including folklore and explaining how these stories can included children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds together by sharing and seeing similarities between one another. Stories have been used for centuries to record important events, to celebrate the feats of heroes and heroines, to transmit the spirit of an event or a time period along with the facts, and to point out patterns in behavior or cultural development. Great teachers, from Homer and Plato, through Jesus, Li Po, and Gandhi have used stories, myths, parables, and personal history to instruct, to illustrate, and to guide the thinking of their students. Folk tales and myths that have lasted over time share certain common attributes.

            Old stories frequently stress personal responsibility, the need to be concerned for others, and the duty to serve humankind. Myths and tales often were created to explain certain natural events such as creation of the world, the moon and stars, or the appearance of fire. These explanations served to calm and reassure the people who heard them, and they now provide hearers with insight and understanding concerning the cultures and people who invented them. One of the most important uses of stories, myths, and tales is the enhanced cultural awareness, the glimpse into other people's' world view, that such tales provide. Because stories and tales have generally lasted a long time, they are examples of the heart and soul of the people who created them. They are treasured reminders of how life used to be, in both good and bad times, and they show nonmembers of that culture some of the thinking strategies and beliefs that have made different groups what they are today.

            Including articles on how people share information and why they share it can be beneficial to understanding the origins of legends. As people immigrate across different countries, they share their own culture’s stories with the new culture they join. These legends get shared and remolded into new versions that are then retold to another audience. Zabel is able to show the education quality of inclusion of folklore as a connectivity between all people regardless of background. It is a basic human trait to share these stories to one another.

Annotation 9:
McGregor, I., & Holmes, J. (1999). How Storytelling Shapes Memory and Impressions of Relationship Events Over Time. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(3), 403-419.

            In this study by Ian McGregor and John Holmes we explore the psychological relations between memory and storytelling based on the way the story is conveyed to the audience. Storytelling infers describing encounters in a cogent story format from the point of view of a crowd of people. Stories structured in a regular and spontaneous cognitive unit for representing information related to social connections. Deciphering the complexities of social reality into story structure, the story development typically includes extending confirmations to fit in with the forms of a straightforward topic. Stories are sorted into believable or fiction with the connection to reality due to their potential impact on forming interpersonal perceptions and judgments.

            Storytelling plays a noticeable part in the way individuals understand their social connections and their relationships therein. The four experiments in this study recounted events in different levels of detail which confirm the presence of a 'robust storytelling effect' that judgments get to be biased toward the narrator when actually there is no reason to believe the story's authenticity. The level to which the listener believed the storyteller depended on how adamant the teller was during the recounting.

            This study was very informative on how people’s impressions can be shaped from the vigor the storyteller puts into their accounts. People are able to recount more vividly a story that was told with passion and detail. The ties to the transmission of legends among different groups of people, having more detailed and interesting a story to the audience makes the legend more memorable and its chances of being retold by increase.

Annotation 10:
Hearne, B. (2000). Once There Was and Will Be: Storytelling the Future. The Horn Book Magazine, (6).

            Betsy Hearne writes about storytelling evolution from oral traditions to the changing media of the internet. With oral customs, a story existed through its creative energy and memory. That medium has formed human culture, yet it is constrained, moderated, and static in contrasted with current electronic media that protects stories as well as catch a portion of the spontaneity of the spoken word. Storytelling appears with developments that can join tellers and audience members into a worldwide group that doesn't limit the range and scope of the tale, permitting them to switch puts more justly than at any time in the past. That virtual storytelling appears less worthy of a custom, a more intensive look recounts an alternate way the story is conveyed. Despite constantly changing media, we keep rediscovering essentials of the oral tradition in variant forms.

            Telling stories is a human condition, to preserve history in the way that we wouldn't lose the vital point of view on those occasions to shape a story, to shape the occasions into a story. A textchat audience of people examining a story they've quite recently heard on live sound must deal with a lot of people illogical conclusions, hearing different versions or points of view they may reject the written version as fictitious.

            Narrating adjusts to changing times much as stories do themselves. There are 3 fundamental steps to investigating narrating in a particular setting. The most basic dynamic of folklore is a tension between tradition and innovation that keeps a story living orally. In adapting text to context, storytellers alter tradition with innovations of style, substance, and medium.

            This article is not in an academic journal but is one of the few worthwhile looks at how folklore can be translated to the internet audience. Hearne is able to describe the limitations of how stories can be believed in an ever changing medium of the internet to audience that are broad and diverse. By being able to adapt the story to the audience of the internet, choosing which message boards and chatrooms to speak with, and writing to fit the level of reading and understanding she describes some good ways to change how the narratives can be conveyed.

Annotation 11:
Hill, E. (2012). The Nonempirical Past: Enculturated Landscapes and Other-than-Human Persons in Southwest Alaska. Arctic Anthropology, 49(2), 41-57.

            In this article by Erica Hill we explore the ideas of the ‘nonempirical’ attributes of a landscape and how it can affect the people that live there. The ‘nonempirical’ can be defined as a set of constraints placed upon a society based on entities and phenomena whose existence cannot be proven by scientific means. This means for the Inupiat of the Arctic regions could not utilize certain areas of their own land because of folkloric reasons, for example an area may be avoided because of monsters or ghosts inhabiting the place in a tale.

            Hill describes how the native people could see no known proof of these beings existing in these places yet their beliefs in the stories and their ties to the culture were so strong they avoided them anyway. In this way, it’s important to see how to address a culture who have strong ties to nonempirical to the land and how to respectfully reconstruct the history of the people including those stories as a reality they believe as a myth than a folk tale we as observers see it as.

            The ties between myth and legend are difficult for us to really separate, this article describes how important it is to treat a myth with the respect it deserves. While avoiding lakes and possible settlement areas that could be great for the Arctic native communities, we need to take their nonempirical reasons as valid for their non-use of this places.

Annotation 12:
Jones, S., & Russell, L. (2012). Archaeology, Memory and Oral Tradition: An Introduction. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 16(2), 267-283.

            In this article by Sian Jones we see how Archaeologists look at oral history and its changes in human history over time. Oral history is a tradition of oral narratives based on first-hand experience, the believability of these stories ties directly with the narrator's ability to convey the story believably to the audience. The transgenerational oral traditions of folklore and cultural history can be directly related to the storyteller giving an accurate account of the story time and time again. Memory has a great impact on the story’s ability to be transmitted to the next audience. Historical oral narratives have social memories, transgenerational stories, which may have more aspects of legends when recounted than the original stories found in text format.

            Jones is able to use the written versions of oral narratives to compare and contrast their changes and what was emphasized over time. Similar to other articles, the more captivating a history story the more likely it is to be remembered and retold as vividly as it was heard. The actual histories that were written down of wars, battles and politics at the time, examples of European kingdoms in the dark ages, were less interesting than the oral accounts of heroes and villains battling in epic tales of the same events.

Annotation 13:
Kawandf, C. (2012). The Contemporary Legend as a Cross-generic Genre. Fabula, 52(3/4), 250-266.

            In this article Christine Shojaei Kawan summarizes the events of the 32nd Conference of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research which took place in Prague in June of this year. A plethora of papers were presented ranging in topics from Indonesian tales of blood pouring from radios to the emergence of the Slender Man mythos (a boogeyman born and raised on the Internet). The main thrust from these papers was that we are still telling each other stories. Some are old stories being updated for modernity, such as the childhood favorite Bloody Mary being an adaptation of an older Czech folk tale. Some are born out of distinctly modern fears as in a paper detailing the mysterious and deadly effects of video games or the supposed haunting of an Indiana mental asylum.

            Many papers focused on the role of our media in elevating stories to the status of legend. Elizabeth Tucker presented a paper on the role of Ariel Castro’s home dungeon as a setting for developing legends. Ariel Castro, of course, being the man who was revealed to have kept several women captive in his home for decades. Real horror becoming legend through media exposure held true in other papers, with papers being presented on the legend growing around the scandal of British TV star and noted pedophile Jimmy Saville as well as a mass murderer’s cottage becoming a noted tourist destination.

            The scholarly works ranged from the horrific to the religious. Papers focused on legends of killer toys to angels interceding in the battles of World War 2. The themes remain the same though: Folklore is being constantly updated for our modern age and being altogether new stories are being crafted as we study.

Annotation 14:
Steffen, V. (1997). Life Stories and Shared Experience. Social Science & Medicine, 45(1), 99-111.

            In this article by Vibeke Steffen we see how illness/ailment narratives can bring people suffering of the same thing together in a therapeutic setting. These narratives in settings like Alcoholics Anonymous and trauma survivor groups can give scientists a look into how people express their internal struggles outwardly to other people. By being able to give words to physical or psychological ailments, the narrators are able to solidify their experiences and bring light to their troubles. In a group setting with other people who have experienced similar problems, people are more likely to give more details and greater depth of emotions to one another than in a one-on-one setting in a therapeutic session.

            The storytellers are able to avoid aspects of a traumatic feeling of the story, knowing their audience will already have the background on the subject and not need to go further into the details for more troubling to describe parts. The narrator, when telling their story to a medical professional, doesn’t know if the professional will have knowledge of their experience and would have to go into possibly painful details of their history to explain themselves. Examples given in the article related to thoughts of suicide because of a terminal diagnosis and the binge drinking of alcohol to cope with the loss of a loved one, the narrators would have needed to detail the reasoning of these events which may be triggering to themselves reliving the experience over again.

            This is a fascinating article when looking at how interpersonal relationships give a shared identified in the groups as not ‘survivors’ but as people who came out of a difficult time still as people. This takes the narratives given by the people as personal triumphs to be valued and not as just data to be sorted. Having autonomy of their personal narratives gives people more of a feeling of self and will benefits observers recording those stories for future therapeutic use for others.

            In this article by Matthew Crawford we see the reasons why people form groups or communities and the benefits they provide the individual on a personal basis. Social groups give advantages to the individual themselves and to help people come together for common goal. There is a different effect of perceived rewards, social or political benefit, from groups that have the capacity to satisfy a psychological need of individual members. Individuals relate to a subsection of an all-encompassing group, to have a place with a certain named entity. The greater the perceived reward to this group, the greater the individual’s ties to them will be. These results increase our understanding of the capacities that diverse groupings serve and the outcomes of in-group benefits for the individual are.

            People join groups for a multitude of reasons. Motivations like self-esteem, uncertain in resolution to personal issues, self-evaluation during a crisis, opposing a contrasting view, desire for uniqueness, and self-categorization to belong. The underlying belief is that group serves a purpose for the individual. Emotional or therapeutic groups are more associated with connectedness than achievement or identity needs, that task-oriented groups are more associated with achievement than affiliative or identity needs, and that social category groups are more associated with identity than achievement or affiliative needs.

            Tying together how stories bring people together, being able to share and gain emotional satisfaction out of shared experiences helps people mentally bond with one another. This study breaks down the basics of why people form groups and how they help one another by being in the group. Sharing information and caring for one another can cement certain stories and ties the person has to the group.

Annotation 16:
Ip, G., Chiu, C., & Wan, C. (2006). Birds of a Feather and Birds Flocking Together: Physical Versus Behavioral Cues May Lead to Trait- Versus Goal-Based Group Perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(3), 368-381.

            In this article by Grace Wai-Man Ip we look into how groups may be racially tied and the strength of those ties verse diverse groups. The reasons individuals gather together as a group can be clarified through an integrated model to describe two distinct perceptual-inferential courses to perceived benefits from the group. Both likeness in physical qualities like race or gender or regional traits like socioeconomic classes would result in similar perceptions towards the group’s affiliation. Although both routes lead to the same destination, they go through very different perceptual processes.

            Perceivers have a tendency to construe normal traits in a group of individuals with the same skin color and to infer common goals in a group of individuals displaying the same social progress. Moreover, surmising common attributes may foster the development of a shared perception of the group, a high level of homogeneity in the group through shared belief. Conversely, inference of shared objectives may foster attribution of agency to the group, which is portrayed by a high level of perceived cohesiveness in the group.

            While a more diverse group coming together, meeting physically with one another may be more likely to form and stay solidly together the ties of technology allows more racially diverse populations to mingle and not be divided by outward appearance. This article gives a bleak look at how racial identity can affect group dynamics and stability but provides a hopeful look at how technology can remove those ties as everyone is essentially the same blank slate online as we only see one another as text on a screen.

Annotation 17:
Kivlighan, D. (2008). Overcoming Our Resistances to “Doing” Evidence-based Group Practice: A Commentary. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 64(11), 1284-1291.

            In this article Dennis M. Kivlighan, Jr. attempts to explain both the resistance to group therapist to using evidence based research practices within group psychotherapy. He stresses that these practices can be extremely useful, but that the resistance from practitioners is somewhat justified. Evidence based practices have historically been adapted from individual therapies to a group dynamic with mixed success. Furthermore, research into these practices generally assume a homogenous grouping of diagnosis. While similarity of diagnosis does provide greater results, homogenous group composition does not. A heterogeneous mix of group gender is apparently shown to be more effective in group psychotherapy. Research into these evidence based practices based on group composition is woefully lacking. Furthermore, they do not take into account such important concepts such as group leadership dynamics.

            Kivlighan recommends that practitioners utilize these evidence based practices carefully and with a thought towards their own experiences with the group. They should use evidence based research to guide them towards their use of specific therapies, such as interpersonal therapy or the cognitive behavioral therapy. He also recommends that future evidence based research practices targeted towards groups be altered to include measures of group leadership, ethnic and cultural differences. With these changes we may find a greater rate of adoption among group therapy practitioners.

Annotation 18:
Pinto, I., Marques, J., Levine, J., & Abrams, D. (2010). Membership Status and Subjective Group Dynamics: Who Triggers the Black Sheep Effect?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1), 107-119.

            In this study researchers Pinto, I.R., Marques, J. M. , Levine, J.M., and Abrams, D. conducted a series of experiments to determine how members of a group reacted to those that expressed positions that were either in line with the group’s way of thinking or deviant. Furthermore, they compared to what degree they reacted based on the individuals current standing within the group and how that standing affected the manner in which the group reacted. Their focus was on how members in good standing (ingroup) members were treated when expressing either normative or deviant positions and how that compared to new or marginalized members expressing similar positions.

            Researchers found over the course of three experiments, as hypothesized, that ingroup members were praised or degraded in their perceived social standing to a greater degree than new or marginalized members. Furthermore, ingroup members who expressed deviant positions were actually treated different than new members who expressed the same positions. They found that other ingroup members advocated punishment (in terms of hostile acts or ostracizing the offender) when ingroup members expressed deviant positions. When new members expressed these same positions, ingroup members were more willing to attempt to use persuasion to bring them more into line. Thus, the level of an individual's perceived commitment to the group actually affects the way deviancy is perceived and reacted against.

Annotation 19:
Kaplan, K., Salzer, M., Solomon, P., Brusilovskiy, E., & Cousounis, P. (2011). Internet Peer Support for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Social Science & Medicine, 72(1) 54-62.

            In this study by Katy Kaplan we explore the benefits of online support groups for mental illnesses and how they can be utilized in other disabilities. The concept of online support groups is widely known to exist, from cancer group survivors to people who lived through natural disasters, internet groups pop up for almost every possible stressor for people today. A randomized controlled trial was done to see if there are benefits to these groups, or possible harm done by participating in an unstructured, non-medically driven online group.

            Of the participants in the study, individuals who participated in large number of hours, over 6 hours per day, had greater levels of distress than before joining the online group. Those participants who clocked in only 1-4 hours per day reported less distress than before joining the group. The study mostly suggests moderation, limiting the amount of time responding and reading other people’s posts, in these unstructured online groups. The best online support groups for participants are those with medially structured support systems, using psychological guidelines and following medical professional’s advice.

Annotation 20:
Ross, M. (2001). Psychocultural Interpretations and Dramas: Identity Dynamics in Ethnic Conflict. Political Psychology, 22(1), 157-178.

            In this study Marc Howard Ross attempts to describe ethnic conflicts between groups in a psychosocial paradigm. He attempts to explain why individuals would risk their lives and resources for a social group, as that runs counter to individual interest. Furthermore, why do these conflicts endure through generations of members of ethnic and social groups when the original source of conflict is long past?

            Ross posits an idea called the psychosocial drama as a mechanism for this. The psychosocial drama is a collection of history, ritual, and artifacts that help to indoctrinate the group member into the social group identity. The drama defines who the other is or the enemy, why they are as such, and how one should react emotionally to these historical events. His main example of the psychosocial drama is the use of parades in Northern Ireland to continue a sort of proxy war over the events of the Troubles. However, he admits that this structure can be used in many different types of social groups to strengthen identity and make sense of the world from within the group’s value system.

Annotation 21:
Bartlett, Y., & Coulson, N. (2011). An Investigation into the Empowerment Effects of Using Online Support Groups and How This Affects Health Professional/patient Communication. Patient Education and Counseling, 83(1), 113-119.

            In this study by Yvonne Kiera and Neil Coulson we look into the potential of online support groups and how joining these groups can benefit the relationship of the patient to their doctors. The participants of the study reported they found discussing information online in a safe, anonymous setting allowed them to feel satisfied they were heard and understood but still maintained an identity offline as themselves distanced from their ailment/illness. Around 60% of the participants felt they gained a better relationship between themselves and their doctors by being able to hear and relate to other patients’ stories online dealing with the same troubles and dynamics between them and their doctors.

            Online support groups have a potential to influence offline relationships, this study is important to tie together how these groups can share information they experience in person to people they do not have to meet face-to-face. The growth of being able to express their feelings in a non-judgmental environment is key to overcoming any stigma they may face expressing these issues in their real lives. In the subject of unexplained events, an online group can be more supportive with little information versus in person where people’s body language can give negative impressions to the storyteller.

Citations

For further reading:

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