Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worldsстатья из журнала
Аннотация: Abstract Popular interest in cryptozoology (the study of unconfirmed species, such as bigfoot and chupacabra) has been fuelled by a recent publishing frenzy of encyclopaedias, dictionaries, and guides devoted to the subject, as well as by unprecedented opportunities for enthusiasts to collect data and exchange stories via the Internet. The author situates the emotional commitment many exhibit toward cryptids (the creatures themselves) in a broad historical context. Unconfirmed species served as an implicit ground of conflict and dialogue between untutored masses and educated elite, even prior to the rise of academic science as a unified body of expert consensus. The psychological significance of cryptozoology in the modern world has new facets, however: it now serves to channel guilt over the decimation of species and destruction of the natural habitat; to recapture a sense of mysticism and danger in a world now perceived as fully charted and over-explored; and to articulate resentment of and defiance against a scientific community perceived as monopolising the pool of culturally acceptable beliefs. "Man, it is true, can, by combination, surmount all his real enemies, and become master of the whole of animal creation: But does he not immediately raise up to himself imaginary enemies, the dæmons of his fancy …?"—David Hume (Smith 1947 Smith, Norman Kemp, ed. 1947. David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, New York: Macmillan. 1779 [Google Scholar], 195). Notes [1] Babylonian incantation: Thompson 1903 Thompson, R. Campbell. 1903 and 1904. The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, 2 vols, London: Luzac & Co.. [Google Scholar], vol. 1, 121; medieval amulet: The Leechbook 3.61 (wiþ ælfcynne ond nihtgengan; edited in Cockayne 1865, vol. 2, 344); St Columba: Life of Columba (Anderson and Anderson 1961 Anderson, Alan Orr and Anderson, Marjorie O. 1961. Adomnan's Life of Columba, London: Thomas Nelson and Sons. [Google Scholar], 386–8). [2] Coghlan 2004 Coghlan, Ronan. 2004. A Dictionary of Cryptozoology, Bangor, Northern Ireland: Xiphos Books. [Google Scholar]; Coleman and Clark 1999 Coleman, Loren and Clark, Jerome. 1999. Cryptozoology A to Z: The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters, Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature, New York: Coleman & Schuster/Fireside Books. [Google Scholar]; Coleman and Huyghe 2003 Coleman, Loren and Huyghe, Patrick. 2003. The Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents, and Other Mystery Denizens of the Deep, New York: Penguin. [Google Scholar]; Eberhart 2002 Eberhart, George. 2002. Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology, 2 vols, Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC CLIO. [Google Scholar]; Newton 2005 Newton, Michael. 2005. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and their Pursuers, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.. [Google Scholar]. David Gilmore (2003, 98) notes the general lack of cultural analysis of Sasquatch and Sasquatch believers. [3] Many definitions of cryptids seem to rely on our expectations or subjective response, rather than on characteristics of the species themselves: Roy Mackal, for instance, defines cryptozoology as "the study and investigation of evidence for animals unexpected in time or place or in size or shape" (Foreword to Shuker 1995 Shuker, Karl. 1995. Search of Prehistoric Survivors, London: Blandford. [Google Scholar], 9). [4] Strabo writes: "all who have written about India have proved themselves, for the most part, fabricators" (Jones 1969 Jones, Horace L. 1969. The Geography of Strabo, vol. 1, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. and London: William Heinemann [Google Scholar], 263). A seminal text in the sceptical tradition is Palaephatus's On Unbelievable Tales (fourth century bc), printed in Stern 1996 Stern, Jacob. 1996. Palaephatus: On Unbelievable Tales, Wauconda, Ill: Bolchazy-Carducci. [Google Scholar]. [5] See, for instance, the role cryptids play in mediating between sceptical science and myth in Greek and Roman society, as discussed in Mayor 2000 Mayor, Adrienne. 2000. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]. [6] For meditations on the role of monsters in classical antiquity, see Buxton 1994 Buxton, Richard. 1994. Imaginary Greece: The Contexts of Mythology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar], esp. 201–4; Morgan 1984 Morgan, Wendy. Constructing the Monstrous: Notions of the Monstrous in Classical Antiquity. PhD dissertation. Deakin University. [Google Scholar], 27–43. For a convenient overview of responses to fabled creatures from numerous sources, from the earliest times to the twentieth century, see Nigg 1999 Nigg, Joseph. 1999. The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]. [7] See Nigg 1999 Nigg, Joseph. 1999. The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present, New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar], 142; Kitchell and Resnick 1999 Kitchell, Kenneth Jr. and Resnick, Irven M. 1999. Albertus Magnus, On Animals: A Medieval "Summa Zoologica, Baltimore, Md. and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. [Google Scholar], 36–7. On pp. 143–6 Nigg documents some of Albertus's scathing dismissals of traditional reports regarding fantastic creatures. [8] It is curious, despite the fact that no one knows whether cryptids even exist, how many hundreds of illustrations, artistic reconstructions, and depictions of various sorts appear in these cryptozoology guides, to accompany the usual handful of contested photographs. These modern "bestiaries" themselves would make an interesting study in iconographic folklore. [9] Pamela Gravestock concludes, "Perhaps the most useful way to approach the problem of imaginary animals is to hypothesize that medievals knew quite well that these animals did not exist and to view the question as to whether or not they actually existed as irrelevant … perhaps, then, the imaginary animals in the bestiaries were used to fill certain 'spiritual gaps' for which the real animals were not as readily adaptable" (Gravestock 1999 Gravestock, Pamela. 1999. "Did Imaginary Animals Exist?". In Mark of the Beast, Edited by: Hassig, Debra. New York: Garland. [Google Scholar], 130). For a provocative meditation on belief in the ancient world, still highly relevant to the Middle Ages, see Veyne (1983 Veyne, Paul. 1988. Did the Greeks Believe in their Myths? An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination (1983), Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Translated by Paula Wissig [Google Scholar]). [10] For Atlantis, see Plato, Critias 108e-121c (Hamilton and Cairns 1961 Hamilton, Edith and Cairns, Huntington. 1961. The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 1214–24). [11] Anonymous, Liber monstrorum, Preface: probandi si sint uera an instructa mendacio, nullus patet accessus eaque per orbem terrarum aurato sermone miri rumoris fama dispergebat (edited in Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], 254–6). Unless otherwise stated, all translations are mine. [12] The mid-eleventh-century manuscript is BL Cotton Tiberius B.v (fols. 78v–87v), which forms the basis of Orchard's edition in Pride and Prodigies (1995, 175–81). In the same work, Orchard also edits the Old English version from the Beowulf manuscript (BL Cotton Vitellius A.xv, fols. 98v–106v). [13] Ethiopians: genus est hominum ualde nigrum qui Ethiopes uocantur (Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], 180); gorgon-eyed beasts (ibid. 176). [14] Anonymous, Wonders of the East: þæt syndon ungefregelicu deor (edited in Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], 186). [15] Manuscript: British Library Cotton Royal 13.A.i; text edited in Boer 1973 Boer, W. Walther. 1973. Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem, ad codicum fidem edidit et commentario critico instruxit, Meisenheim: Anton Hain. Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie 50 [Google Scholar]. See also Gunderson 1980 Gunderson, Lloyd. 1980. Alexander's Letter to Aristotle about India, Meisenheim: Anton Hain. Beiträge zur klassischen Philologie 110 [Google Scholar] for background, analysis, and translation. Orchard (in Pride and Prodigies) also provides an edition of the Latin and Old English versions at pp. 204–23 and 225–53, respectively. [16] The Nowell Codex, now bound as part of Cotton Vitellius A.xv, is available in facsimile edition in Malone 1963 Malone, Kemp. 1963. The Nowell Codex, British Museum Cotton Vitellius A.xv, Second MS, Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger. [Google Scholar]. Beowulf is edited in Klaeber 1950 Klaeber, Friedrich, ed. 1950. Beowulf, 3rd ed, Lexington, Mass: D.C. Heath and Co.. [Google Scholar], The Wonders of the East and the Letter of Alexander are edited in Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], and the Passion of St. Christopher is edited in Rypins 1924 Rypins, Stanley, ed. 1924. Three Old English Prose Texts in MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv, London: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]. [17] Anonymous, Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus ("Book of Monsters of Various Kinds"), ed. Orchard Pride and Prodigies 1995, 254–316. [18] For the catalogue, see esp. Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], 90, note 23. Lisa Verner argues that the Liber monstrorum is contemptuous of information derived from pagan authors such as Virgil, while remaining neutral toward Christian authors such as Augustine: thus the authorial stance of epistemological acceptance or rejection is deployed as part of an ongoing ideological programme valorising Christian truth over pagan falsehood (Verner 2005 Verner, Lisa. 2005. The Epistemology of the Monstrous in the Middle Ages, New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar], 58–65). [19] Orchard agrees: "the continual sense of conflict and animosity between monsters and men is the hallmark of this author's work, and represents a considerable departure from the less antagonistic approaches of such predecessors as Augustine, Isidore, or Pliny" (Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], 89–90). Campbell, meanwhile, finds that in the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, "mineralogical-botanical marvels are openly admired, zoological-anthropological marvels are feared or despised" (Campbell 1988 Campbell, Mary. 1988. The Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing, 400–1600, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar], 69). For more general analysis of medieval approaches to the monstrous, see Williams 1996 Williams, David. 1996. Deformed Discourse: The Function of the Monster in Mediaeval Thought and Literature, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. [Google Scholar]. [20] Anonymous, Liber monstrorum: si tanta monstrorum essent genera credenda quanta in abditis mundi partibus (Orchard 1995 Orchard, Andy, ed. 1995. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript, Cambridge, England: D.S. Brewer. [Google Scholar], 254). [21] Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hibernica: Sicut enim orientales plagæ propriis quibusdam et sibi innatis præeminent et præcellunt ostentis, sic et occidentales circumferentiæ suis naturæ miraculis illustrantur. Quoties quippe, tanquam seriis et veris fatigata negotiis, paululum secedit et excedit, remotis in partibus, quasi verecundis et occultis natura ludit excessibus (Dimock 1867 Dimock, James, ed. 1867. Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, vol. 5, London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer. Rolls Series 21 [Google Scholar], 20–1). See Mittman 2003 Mittman, Asa Simon. 2003. "The Other Close at Hand: Gerald of Wales and the 'Marvels of the West'". In The Monstrous Middle Ages, Edited by: Bildhauer, Bettina and Mills, Robert. 97–112. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press. [Google Scholar] for discussion. [22] For reflection on the psychological need for monsters, see, for instance, Adams 2001 Adams, Michael Vannoy. 2001. The Mythological Unconscious, New York: Other Press/Karnac. [Google Scholar]; Ellis 1994 Ellis, Richard. 1994. Monsters of the Sea: The History, Natural History, and Mythology of the Oceans' Most Fantastic Creatures, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. [Google Scholar], 374–6; Jones 2000 Jones, David E. 2000. An Instinct for Dragons, New York and London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]. [23] David Quammen finds an even deeper motive in the human psyche for large predators to exist around us in nature—they fill an important existential gap: "They keep us company. The universe is a very big place, but as far as we know it's mainly empty, boring, and cold. If we exterminate the last magnificently scary beasts on planet Earth, as we seem bent upon doing, then no matter where we go for the rest of our history as a species—for the rest of time—we may never encounter any others. The only thing more dreadful than arriving on LV-426 [the planet from the movie Alien] and finding a nest of Aliens, I suspect, would be to arrive there, and on the next unexplored planet, and on the next after that, and find nothing" (Quammen 2003 Quammen, David. 2003. Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind, New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co.. [Google Scholar], 431). [24] Most recently, see comments by veteran Loch Ness monster enthusiast Steve Feltham in National Geographic: "Whatever they are, they're very timid animals; they're more afraid of us than we are of them" (quoted in Morell 2005, 66). [25] Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society: < http://www.pabigfootsociety.com/>; Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization < http://www.bfro.net/REF/aboutbfr.asp>. Examples could be proliferated easily: the first tenet of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club reads, "The BCSCC does not believe in the killing of any cryptid whatsoever, for any purpose, including those in the interest of scientific research. We are a conservation and preservation-oriented organisation and reject the need to kill for the sake of science" (http://www.cryptosafari.com/bcscc/members.htm). Groups such as the Illinois Association for the Preservation and Study of the Lake Michigan Monster and the Pterodactyl Society ("dedicated to the discovery and preservation of the living pterosaurs on Earth") gain support through internet exposure. [26] Skamania County Ordinance No. 69-01 (1 April 1969; see < http://www.inthegorge.com/bigfoot_ordinance.htm>). Vermont is said to have passed a resolution prohibiting the harming of "the Lake Champlain Sea Monster" in 1982, and New York to have followed suit in 1983 (Newton 2005 Newton, Michael. 2005. Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology: A Global Guide to Hidden Animals and their Pursuers, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co.. [Google Scholar], 96); British Columbia has reportedly done the same for Ogopogo. I sometimes question the authenticity of some of these purported imprimaturs of official recognition: despite numerous claims I have come across online that "Champ" (the Lake Champlain monster) is officially listed as an endangered species in Vermont, for instance, the media contact for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department tells me that he is "not aware of any serious attempt to have 'Champ' listed as a endangered or threatened species in Vermont" (pers. comm., 4 August 2005). [27] See < http://www.bootan.com/bhutan/articles/yeti.shtml>, linked from the Bhutan Department of Tourism. [28] See < http://www.cryptozoology.com/forum/topic_view_thread.php?tid = 11&pid = 140294>. I have been unable to determine exactly what "H.A.R.P." is, although an Internet search yields a small range of candidates potentially related to the environment: the U.S. military's Hazard Assessment of Rocket Propellants, NASA's High Altitude Research Projects, and conceivably, Australia's Health and Air Research Program. Alternately, it may be a typo. [29] See Daegling's comments on the subject, with further citations and quotations (Daegling 2004 Daegling, David. 2004. Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend, Walnut Creek, Calif: AltaMira Press. [Google Scholar], 256–7). [30] Heuvelmans marvels at what he considers the "totally arbitrary" requirement of academic zoology that there should exist at least a single representative specimen of a proposed species, registered at a respectable institution, catalogued and available for study and comparison (Heuvelmans 1995 Heuvelmans, Bernard. 1995. On the Track of Unknown Animals, London and New York: Kegan Paul. [Google Scholar], xxiv).
Год издания: 2006
Авторы: Peter Dendle
Издательство: Routledge
Источник: Folklore
Ключевые слова: Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research, Animal and Plant Science Education
Открытый доступ: closed
Том: 117
Выпуск: 2
Страницы: 190–206