November 6, 2006

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science

The Trades, a website that apparently reviews all forms of media, has posted a review of Jeff Meldrum’s book. And with all this talk about Jeff Meldrum, I thought it was a good time to post it. The review claims that Meldrum exhibits his bias towards the existence of Bigfoot. Well yeah, that is his contention, that there is evidence that points to this.

Click on the cover image above and buy the book at Amazon.com at a highly discounted price. Retail on the book is $27.95, but Amazon.com is selling the book for only $18.45.

There are few who haven’t heard the stories: tales of an unknown species — perhaps even something intelligent — that lurks out of sight of human eyes. Southern Illinoisans called it Momo. Arkansans called it the monster of Boggy Creek. But most know it by the size of its tracks: Bigfoot.

The thought that there’s an undiscovered species — especially something so big — is a fantastic one. It’s easy to be skeptical, particularly when one considers the pervasiveness of human population from coast to coast. One would think we would have had something more concrete by now, if not, indeed, a creature in captivity.

According to the liner notes, "Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science offers you the first chance to examine all the evidence — historical, cultural, anecdotal, and physical — alongside a serious scientist. Rejecting reflexive debunking and credulous belief alike, Jeffrey Meldrum, a professor of anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, is willing to stake his reputation on an objective look at the facts in a controversial field mined with hoaxes and sensationalism."

When writing a book about a large primate, an author could do a lot worse than getting a supportive cover blurb from primate specialist, Dr. Jane Goodall. And you will, indeed, find a plethora of information in Meldrum’s book. However, while declaring itself to be an evenhanded, scientific study of the evidence, Meldrum clearly exhibits his bias towards the existence of Bigfoot, lauding the scientists who interpret the evidence toward his conclusion, while almost sneering derisively at those who declare it a hoax. This is most clearly exhibited in his follow-up reactions to quotes from scientists on their reaction to the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film — the only time a somewhat clear image of an alleged sasquatch was caught on camera.

To begin with, Meldrum takes the readers on a bigfoot hunting expedition of his own, near Walla Walla, Washington, and provides photographic evidence of the tracks made near his encampment. That the author so quickly lets the reader in on the fact that he himself has had some sort of encounter makes it clear from the beginning — the laying out of all the facts to follow, are being laid out by a believer, and thus can only come to the inevitable conclusion.

To be fair, Meldrum does educate the uninitiated on the history of cryptozoology, showing some ancient drawings of creatures believed to be fantastic and mythological to the people of the day, but which we now find commonplace at any zoo; the giraffe, the camel, and the crocodile represent just a few of such creatures. And, again to be fair, science is still discovering new species of animals at an astounding rate, including new species of primates. Meldrum even acknowledges that the hunt for a bigfoot has been riddled with hoaxers and hucksters.

Sort of.

Take Ray Wallace, for instance. Ray’s the fellow who was at the center of the craze that took Bigfoot from being an old tribal legend into being a pop-culture paranormal phenomenon, when workers at his construction company began to see monstrously large footprints around their worksite. The reports set off a media storm and lit the fires of imaginations across the country. But today, Ray’s family claims that Ray had actually pulled off a stunt, not uncommon for the practical joker, and that the prints were man-made with carved wooden feet. However, this admission doesn’t quite fly with Meldrum:

It is ironic that Wallace probably had only one succesful hoax. He posthumously hoaxed virtually the entire media into believing that he was solely responsible for Bigfoot. He wasn’t successful at hoaxing Bigfoot researchers and thus left his family with a lot of worthless artifacts — silly films, hokey casts, and some crude wooden feet. Perhaps the only way his family could get some value from the stuff was by attaching a big story to it. But, if that was the aim, it could only have been realized if the media could be convinced of it, without checking too closely into the basic facts and evidence. Allowing experts to closely examine and document the carved feet or the alleged method of planting the tracks would potentially compromise the story and the story provides the armchair skeptic with a simplistic explanation for a complex and vexing phenomenon. How is it that the word of a well-known spinner of yarns, if not outright liar, is accepted as gospel, and the accounts of hundreds of credible eyewitnesses who have seen such a primate are dismissed, even when their testimonies are corroborated by footprints, hair, and scat? When it comes to the media’s gullibility, it seems that Wallace had the last laugh.

A good portion of the book looks at the aforementioned Patterson-Gimlin film, perhaps the most compelling piece of evidence for the existence of a sasquatch — at least, for some. More recently, this has also been claimed to have been a hoax by a man who says he was the one inside the ape costume. Whether this is true or not, the amateur film is subjected to some pretty interesting dissection by Meldrum, including photos of the site with humans standing in the same location to provide a size comparison of the original subject.

If you’re a believer in the existence of sasquatch, this book will become your new Bible. If you’re convinced the big guy only exists in the minds of kooks, you’ll probably get worked into a lather over the author’s bias toward the subject. And if you’re looking for a crash course in anthropology, you’d do well to study the chapters enclosed. If you’re a lay person, however, with a passing interest, you’ll find much of the work dry and academic, and perhaps spend most of your time looking at the more interesting pictures and reading the eyewitness accounts, while skipping the sections about how metatarsals are jointed and how hominids move and how big they can be and the precise way of measuring a thorax.

Meldrum doesn’t like the attitude espoused by some that they’ll believe in Bigfoot when they can be shown a Bigfoot. Unfortunately, however, that’s what it’s going to take for just about everybody. But there are a lot of people out in the woods, banging on rocks, whistling, and laying out bait. If something’s out there… it will be found. But if it’s not, you can rest assured the legend will still live on. Until then, all the evidence — historical, cultural, anecdotal, and physical — can all be lumped into a single category.

Circumstantial.

And another thing, how do you "almost sneer derisively?"

Filed under Bigfoot, Bigfoot Report, Cryptozoology, Evidence, Expedition Reports, Eyewitness Accounts, Folklore, Forensic Science, Sasquatch