Download one about bigfoot narratives

Cameron Winter
ENG 669
Assignment 10
Bigfeet: Spiritual Impressions of a Sasquatch
If we speak of footprints, there aren't many pop culture icons that leave an
impression quite like the Bigfoot. Stomping its way from backwater myth to popular
culture since the Patterson-Gimlin film of 1967, it has made appearances on television,
movies, advertisements, and books. Bigfoot is the eponymous inspiration for conferences,
music festivals, and book publishers and is the alleged father of many tabloid children.
But, aside from his beloved presence on the pop culture landscape, he is viewed by many
as a living, breathing hirsute anthropomorphic ape stalking not just our imaginations but
our wildernesses. Websites and organizations such as the Bigfoot Field Research
Organization (BFRO) and www.BigfootEncounters.com allow enthusiasts and witnesses
to bring forward their own stories regarding the creature. While anthropologists,
ethnographers, and folklorists have latched onto the Bigfoot or Sasquatch as an
Americanized wild-man legend (Bernheimer 3, Stevens 125), I propose that Sasquatch1
narratives have specific, typical thematic rhetorics that are utilized to convey specific
messages about the witness, the creature, and often the witnesses' perceptions of the
world around them. The study of Sasquatch narratives as sub-genres of a larger literary
context or contexts could prove useful in integrating anthropological, ethnographic, and
folklore within a literary environment in which we can analyze the rhetorical concerns of
Sasquatch narratives.
1 I will use the term “Sasquatch” to identify the creature observed, specifically in an
American or Canadian context. I avoid the term “Bigfoot” primarily for its colloquial
nature. Though the “experts” often cite it as “Bigfoot” in their narratives, I believe
they use this term for accessibility for an outside audience.
The perceptions of these writers, who only seek to express their experiences,
obfuscates these composers from entering a realm of criticism regarding a regional, classbased literature. Rather than stereotyping these authors as pseudoscientific crackpots,
they must be viewed as individuals utilizing rhetorical devices to share a unique
experience. It is an unfortunate generalization of these individuals as fools, hillbillies, or
lunatics, and I feel that understanding the literature itself helps us to re-conceptualize
these authors as people speaking out of culture, race, colonialism, and frontier mentality.
The Sasquatch himself represents, specifically for American Bigfoot enthusiasts in an
idealized sense, a wild and untamed side of nature, a ghost that stalks both our fears and
our desires (Berheimer 3). The Sasquatch is a literary and social representation of
freedom from social constraints. Rather than other cryptids2, whose lack of
anthropomorphism distances them from idealistic mirroring by its advocates, the
Sasquatch’s anthropoid nature allows him to easily step into the human psyche, and the
language used to represent the Sasquatch, as an archetype of the free man set amongst
nature easily integrates into American frontier mentality. The Sasquatch as such is a
specifically American legend, having origins in early colonial lore, steadily following the
march westwards with settlers as they appropriate Indian images of “bogeymen” into the
final hirsute hominid we “see” today.
Literature studies have unfortunately overlooked Sasquatch narratives as valid
modes of expression by rural populations. Often the more refined Sasquatch stories, such
as those by published authors, Bigfoot researchers, and “experts” constitute a literature
very much concerned with ideas of conversion, reaffirmation of belief,
2 Including but not limited to the popular examples of the Loch Ness Monster, the
Chupacabra, or the Jersey Devil
environmentalism, perception by outsiders, and legitimacy. Even examples of stories
published anonymously on internet forums or databases maintained by individuals at
www.OregonBigfoot.com or www.BFRO.net contain elements of conversion literature.
Effectively, they create a new naturalistic religion based around this hominid. The
Sasquatch carries the burden of their own social and cultural pressures (Taft 84). In many
cases, these writers, often anonymously, describe their encounter or encounters as a
spiritual experience in which their understanding of the world, the wilderness, and nature
changes dramatically. As an introduction to a larger discussion on Sasquatch literature on
the American scene, I propose to analyze major publications and websites within the field
of Sasquatch research for its spiritual aspects. I hope to use this initial study to introduce
Sasquatch literature as a unique mode of literary expression of the country's rural
populations, who are often sidelined by mainstream literary and folk studies. Within these
narratives I expect to find a common theme of spirituality including skepticism,
conversion, belief, and affirmation and will analyze how narrators commonly express
these experiences utilizing religious language. I will also use the paper to argue for more
research into the literature of the Sasquatch, including but certainly not limited to:
regionalism, Native American studies, racial and class prejudices, ethnography,
colonialism, environmentalism, and concerns with modernism and urbanization.
Works Cited:
Aitken, Maureen. “Bigfoot.” Prairie Schooner 77.2 (2003): 73–74. Print.
Bernheimer, Richard. Wild Men in the Middle Ages: A Study in Art, Sentiment, and
Demonology. New York: Octagon, 1952. Print.
Bigfoot Encounters. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. <http://www.bigfootencounters.com/>
Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. Web. 3 Nov. 2014 <http://www.bfro.net/>
Dendle, Peter. “Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds.” Folklore 117.2
(2006): 190–206. Print.
Forth, Gregory. “Images of the Wildman Inside and Outside Europe.” Folklore 118.3
(2007): 261–281. Print.
Gallagher, Sally K., and Sabrina L. Wood. “Godly Manhood Going Wild?:
Transformations in Conservative Protestant Masculinity.” Sociology of Religion
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Goldsmith, Robert Hillis. “The Wild Man on the English Stage.” Modern Language
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Mobley, Gregory. “The Wild Man in the Bible and the Ancient near East.” Journal of
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Morgan, Robert W. Bigfoot Observer’s Field Manual. Enumclaw, WA: Pine Winds,
2008. Print.
Murad, Turhon A. “Teaching Anthropology and Critical Thinking with the Question ‘Is
There Something Big Afoot?’” Current Anthropology 29.5 (1988): 787–789.
Print.
Oregon Bigfoot. Dark Mountain Productions, LLC, Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/>
Penney, David W. “The Nootka ‘Wild Man’ Masquerade and the Forest Spirit Tradition
of the Southern Northwest Coast.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 1 (1981): 95–
109. Print.
Pulido, Elisa. “Trogloditophobia.” North American Review 290.2 (2005): 21. Print.
Regal, Brian. Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology. New
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Stevens, Phillips, Jr. “‘New’ Legends: Some Perspectives from Anthropology.” Western
Folklore 49.1 (1990): 121–133. JSTOR. Web. 30 Oct. 2014.
Taft, Michael. “Sasquatch-Like Creatures in Newfoundland: A Study in the Problems of
Belief, Perception, and Reportage.” Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records
and Modern Evidence. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 1980. 83–96. Print.