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Cryptozoology is best understood as the study of animals which, in the eyes of Western science, are extinct, unclassified or unrecognised. In consequence, and in part because of its selective methods and lack of epistemological rigour, cryptozoology is often dismissed as a pseudo-science. However, there is a growing recognition that social science can benefit from engaging with it, for as as social scientists are very well aware, 'scientific' categorisation and explanation represents just one of a myriad of systems used by humans to enable them to classify and make sense of the world around them. In many cultural contexts, myth, folk classification and lived experience challenge the 'truth' expounded by scientists. With a reflexive, anthropological approach and drawing on rich empirical and ethnographic studies from around the world, Anthropology and Cryptozoology engages with the theoretical and methodological issues raised by reported sightings of unrecognised animals. Bringing into sharp focus the anthropological value and challenges for methodology posed by beliefs about unclassified creatures, Anthropology and CryptozoologyExploring encounters with mysterious creatures will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists and geographers working in the fields of research methods, anthrozoology, mythology and folklore and human-animal interaction.
Introduction
Samantha Hurn
1.The Place of Cryptids in Taxonomic Debates
Stephanie S. Turner
2. Cryptids, Classification and Categories of Cats: an Ethnozoological Study of Unidentified Felids from Eastern Indonesia
Gregory Forth
3. Cryptids and Credulity: the Zanzibar Leopard and Other Imaginary Beings
Martin T. Walsh and Helle V. Goldman
4. ‘By dreaming I’ll go to the tiger-world’: the Naga tiger-man and the modern assemblage of a myth
Michael Heneise
5. Human Predation and Animal Sociality: The Transformational Agency of ‘Wolf People’ in Mongolia
Mette M. High
6. Enigmatic Bush Dwarfs of West Africa: The Case of the Siyawesi of Northwestern Benin
Sharon Merz
7. Suspending disbelief and experiencing the extraordinary: how radical participation may facilitate an understanding of aquatic snake and fish-tailed beings in southern Africa
Penelope Bernard
8. Mermaids in Brazil: The (ongoing) creolisation of the water goddesses Oxum and Iemanjá
Bettina E. Schmidt
9. Ganka: Trickster or Endangered Species? An anthropologist’s role in preventing the extinction of the New Jersey sea monster.
Tanya J. King
10. Far from the Madding Crowd: Big Cats on Dartmoor and in Dorset, UK
Adrian Franklin
11. Land of Beasts and Dragons. Contemporary Myth-Making in Rural Wales.
Samantha Hurn
12. Digesting ‘cryptid’ snakes: A phenomenological approach to the mythic and cosmoge-netic properties of serpent hallucinations
Luci Attala
Samantha Hurn is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Director of the Exeter Anthrozoology and Symbiotic Ethics (EASE) working group, and the MA and Ph.D programmes in Anthrozoology at the University of Exeter, UK.
"I really, really enjoyed reading this book. It provides a fascinating anthropological perspective on cryptozoological and related claims. The diversity of unknown animal claims considered is far wider than that seen in typical cryptozoology texts. Thus we have discussion of werebeings, non-corporeal snakes and mermaids, as well as more conventional cryptozoological fare like mystery cats."
– Charles Paxton, University of St Andrews, U.K
"When anthropologists bring their ethnographic encounters into conversation with cryptozoology the result is wildly unsettling. How are unseen creatures known? Who decides what is real? Is knowledge always tentative and provisional? What multispecies ethics do cryptids call forth? Anthropology and Cryptozoology is a trip through beastly domains that challenge us to think widely, generously, indeed extravagantly."
– Deborah Bird Rose, University of New South Wales, Australia
"The scholars writing in Anthropology and Crytozoology treat the creatures of contemporary legend with a respect once reserved for ancient deities, by considering their ontological foundations and enthnozoological context. This gives new subtlety to the formerly marginal field of cryptozoology."
– Boria Sax, author of The Mythical Zoo and Imaginary Animals
