...collect data 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 daemons of his fancy ...?"--David Hume (Smith 1947, 195).

Introduction

When South African villagers in 1997 attributed nine deaths to Mamlambo, the brain-sucking river monster of Mzintlava River, and called for local officials to take action, when Nessie Hunters scour the depths of Loch Ness with sonar and provide twenty-four-hour streaming coverage of the lake surface via Internet webcams, and when "Devil Hunters" organise off-hour expeditions into the Pine Barrens looking for New Jersey's most famous monster, they may not realise they are participating in a very ancient and socially important ritual in which communal space is defined and in which the boundaries of civilisation are constructed. North America has bigfoot, Puerto Rico has the "goat-sucking" gremlin chupacabra, and Sweden has a monster serpent in Lake Storsjon. Babylonian cuneiform tablets record incantations against the "evil spirit" and "evil demon ... that have power by night over the street"; medieval manuscripts include amulet prescriptions against "the elfin race and night-goers"; and the seventh-century Life of Saint Columba describes an encounter between the saint and a savage water monster living in the depths of the River Ness in Scotland. [1] In Ireland, St Senan of Inis Cathaigh (Scattery Island) on the river Shannon, who died c. 544, is said to have banished a gruesome sea and land monster called Cathach, northwards through Co. Clare to Doolough Lake (Dubh Loch: "Black/Dark Lake" at Mount Callan, the largest lake in the county (Kenney 1929, 364-6; Stokes 1890, 66-7 [Irish text], 213-4 [translation]) (see Figure 1) and St Patrick is said to have overcome a reptilic monster in Loch Derg (Loch Dearg: 'Red lake,' coloured by the monster's blood), Co. Donegal (O hOgain 1983, 99-9 and 121-2; de Pontfarcy 1988, 35-8). The beliefs are sufficiently consistent across time and place that the question becomes inevitable: what do they mean? Why does humanity, as a whole, so consistently and ubiquitously populate its border spaces with fascinating and sometimes threatening creatures? This essay serves as a brief meditation on the current significance of cryptids (as the creatures are currently known) in the context of their historical analogues.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

A spate of popular monographs on cryptozoology has appeared recently. Much of this literature seems directly or indirectly apologetic, as though the authors are secretly hoping--even as they critically review the evidence--that the creatures in question truly exist and that they are the brave, early recorders of what science and society will someday acknowledge to be real. These works generally do not engage the very questions they raise, however, regarding the patent psychological and social needs fuelling such stories. Even the introductory sections to guides and encyclopaedias of worldwide cryptozoology do not seem very reflective about the patterns of belief they document so thoroughly. [2]

The point of this paper is not to disparage the important work of responsible cryptozoologists nor to imply that there is no legitimate place for cryptozoology within contemporary zoology. The International Society of Cryptozoology (active from 1982 to 1998), for instance, published sound research and reflection in its newsletter and in a refereed journal (Cryptozoology). There are, of course, new species that remain to be discovered, and early reports of them will naturally appear folkloric before a specimen is secured and the scientific community can verify it. My intention is rather to unpack certain facets of the social significance of the widespread interest and even belief in such creatures before they are confirmed by science. George Eberhart catalogues some 1085 unconfirmed animals in his recent encyclopaedic Guide to Cryptozoology; Michael Newton catalogues 1583 in his Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology. Cryptozoologists themselves acknowledge that only a small percentage of putative species are likely to turn out real--thus conveying the vast majority of such sightings and local beliefs to the province of folklore. The bulk of the work in explaining these beliefs is thus left to folklorists rather than to naturalists.

The cultural significance of contemporary cryptozoology bears many similarities to, as well as some important differences from, the cryptozoology of the premodern world. In a sense, it can be argued that the term "cryptozoology" is itself an anachronism when applied to pre-modern cultures. By the study of "hidden animals," cryptozoologists expressly mean animals unconfirmed by contemporary science (that is, not appearing in standard textbooks), and such a distinction might seem to make less sense in the periods before the central organisation of scientific knowledge. Yet, no age has been without its share of hidden creatures, and confirmation of purported species has been a vital and consciously debated issue among the collectors of human knowledge for thousands of years. Furthermore, it is not the vast myriad of undiscovered mites or new varieties of zooplankton that cryptozoologists are really interested in; it is the large, sensational creatures that fill us with a fresh sense of wonder and surprise that dominate the discussions. In fact, Bernard Heuvelmans, the "Father of Cryptozoology," has proposed our emotional response as a core feature of a cryptid: to count as a cryptid, an animal must have at least one trait "truly singular, unexpected, paradoxical, striking, emotionally upsetting, and thus capable of mythification" (Heuvelmans 1983, 5). [3] At the very least, cryptozoologists usually maintain that there must be a "minimum size" for a creature to count as having cryptozoological interest. Even a cursory scan through works of cryptozoology or through cryptozoological online message boards makes it clear that what is being sought is not simply the unknown--it is the formidable, the frightening, the monstrous. In this sense, cryptozoology is nothing new.

Sensationalism and scepticism were in tension with one another even in antiquity. In the first century AD, Pliny marvelled at the wondrous diversity of the world, and filled the pages of his Natural History with whatever curious morsels he could glean from travel writing, scientific tracts, or myth. Despite his own wide travels and the unparalleled availability of many exotic species in first-century Rome, Pliny deferentially repeats a large amount of material from Greek authorities such as Aristotle and Ctesias. He shows little critical distance from his sources, despite the occasional tirade against, for instance, belief in werewolves among Greek writers (Naturalis Historia 8.34; Rackham 1940, 58-60). Pliny, along with other recorders of novel beasts and traits,...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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