Article Review: Images of the Wildman...

Images of the Wildman Inside and Outside Europe
Gregory Forth
Folklore 118(December 2007): 261-281.

Forth's article is a folkloric treatment of the medieval European wildman, comparing it with representations of the wildman motif in Asian and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere. This is one of the first such treatments that I've seen that considers cryptozoology with more than a throwaway line or a few negative mumblings. Forth, instead, approaches it carefully and with interest.

Forth begins with an examination of the European wildman folklore, noting that there are significant differences from wildman folklore elsewhere. He suggests that this may result from sighting discontinuity (few alleged sightings in Europe over the last century), while in Asia, North America, etc., there continue to be reported encounters which contribute to the shaping of folkloric representations. Also, he points out something that may surprise many academic folklorists: the wildman in non-European regions cannot be simply downplayed as a colonial artifact or just the influence of Western ideology.

Forth then notes the transformation of European wildman representations over the centuries, particularly as science and colonization brought Europeans into greater contact both with the great apes and with native peoples in other lands.

Finally, Forth discusses the modern phenomena of cryptozoology, and its interest in (particularly non-European) "wildman" accounts. Keeping in mind that this is a folkloric treatment, it isn't surprising that Forth's source materials in cryptozoology are a few older works (Manlike Monsters on Trial, Heuvelmans, and Napier). His primary point is that the European wildman does not appear to be a direct folkloric influence on non-European cryptids, but rather the folkloric descriptions are far more influenced by paleoanthropological discoveries and the like. (Within the field of cryptozoology, that is; obviously, indigenous people groups in Asia, for example, would have little influence in their native folklore from such.)

Conclusion (or part of it): "Virtually all scientific concepts are partly derivative of non-scientific ideas. Representing modern crypto-species, or for that matter the categories of palaeoanthropology, as a simple survival of the European wildman obscures both the radical transformation of the mediaeval figure and the emergence of approaches that, engaging with evolutionary biology and other scientific disciplines, provide evidence against the existence of a crypto-species, as well as evidence in support." Forth also notes that while most anthropologists may view wildman imagery as by-products of a culture or social system, this perspective "has typically been assumed rather than advanced or defended," and so is basically undeveloped.

In all, it's worth reading. Yes, there are a few areas (i.e., his noting of the Jacko account) where he may not have caught up with current cryptozoological speculations, but it is a better treatment of cryptozoology in an academic setting than we normally see. Forth is currently in Indonesia for several months, but has a book coming out this fall (assuming Kegan Paul/Routledge keeps on track), Wildman: Images from Flores, Southeast Asia, and Elsewhere.