4 ms·

I’ve long been fascinated by the wild man myths that emerge in most human cultures. Sasquatch is the most prominent example in the U.S. (a subject I devoured as

I’ve long been fascinated by the wild man myths that emerge in most human cultures. Sasquatch is the most prominent example in the U.S. (a subject I devoured as an adolescent) Having travelled to many regions of the world, I’ve consistently inquired about such stories from local people. These myths are everywhere all around the world. They are typically large and dangerous, or small and mischievous (but also dangerous). Most of the people who I spoke to truly believed the described creatures were absolutely real. So the stories related in this article are variations on the same stories I’ve listened to around the globe. I won’t personally believe in such animals unless definitive proof is offered. But most people are quite animated around this subject which makes me wonder why such stories appear to be nearly universal.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
EdwardDiego 4y ago
The Māori, natives of NZ/Aotearoa, have legends of wild men, the Maero [0], who were displaced by the Māori, and accordingly angered. Their version of Ireland's Tuatha Dé Danann, I guess. It's always been fun to tease tourist hikers with stories of the Maero when you're in a remote backcountry hut hearing the godawful screams of brushtail possums. Speculation is that the myth derived from one or more of the "lost tribes" [1], Māori who fled into harsh wildernesses in the face of invaders. Given we've so little knowledge of archaic Māori culture following the extinction of the moa [2], maybe there were "lost tribes" back then that the Maero is based on. Amusingly, as a redhead under the Southern Hemisphere ozone hole, they have a myth of a white skinned and red haired people [3] who find direct sunlight lethal, which is pretty correct if you look at melanoma rates in NZ Europeans. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maero https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maero [1]: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov10_09Rail-t1-body-d16.html http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov10_09Rail-t1... [2]: https://teara.govt.nz/en/moa https://teara.govt.nz/en/moa [3]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patupaiarehe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patupaiarehe
- LAC-Tech 4y ago
  > Amusingly, as a redhead under the Southern Hemisphere ozone hole I spent about 15 minutes under the south island sun without a hat today, and I'm kind of worried I'm sunburnt.
  - EdwardDiego 4y ago
    You probably are. Luckily, 15 minutes isn't too bad. When I worked for a German company, we'd fly German colleagues out for important planning seasons (held over two - three weeks to justify the jet lag). And we'd always warn those on their first trip about the NZ sun being considerably more fierce than any sun they were used to, yes, far more fierce than Lanzarote, Corsica, or "Blauhimmel Deutschland" (Blue sky Germany) aka the parts of Mallorca that sold Die Welt in local shops, and hotels that served white sausage and wheat beer on Sundays. And invariably, they thought we were exaggerating, after all it was spring/autumn! They'd go spend a day at Sumner or New Brighton beaches, and then we got to watch their very red faces peel and gradually heal over the next fortnight. Our CEO managed to get sufficiently sunburnt on his first trip that his forehead blistered, which made it hard to maintain eye contact at times. (He also managed to be on the New Brighton pier during the big Valentine's Day aftershock, which put a charge up him). They always remembered to wear sunscreen and sun hats on their second trip ... ...conversely, it was lovely for me when I traveled to Germany in their summer, I could have a lunch outside for an hour, and not get burnt. My people are very much of the north.
    - DonHopkins 4y ago
      >Our CEO managed to get sufficiently sunburnt on his first trip that his forehead blistered, which made it hard to maintain eye contact at times. Now he knows how women feel: "Hey buddy, my eyes are down here!"
- spacemark 4y ago
  Unless you live in Antarctica the ozone hole has little bearing on how much UV exposure you're getting. The stronger sun down in NZ and Aus is mostly due to Earth's elliptical orbit (closer to the sun during south hemisphere summer than north) and fewer pollutants in the air that absorb light, which is due to the fact that 90% of the world's population lives north of the equator.
KarlKemp 4y ago
Two people from distinct populations spot each other from afar. Both have more incentives to avoid each other than to meet, so they turn around. Because it's stressful and/or people are disappointed that they didn't do what they were supposed to do, some barely remarkable differences get exaggerated to rationalize their emotions. 50,000 years later, the gene pool has been mixed rather well and any remaining differences are skin-deep at most. But now the "other" also gets closer, possibly in some proportion that is constant across time, and homo sapiens sapiens, the thinking thinking man, thinks thinks those brown eyes look really frighting. homo homini lupus est (quom qualis sit non novit)
smohare 4y ago
People also believe in sapient preternatural forces and UFOs with wild abandon. The universality speaks more to the shortcomings of the human brain than any objective truth. Once you’ve studied all the cognitive biases we posses these phenomenon are incredibly banal.
andrewflnr 4y ago
I think the universality is basically because we are human, and identifying other humans is very important, so human shapes are a common target(?) for pareidolia. I'm a little more interested in the curious consistency in details of stories of paranormal encounters. I've heard a handful of first-hand accounts of paranormal experiences that, despite the tellers having some pretty widely different interpretations (one conservative Christian who thought he was talking about demonic activity), described some very similar details, in ways that are at least trickier to explain than simple pareidolia, and not always part of the standard ghost stereotypes either. Assuming ghosts aren't real, there at least has to be something interesting going on. You'd think having read "The Demon-Haunted World" would prepare me better for this but mostly what I remember from that book is about sleep paralysis.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

EdwardDiego 4y ago

The Māori, natives of NZ/Aotearoa, have legends of wild men, the Maero [0], who were displaced by the Māori, and accordingly angered. Their version of Ireland's Tuatha Dé Danann, I guess. It's always been fun to tease tourist hikers with stories of the Maero when you're in a remote backcountry hut hearing the godawful screams of brushtail possums. Speculation is that the myth derived from one or more of the "lost tribes" [1], Māori who fled into harsh wildernesses in the face of invaders. Given we've so little knowledge of archaic Māori culture following the extinction of the moa [2], maybe there were "lost tribes" back then that the Maero is based on. Amusingly, as a redhead under the Southern Hemisphere ozone hole, they have a myth of a white skinned and red haired people [3] who find direct sunlight lethal, which is pretty correct if you look at melanoma rates in NZ Europeans. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maero https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maero [1]: http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov10_09Rail-t1-body-d16.html http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Gov10_09Rail-t1... [2]: https://teara.govt.nz/en/moa https://teara.govt.nz/en/moa [3]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patupaiarehe https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patupaiarehe

LAC-Tech 4y ago
> Amusingly, as a redhead under the Southern Hemisphere ozone hole I spent about 15 minutes under the south island sun without a hat today, and I'm kind of worried I'm sunburnt.
- EdwardDiego 4y ago
  You probably are. Luckily, 15 minutes isn't too bad. When I worked for a German company, we'd fly German colleagues out for important planning seasons (held over two - three weeks to justify the jet lag). And we'd always warn those on their first trip about the NZ sun being considerably more fierce than any sun they were used to, yes, far more fierce than Lanzarote, Corsica, or "Blauhimmel Deutschland" (Blue sky Germany) aka the parts of Mallorca that sold Die Welt in local shops, and hotels that served white sausage and wheat beer on Sundays. And invariably, they thought we were exaggerating, after all it was spring/autumn! They'd go spend a day at Sumner or New Brighton beaches, and then we got to watch their very red faces peel and gradually heal over the next fortnight. Our CEO managed to get sufficiently sunburnt on his first trip that his forehead blistered, which made it hard to maintain eye contact at times. (He also managed to be on the New Brighton pier during the big Valentine's Day aftershock, which put a charge up him). They always remembered to wear sunscreen and sun hats on their second trip ... ...conversely, it was lovely for me when I traveled to Germany in their summer, I could have a lunch outside for an hour, and not get burnt. My people are very much of the north.
  - DonHopkins 4y ago
    >Our CEO managed to get sufficiently sunburnt on his first trip that his forehead blistered, which made it hard to maintain eye contact at times. Now he knows how women feel: "Hey buddy, my eyes are down here!"
spacemark 4y ago
Unless you live in Antarctica the ozone hole has little bearing on how much UV exposure you're getting. The stronger sun down in NZ and Aus is mostly due to Earth's elliptical orbit (closer to the sun during south hemisphere summer than north) and fewer pollutants in the air that absorb light, which is due to the fact that 90% of the world's population lives north of the equator.

KarlKemp 4y ago

Two people from distinct populations spot each other from afar. Both have more incentives to avoid each other than to meet, so they turn around. Because it's stressful and/or people are disappointed that they didn't do what they were supposed to do, some barely remarkable differences get exaggerated to rationalize their emotions. 50,000 years later, the gene pool has been mixed rather well and any remaining differences are skin-deep at most. But now the "other" also gets closer, possibly in some proportion that is constant across time, and homo sapiens sapiens, the thinking thinking man, thinks thinks those brown eyes look really frighting. homo homini lupus est (quom qualis sit non novit)

smohare 4y ago

People also believe in sapient preternatural forces and UFOs with wild abandon. The universality speaks more to the shortcomings of the human brain than any objective truth. Once you’ve studied all the cognitive biases we posses these phenomenon are incredibly banal.

andrewflnr 4y ago

I think the universality is basically because we are human, and identifying other humans is very important, so human shapes are a common target(?) for pareidolia. I'm a little more interested in the curious consistency in details of stories of paranormal encounters. I've heard a handful of first-hand accounts of paranormal experiences that, despite the tellers having some pretty widely different interpretations (one conservative Christian who thought he was talking about demonic activity), described some very similar details, in ways that are at least trickier to explain than simple pareidolia, and not always part of the standard ghost stereotypes either. Assuming ghosts aren't real, there at least has to be something interesting going on. You'd think having read "The Demon-Haunted World" would prepare me better for this but mostly what I remember from that book is about sleep paralysis.