A cryptozoological classic that belongs on your shelf, a review of The Guide to Bigfoot and other Mystery Primates By Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe

I am way behind on reviews, like so far behind it’s absurd. Who would have thought that working full time, having two kids and a wife and other family obligations would eat into your spare time? But anyway. I posted on Instagram about this lack of reviews and one of my followers asked about this particular book out of my big pile of books.  This particular book is…. Interesting. 

Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe’s  field guide is a nice reference to have when it comes to all things mystery primate. It is really nicely illustrated with artistic renditions and examples of each hairy hominid mentioned therein. The guide divides mysteryprimates into 9 classes, because worldwide there is just that much variation and divergence among all the things that people claim to see. The classifications are as follows :

1)Neo giants

Neo Giants are probably what you would normally think of as “Bigfoot.” Covered in hair, 6-9 feet tall, ranging in the Pacific Northwest and Central Asia along with parts of south and Central America. 

2)True Giants

A lot like Bigfoot and neo giants, except the prints are purported to be 2 feet long and the creatures are supposed to be 10-20 feet tall. Ranging in scattered places all around the world. In my opinion even entertaining something like this strains credibility and smacks of fantasy, but who am I? 

 

3)Marked Hominids

Purported to be slightly smaller than a Sasquatch, more human looking and piebald, exhibiting coats with more than one color. Occupying the sub article regions in the Northern Hemisphere.

4)Neandertaloids

Neanderthals, the non human not ancestor but instead cousin. I feel this is where the book shows it’s age, they view Neanderthals as a near human more animal like creature that if we saw today we would clearly recognize as non human. My understanding of current scholarship is the opposite, we are Neanderthals, at least if you are Native American, Asian and especially if you are of European descent. Neanderthals we’re close enough to our ancestors that we bred with them and still carry their DNA today, and we still exhibit traits we likely inherited from Neanderthals.  I think it is highly unlikely that isolated pockets on Neanderthals continue to exist unchanged these tens of thousands of years later, assimilation and the desire breed is a hell of a drug. 

5)Erectus Hominids

The guide makes the claim that many wildman sightings in Asia, specifically things like the Chinese “Yeren” could be surviving  relict hominids like Homo Erectus or something else. Erectus was the first hominid to walk upright, emerging up to two million years ago and spread across the globe. It survived in places like Indonesia long after it died out elsewhere, up until about 100,000 year ago. I’ll say it, I think that a primitive species of surviving bipedal hominid could perhaps exist in remote places. Unlike the Neanderthal which was much more like us than we give it credit for, species like Erectus I reckon would have been much more recognizably animal and different than Neanderthal was. Again though, here the book shows it age, using terms and descriptors that have since fallen out of favor like “mongoloid.” 

6)Proto pygmy

A term the authors use to describe smaller than average hominids seen all over think H. Florensiensis or “The Hobbit”but without the fancy little outfits and nice holes in the ground. 

7)unknown Pongid

This  is where we delve into something that is much more likely across the board, based mostly on footprints  and descriptions all over the world that aren’t totally bi pedal and have less human shaped feet the authors have came up with this classification to describe these more ape like and less ape man style sightings from Asia to Florida. Is it possible that deep in the jungles out Southeast Asia or Africa we will discover a new species of ape, sure, but probably not 40 miles outside of Downtown Orlando. 

8)Giant Monkey 

Pretty much exactly what it sounds like.

9) Merbeing

*Deep sigh* again, exactly what it sounds like. It strikes me as absurd, but who am I to judge. 

So those are the 9 classifications the authors use, the rest of the book is divided by region where specific creatures and variations on creatures are discussed, complete with  illustrations. I like a lot of things about this book, it takes these local stories and gives them a description and image and catalogues everything on one place. The authors include a helpful index, bibliography and list of sources that highlights what reports each creature came from. In all instances, things a reference book should have. It is a fantastic reference. But I think it falls into the trap of making everything a hell of a lot more complicated than it needs to be. And as is par for the course with these sorts of books, they put a tremendous amount of stock into eyewitness accounts assuming they are truthful and remembered perfectly. I always fall into the camp,of “why muddy the waters, Bigfoot is weird enough.” But it seems that ship has sailed, and where I would be inclined to go with the simplest of explanations to explain many things, the authors seem bent on going the opposite direction into more and more complicated and exceptional answers. As if to squint and look at things sideways in hopes there is something there. With the book being published in 1999 I do think it would benefit from a modern edition that streamlines some things and removes references to verbiage that has fallen out of favor and takes more modern interpretations of Neanderthals, florensiensus and Erectus into account. Overall though,I truly do not want to be negative.  This book has been printed and consistently sold since 1999 for a reason, this is a book that belongs in your collection, skeptic or believer. 

Look  for more reviews soon, I’m finishing up another book called “The History and Politics of Star Wars” by Chris Kempshall right now and I think I will likely review that for my blog as well. Sort of a “And now for something completely different” feelings. Also, I recently watched some documentaries about the Yowie that I’d like to review along with the “Skunkape Experiments”documentary, and oooh boy did that get WEIRD. Thanks for coming by and reading my scribbles, see you all next time!