Anthropology and Cryptozoology

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.

• Introduction1.The Place of Cryptids in Taxonomic Debates 2. Cryptids, Classification and Categories of Cats: an Ethnozoological Study of Unidentified Felids from Eastern Indonesia3. Cryptids and Credulity: the Zanzibar Leopard and Other Imaginary Beings4. ‘By dreaming I’ll go to the tiger-world’: the Naga tiger-man and the modern assemblage of a myth5. Human Predation and Animal Sociality: The Transformational Agency of ‘Wolf People’ in Mongolia6. Enigmatic Bush Dwarfs of West Africa: The Case of the Siyawesi of Northwestern Benin7. Suspending disbelief and experiencing the extraordinary: how radical participation may facilitate an understanding of aquatic snake and fish-tailed beings in southern Africa8. Mermaids in Brazil: The (ongoing) creolisation of the water goddesses Oxum and Iemanjá9. Ganka: Trickster or Endangered Species? An anthropologist’s role in preventing the extinction of the New Jersey sea monster. 10. Far from the Madding Crowd: Big Cats on Dartmoor and in Dorset, UK11. Land of Beasts and Dragons. Contemporary Myth-Making in Rural Wales. 12. Digesting ‘cryptid’ snakes: A phenomenological approach to the mythic and cosmoge-netic properties of serpent hallucinations

'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