Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend [Paperback]

David J. Daegling (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0759105391 | ISBN-13: 978-0759105393 | Publication Date: January 2005

The myth of Bigfoot has captured the popular imagination since the creature's first public debut in 1958--numerous citations of "evidence," newspaper articles, books, hysterical personal accounts, and even Hollywood movies illustrate the American public's enduring romance with the Sasquatch. The scientific community on the whole, however, has stubbornly refused to comment on what it views as a very tall tale, though Bigfoot's existence continues to be hotly argued between proponents of the beast and its skeptics. Now, biological anthropologist and primate physiology specialist David J. Daegling enters the fray to offer both sides of the dispute benefit of objective scientific study. A well-crafted read, Bigfoot Exposed will prove to be as much a model of scientific method for anthropologists and researchers as it is an engaging and persuasive debunking of the myth of Bigfoot.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Daegling's level-headed dissection of the (surprisingly) enduring legend of Bigfoot is more thoughtful and bemused than derisively dismissive. But there's no question that the biological anthropologist—a specialist in primate anatomy and biomechanics, useful disciplines for a study of primate bones no one can find and for analyzing a creature's distinctive gait—both starts and ends his examination of evidence for the big beast's existence as a confirmed skeptic. He's a scientist, and scientists depend on verifiable data; his thorough examination—more a reasoned debunking—of the existing data brings refreshing clarity to a muddled mystery. By book's end, Daegling has convincingly refuted the few seconds of film allegedly capturing Bigfoot on the loose, effectively questioned the eyewitness sightings that blossomed after the most celebrated manifestation of Bigfoot, back in 1958, and skillfully undercut the "proof" of oversized footprints by reporting on men who constructed fake feet. And he has, almost sorrowfully, assessed the arguments of the truly obsessed, which link Bigfoot's essential invisibility to the intervention of UFOs. It's not likely to change minds, however: as Daegling himself notes, myths don't depend on facts to fuel their persistence.
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Review

I could not put it down! It is absolutely marvelous. Daegling's handling of the subject itself, as well as his treatment of the tension between science and, well, not science, is masterful. His writing style is spot on, perfect for a book written by a scientist for a popular audience. (Kenneth L. Feder )

Here is the book that both true believers and doubters have long been calling for: a serious scientific look at the evidence for Bigfoot's physical existence. Elegantly reasoned and written, Bigfoot Exposed treats the subject with an open mind, the care and depth it deserves, and respect for everyone involved. Those of us who remain hopeful that Bigfoot walks should definitely read this enjoyable book, as well as the skeptics. While Dr. Daegling cannot prove that Sasquatch is strictly legendary, he certainly raises the bar for belief in North America's giants. This can only be good for all in search of the truth. (Robert Michael Pyle )

How do you prove the nonexistence of something like Bigfoot? You can't. But you can critically examine the evidence, and apply scientific ways of thinking to establish probabilities that the wild man of the woods does or does not exist. In Bigfoot Exposed, physical anthropologist Daegling shows us how to reason scientifically. Anyone interested in critical thinking will want to read this book. (Eugenie C. Scott )

Daegling's level-headed dissection of the (surprisingly) enduring legend of Bigfoot is more thoughtful and bemused than derisively dismissive. But there's no question that the biological anthropologist—a specialist in primate anatomy and biomechanics, useful disciplines for a study of primate bones no one can find and for analyzing a creature's distinctive gait—both starts and ends his examination of evidence for the big beast's existence as a confirmed skeptic. He's a scientist, and scientists depend on verifiable data; his thorough examination—more a reasoned debunking—of the existing data brings refreshing clarity to a muddled mystery. By book's end, Daegling has convincingly refuted the few seconds of film allegedly capturing Bigfoot, back in 1958, and skillfully undercut the "proof" of oversized footprints by reporting on men who constructed fake feet. And he has, almost sorrowfully, assessed the arguments of the truly obsessed, which link Bigfoot's essential invisibility to the intervention of UFOs. It's not likely to change minds, however: as Daegling himself notes, myths don't depend on facts to fuel their persistence. (Publishers Weekly )

Highly recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries. (The Washington Post )

David Daegling has written a wonderful book on the North American Bigfoot myth. It is conversational in style, and peppered with exceptionally well-written turns of phrase. The book is admirably thorough, and a model for others to follow in debunking myths. (Jeffrey K. McKee )

I think Bigfoot Exposed is a wonderful contribution to the legend of Bigfoot and emphasizes the correct role for science within the controversy. The arguments advanced are sound and not only well-constructed but artfully so. Overall the book is terrific! If someone wanted a comprehensive scientific review of Bigfoot, there presently are no other good options. (Michael R. Dennett )

Bigfoot, aka the Sasquatch, gets no respect, especially from scientists. So complained the creature's advocates, and anthropologist David J. Daegling agreed with them. In writing Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologists Examines America's Enduring Legend, he drew upon not only his own specialty but also, with the help of friends, the physics of human movement. The latter was helpful in analyzing such traces of the creature as casts of its footprints and a film in which it is allegedly seen walking in its Nortwest U.S. habitat. Daegling's conclusion is straightforward: 'The absence of physical remains—bodies or parts thereof—is to my mind the most devastating argument against the Sasquatch.' One point made much of by Bigfoot enthusiasts is the sheer number of reported sightings that paint a relatively consistent portrait of the creature. It would be preposterous, they contend, to think that so many people could have entered into a kind of conspiracy to plant so much similar evidence. Daegling rejoins that this mode of argument sets up 'a rhetorical trick known as the false dilemma.' It hardly takes conspiring to produce a consistent profile of a Bigfoot. 'If potential hoaxers can read a newspaper or operate a television remote,' the author writes, 'they have the ability to acquire descriptions of Bigfoot evidence and recreat that evidence in short order.' (The Washington Post )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Altamira Press (January 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759105391
• ISBN-13: 978-0759105393
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #420,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best skeptical bigfoot book out there..., November 12, 2004

By 

Richard Noll (Edmonds, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend (Paperback)

I am very glad I purchased this book and I think you will be too. There are not too many skeptical view points out there that come across as intelligent, well written and up to date with their facts. Bigfoot Exposed should be included on the shelves with other classic volumes of the phenomena like that of John Green and Grover Krantz. It finally puts into print and in one place the hard issues that skeptics have had with the subject. Daegling dissects the Bigfoot enigma into its component parts, stating that they in fact don't necessarily belong together; it's time to take a different view of things.

For this anthropologist, tracks and casts should not be used to corroborate eyewitness reports of them being made. Film, hair, sounds and scat should be separate as well. Even, what the skeptics call, the "advocates" star event, the Patterson/Gimlin film, should be separated from the tracks attributed to it and the eyewitness testimony from both Roger and Bob. Each component can then be analyzed on its own.

He quotes mostly from actual Bigfoot researchers, versus the skeptical camp, usually using their own words and thoughts to make his counterpoints. I much prefer this method to get both talking the same thing. Too many times have we seen people arguing a point only to later find out they were talking about different things. Sure, someone who is very familiar with the subject doesn't have too much of a problem understanding where each is coming from but others less familiar don't understand the finer details each use in their arguments.

This is not as dry a read as Big Footprints by Grover Krantz but it isn't as technical either. Unfortunately, I am of the advocate camp and this book attempts to show that there just isn't any good evidence to support the existence of Bigfoot, in fact most of the evidence, in the authors mind, points toward misidentification and hoaxing. After reading the entire book and admiring the work for what it is (an honest attempt to explain the other side of the coin), I can't help but think that there is truth in the saying that seldom do the parts equal the whole. Explaining the mystery through a combination of human fabrication and common enough spoor of known animals and other inanimate objects seems quite convoluted as presented in this book. Taking a piece here and there from various events, showing some inconsistencies and then trying to recombine those, makes for a pretty fantastic piece of theory, but in this scientist's opinion, not as fantastic as an 8 foot tall, bipedal ape living in North America.

Counter-arguments to his work are going to have to address some interesting items. The author is claiming that most of the evidence is easily attributable to hoaxing of some type; he even identifies the possible people involved. But I don't think he knows that advocates of the creature's existence have tried to get more quantitative information from these individuals. I personally have contacted the Wallace family so as to come to their home and document all the evidence of their father's fake track making so we could take out stuff he may have fabricated, only to be turned away because of a movie deal. Others have asked for data surrounding Bob Herionomus such as stride length, pictures of him inside a costume and arm/leg lengths... alas, another movie or TV deal going on there as well. It seems that the admitted hoaxers only want to associate themselves and cherished work with the skeptical side. I guess it would seem that they would believe them more then people who go looking for the giant hairy monster.

I will have to take exception though, I guess because I was involved with it from the start, with him using some one identified as being dubious, possibly fabricating pictures, tracks and casts, but then using this same person to substantiate claims of misidentification with the Skookum cast and actual hoaxing with the Patterson/Gimlin film. Sometimes the tone in the book is very harsh on the researchers versus the one's who he claims have been perpetrating this hoax. He does this with Wallace, Ray Picken and Rant Mullen... all people who have claimed (in one way or another) that they have faked tracks with carved wooden feet and fooled a lot of people since 1958. To be fair though, he didn't do this with Paul Freeman.

Bigfoot researchers need to have access to these admitted hoaxers and the skeptics need to have access to the best evidence available. From reading the book, I can pretty much tell that the author has only been able to view the P/G film on video (which skips frames in the process of converting the film to video, odd/even) and the 12 non-contiguous publicized cibachrome prints made by Bruce Bonney from the film. He really should have made an effort to see evidence first hand instead of watching TV programs or talking with like minded people (Dennet, Perez, Radford for example).

One last thing, 5% of the German airforce has the same chest size as the creature portrayed in the film? My understanding is that the measurements found in the Anthropometry Sourcebook are taken from the center of the arm pit to the center of the arm pit, using a tape measure. This is the interscye dimension, a measurement along the contour of the body. The author takes great pains to show the readers that not much in the form of measurements can be ascertained with the P/G film so why would he use this type of measurement when anything measured off the two dimensional images would be of a flat pattern type? That is exactly what Grover Krantz measured though, the two dimensional aspect of the creature in the film.

I also wonder how the RAF during WWII was able to determine subject size with aerial photography only knowing three things? Distance to the subject, focal length of the lens and the subject height as measured on the film. Seemed to work then.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good, Objective Perspective, June 15, 2005

By 

Jeffrey Danelek (Lakewood, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend (Paperback)

Daegling is a rarity among debunkers in that he respects those who hold to opinions he does not share, and has managed to put together a work that lacks the condescension typical of most debunking books. As such, I think he deserves to be applauded for the reasonable and even, at points, sympathetic hearing he gives the entire controversy. Skeptics of all stripes could learn alot from him.

As far as the book itself is concerned, I found it extremely interesting and thought-provoking, even though most of the arguments he makes have been put forth many times before. As someone who has written on the Patterson Film myself (Fate magazine, March, 2003) I was most interested in his appraisal of that footage, which is the part of the book I found most convoluted. The idea that the subject in the film has been estimated to range in height from just over six feet to almost seven-and-a-half feet (an 18" variance) remains a mystery to me, especially considering the follow-up work that was done in the weeks and months following the Patterson sighting and the availability of measurable landmarks the creature could be compared to evident in the footage and still in existence today. I could accept a few inches of variance, but a foot-and-a-half? Surely science can be a little more precise than that. Additionally, Daegling correctly maintains that the Groucho Marx/Bigfoot walk could be mimicked by a human, but he fails to answer the question of why a guy in a suit would do such a thing. It's a clearly difficult and unnatural movement to attempt, so why would an alleged prankster feel compelled to try it? Most of the objections he makes, however, were sound, and he did a good job of challenging the late Grover Krantz in terms of his scientific methodology and assumptions. I would have loved to have seen a debate between these two. It surely would have been worth the price of admission!

In the end, I came away from the book feeling a little more skeptical about Bigfoot enthusiasts, though my faith in the existence of the big fella remains intact. Daegling simply uses the most effective method of debunking available: sympathetic disbelief. Like a good defense attorney who only needs to challenge a few pieces of the evidence and cast doubt upon the integrity and reliability of a few key witnesses to sway a jury towards acquittal, he manages to put just enough doubt into the mind of the Bigfoot aficionado without actually disproving the theory to do some real damage. I suspect, however, he will not quite dissuade the truly convinced, though he does come close. A good read that no one interested in the subject of Bigfoot in particular and crytozoology in general should be without.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Long overdue, November 30, 2004

By 

Scott Herriott (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend (Paperback)

I agree with Rick Noll's assessment that this is the best skeptical book written concerning whether or not another upright primate exists in the world. Daegling, for the most part, does an admirable job of taking famous pieces of Bigfoot evidence and providing possible alternative explanations for them. However, his basic claim that there's no incontrovertible evidence to show that such a creature exists, is one that many within the field of Bigfoot research already share.

It's clear, at least from the book, that he feels that any continued serious field research is not scientifically warranted. This is, also obviously, where he differs with most believers.

For me, one of the most intriguing claims in the book is
that, in regards to possible Bigfoot hair samples, Daegling states "...there was a time in the past when investigators did not have the tools to make a diagnosis of "unknown species" that was credible. That time is past. When Fahrenbach (Bigfoot researcher) says that a useful length of DNA for determining the phylogenic status of a sample has been difficult to come by, we can fairly demand to know what went wrong". Would be interesting to hear any rebuttals to this claim.

I would have liked to have read his thoughts on Jane Goodall's belief that Sasquatches are most probably real as well as some ruminations concerning the vastness of the Pacific Northwest forests which, some would say, could very well hide a relatively small, spread-out population of mountain gorilla-like creatures...yes, even though no bone or body part evidence has so far come forth. Also, it would have been nice for him to discuss the moments in the history of science where longtold stories of supposedly mythical creatures were eventually backed up by actual discoveries (Panda, mountain gorilla, etc.)

His theory that the whole of Bigfoot evidence (eyewitness testimony, footprints, unusual screams, etc.) can be explained, in lieu of hard physical evidence, by misperception and hoaxing (fueled, at least partly, by Bigfoot representing an archetypal guardian of the forest) is correct. It CAN be explained that way. It just doesn't mean that it's necessarily the one and only explanation.

Overall, a must buy for anyone serious about the phenomenon.