Bigfoot in life and legend

Bigfoot Exposed: An Anthropologist Examines America's Enduring Legend. By David J. Daegling. AltaMira Press, New York, 2004. ISBN 0-7591-0539-1. 276 pp. Softcover, $24.95; Hardcover, $72.

It's not for lack of evidence that Bigfoot remains a mystery. There's plenty of evidence; the problem is that most of it isn't good evidence. Similarly, there are plenty of books on Bigfoot, but much of what is out there just isn't very good. Hundreds of books advocate for the existence of Bigfoot through mystery mongering or suppressing the skeptical view. David Daegling's new book, Bigfoot Exposed, is the first to encompass the Bigfoot phenomena as a whole, tackling both hard and soft evidence from an anthropological point of view.

The book begins with a would-be Bigfoot sighting that Daegling and a few friends experienced first-hand. It was a terrifying encounter out in the wilderness, something large and hairy and--at least initially--unidentified. He makes an important point when he asks, "What would have happened if my brother hadn't gotten his flashlight? I would have lost a night's sleep and would have forever wondered what had wandered into the edge of our camp." This example addresses an often overlooked significance of Bigfoot encounters: they are unforgettable, often terrifying, and at times life-changing experiences.

Daegling brings incisive insight to a field plagued by poor evidence and often muddled by faulty arguments and red herrings. Daegling exposes fuzzy reasoning and logical fallacies in the arguments of Bigfoot advocates, such as the claim that Bigfoot aren't seen more often because they live only in very remote areas. If that's so, Daegling asks, then why are there so many reports from populated areas? Logical fallacies such as special pleading, appeals to authority, and the false-choice dilemma are noted, as well as authors who selectively omit evidence (the systemic purging of hoaxer Ray Wallace's legacy from several otherwise thorough Bigfoot books is given as an example). Daegling calls this "a troubling practice, one that a field on the fringe of scientific legitimacy can scarcely afford."

The book is even-handed in its analysis, and though obviously a skeptical inquiry, has been generally well received by the advocate camp. The Anomalist online magazine selected Bigfoot Exposed as "The Best Skeptical Cryptozoology Book of 2004," though one wonders why such a distinction is made. After all, skepticism is simply demanding proof prior to acceptance and applying scientific methodology to a topic. One would hope that all investigative books would be in that sense skeptical. The category's name highlights the glaring absence of truly skeptical books on the subject.

Bigfoot Exposed offers a survey of the major characters in the search for Bigfoot, observations on footprints, hoaxing, Bigfoot anthropology, the Patterson film, eyewitness testimony, and the lack of a fossil record for the creature. Daegling's prose is lucid and thorough, at times erring on the side of overexplaining. This tendency is understandable given the contentiousness of the topic; better to belabor a point than risk being misunderstood.

The real contribution of Bigfoot Exposed is Daegling's ability and willingness to identify key issues often lost in the morass of claims and counterclaims. He points out, for example, that "Bigfoot data never really get any better and thus there is no gravity to the claim that we are closing in on the animal." Unlike nearly every other area of scientific inquiry, evidence for the phenomenon has barely improved over the last half-century. We are no closer to identifying Bigfoot now than we were last month, or last year, or in 1958 (when Bigfoot became famous).

Daegling, an associate professor at the University of Florida, takes a much-needed anthropological view of the issue. He writes, "The mythological value of Bigfoot, its importance for those who seek it, has nothing to do with its zoological reality." Though Daegling doesn't mention it, much of his discussion and analysis is applicable to the searches for other mysterious creatures, from lake monsters to the goat-gashing chupacabra. Similar methodological flaws and fallacies plague those endeavors as well.

Bigfoot proponents have long requested a scientific examination of the phenomena; Bigfoot Exposed provides it. This book is simply the best and most thorough critical analysis of the Bigfoot phenomena; it is instructive for lay readers, skeptics, and advocates alike.

Benjamin Radford wrote "Bigfoot at 50: Evaluating a Half-Century of Bigfoot Evidence" far the March/April 2002 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
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