And so, last night I watched Discovery’s latest special – “Russian
Yeti: The Killer Lives”. A mockumentary, made in style of Discovery’s films
about the dragons, the mermaids, and the giant shark Megalodon, it was a fun
film to see. It was designed in “The Blair Witch Project” style, as an American
explorer Mike, and his trusty Russian sidekick/interpreter Mila, went into the
wild Urals mountains to discover the truth – whether the Russian Yeti has
killed 9 student tourists back in 1959. Designed as an action/cryptozoological
film rather than a scientific one (the Mermaids duology comes to mind), it is
very hard, if not pointless, to discuss the scientific aspects of the film. However,
the titular cryptid, the yeti, does deserve some discussion, to say the least.
The tales and myths of giant apes and wild men of the woods have
come from all over the world, and the territory of former USSR was no
exception. The most widespread and used name for these creatures there was
Almasti, or Almas. They played a rather negative role in the local tales, and
were generally similar to the Bigfoot and the Yeti in appearance (seriously,
since when does it matter where the Yeti lives, in Russia or not? I mean, if there
is a ‘Russian Yeti’, does it mean that there are also Indian, Tibetan, Nepalese
Yetis and so forth? What is the difference? Even the film itself did not really
dwell on this fact), but they had some important differences: they were more
human-like in appearance (and Bigfoot, conversely, looks more ape-like than
man-like), and they were rumored to be able to use fire, again unlike the Bigfoot.
Some greater regional differences come to mind. The
Mediterranean world, curiously, did not really have many ape-men myths; the
fauns and the satyrs are different – they are part goat or horse, not ape, but
Northern Europe had humanoid giants of their own – the trolls and ogres of the
Norse, and further down, in the mainland Europe, the wildmen proper. At about
2.7 m in length, and weighing 200 kg, these beings were just as intimidating as
the Bigfoot and the Yeti are, but they were more civilized, they had their own
culture (supposedly), and were not as hairy, so they probably could use fire
and make clothing of their own. The trolls and ogres of the Norse, were not
just bigger (about 3.5 m tall and weighing about 360 kg), but they truly were
civilized, complete with culture, civilization, and societies of their own. In
fact, if you read some of the Norse (Scandinavian, Icelandic) folklore, one can
realize that the Norse trolls and ogres belonged, practically, to a world
parallel to humans, inhabited not just by them, but also by huldra, beings that
were half spirit and half-real. This makes it hard to decide if trolls and
ogres were real and not purely imaginary, one of versions of the vague and
mysterious ‘Them’, imagined by humans to symbolize the anti-humans – but that
is another tale.
Conversely, the wildmen of Europe, including the Almas, were
less sophisticated and more ape-like – they probably could use fire, and were
more man-, than ape-like, but that was it. No civilization for them, no sir! Further
to the east, where the Yeti and the Bigfoot live, the ‘wild people’ become
increasingly more ape-like and animalistic, without any evidence that they use
fire, or tools, and clothing? It is non-existent. They are also relatively
smaller than the European analogs: the Bigfoot is about 2.5 m high and weighs
under 200 kg, its southern cousin the skunk ape is about as big as a man and
weighs under 150 kg, the Yeti is about as big as the Bigfoot, though probably
is, and so’s the Yowie. The Yowie, incidentally, is interesting, also because
it lives in Australia, where all of the native mammals either hatched from eggs
(the Monotremes), or are marsupial and have pouches to carry their tiny
youngsters around. Higher primates, including the great apes and humans, are
placental and have neither. This makes the Yowie’s identity especially puzzling
– just what is it?..
“Russian Yeti” film did not mention the Yowie, but it did
mention the Orang Pendek as the ‘Sumatran Yeti’, so to speak. The Orang Pendek is
a humanoid creature, but at about 1-1.2 m in height and a very slight build,
most cryptozoologists and other specialists feel that it has no connection to the
Yeti, but is possibly the descendant of Homo Florensis, the Flores Man,
instead. The latter has plenty of its own mystery; nobody is certain whether or
not it was actually a dwarf race of modern humans, or a descendant of a more
ancient species, Homo Erectus, for example. To connect the Orang Pendek
to the Yeti family was wrong from the cryptoozological P.O.V. as well...
Getting back to the wildmen and ape-like creatures, “Russian
Yeti” was a very good movie...and nothing more. Unlike “Mermaids”, or “Megalodon”,
it did not pretend to be anything real, or to have been filmed in the real
life. There are appropriate disclaimers and warnings that is drama, not
suitable for children of all ages, and it should be treated as such by its
audience.
End
