Bigfoot The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality
By John Napier (1917 – d. August 1987)
E P Dutton, Publisher; 1st edition (March 1973)
ISBN:0-525-06658-6 Out of print
Book Review by David Merryfield
In searching the local library on the topic of Bigfoot, (not much to choose from in Swift Current, SK), I came across this title. This being an older book written 37 years ago, I found it a history lesson in the research of sasquatch.
John Napier was an anthropologist who taught primate biology at the University of London, and for several years, was the Director of the Primate Biology Program of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. He was a true scientist and a very sceptical one.
Remembering that we are in the 50`s and 60`s time frame, he covers the events of the yeti in Asia and the bigfoot/sasquatch of North America. He devotes a whole chapter to the Minnesota Iceman where he gives some new insight to that story.
What I really gleaned from this book were the tidbits of information, like the mention of Rene Dahinden and how he interviewed witnesses with a tape recorder, and took the PG film to Europe and Russia to get scientists interested.
The chapter `The Evidence of Fossils` is of great help in explaining the Gigantopithecus, Homo erectus, and other groups, which includes a graph.
The book was a hard read and delved into areas of Asia that I couldn’t relate to. What probably bothered me the most was the author’s bias as to what was evidence.
The fact that he was a scientist, English, and lived (at the time of writing) in the 70's, is made clear in his thought patterns and use of English phrases.
Of the four books on sasquatch I’ve read in the last two months, this one was both a learning experience, and at times, a test to my patience with the author.
Would I recommend this book? Yes and no. Sorry but it could be the book for you or it could get you worked up emotionally as it did me.
John Russell Napier,
MRCS, LRCP, D.Sc.
British primatologist, paleoathropologist, and physician, who is notable for his work with Homo habilis and OH 7, as well as on human and primate hands/feet. During his life he was widely considered a leading authority on primate taxonomy, but is perhaps most famous to the general public for his research on Bigfoot.
Bigfoot research
Napier was one of the first notable scientists to give serious attention to the Bigfoot/Sasquatch phenomenon. His investigations included screening the 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film, which he concluded was a clever hoax, interviewing amateur investigators and purported eyewitnesses, visiting alleged Bigfoot sighting areas, and studying the scant physical evidence.
In his 1973 book on the subject, Napier ultimately judged the evidence to be inconclusive: there was not enough hard proof to confirm to Napier that Bigfoot was a real creature, but Napier judged the indirect evidence – especially footprints – as compelling and intriguing enough to avoid dismissing it entirely. Later in his life he argued that "the scientific evidence taken collectively points to a hoax of some kind."
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From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Napier_(primatologist)
OntarioSasquatch
