Pages

Guide to Patagonia's Monsters & Mysterious beings

I have written a book on this intriguing subject which has just been published.
In this blog I will post excerpts and other interesting texts on this fascinating subject.

Austin Whittall


Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Why Patagonian Monsters?

 
Patagonian Monsters Book
The Book, coming soon. Copyright © 2010 by Austin Whittall




Myths about monstruous animals and weird beings have permeated and haunted all cultures around the world since the dawn of mankind; examples can be found in North America’s Bigfoot, Scandinavian trolls and in the Australian Aboriginals’ Yahoo.

These Little People, Giants, Wild Men and monsters may just be the product of the universal unconscious mind that binds human cultures across the chasm of space and time, or they may be based on some hidden aspect of reality till undiscovered by science.

Even within the safe embrace of our Western XXIst century society we may still feel a shudder of apprehension during dark nights or while trekking in thick gloomy forests. The world is evidently still full of monsters that captivate our imagination and awaken our deepest fears.

Modern technology has done little to abate this irrational dread and perhaps has made us even more aware of our vulnerabilty to the mysteries lurching in the dark.

The Southern tip South America, Patagonia, also has its share of legendary beasts and mysterious monsters. Patagonia’s wonderful yet lonely scenery, from its barren steppe to its shady forests, crystal clear lakes and frozen Andean peaks, raises disquieting questions in the minds of those who venture into it:

Are there any mysterious creatures lurking in the depths of those seemingly peaceful mountain lakes or lying in wait within the damp somber woods?

Are we being watched by some unknown beings while we stroll along the lonely sunlit mountain paths?

This blog will look for answers to these and other questions focusing on the subject with healthy skepticism and a certain reluctance to belief without substance.

Objectivity requires us to be wary of wishful thinking and the evidence that I will provide, though circumstancial and perhaps inconclusive, is reasonable and well documented from a wide variety of sources.

Patagonia which was until quite recently unknown and considered the uttermost part of the Earth is still a vast and virtually empty land.

Spanish conquest had left it alone in splendid isolation for nearly three centuries, lacking easy gold or tame natives, its inhospitable geography and tough climate rendered it useless to them.

Their “Conquistadors” and explorers did not venture far inland, they merely reconnoitered its fringes or sailed past its bleak coasts en route to the riches of Asia, only sporadically meeting whatever natives came down to its shores to trade furs and feathers for European goods.

To enlighten those back in Europe, Bestiaries were written taking Indian tales, hearsay and myth as factual; colonial naturalists wrote tracts about mysterious creatures as if they were a confirmed fact. Cartographers and navigators drew them into their maps to show what to expect when exploring the region.

This isolation and lack of interest means that there are very few original sources that document the natives’ “real” beliefs and their tales of the monsters that peopled their world.

The chronicles of the few missionaries who dared to enter the Patagonian wilderness in an attempt to convert the “Indians” provide a sketchy record of their now extinct customs during the period spanning from the late XVIIth century to the early XIXth century.

South American independence wars, civil strife and turmoil delayed scientific exploration of Patagonia until the last years of the XIXth century when Victorian gentlemen penned unclear and perhaps biased notes on the free roaming Patagonians during the dying days of their ancestral cultures.

Regrettably this was a period of chaos for the natives; alcohol and disease brought by Western men were taking their toll on them. Subsequent military conquest and war led to the final destruction of their cultures. In less than fifty years, their way of life that had lasted for millennia disappeared forever.

The surviving natives, scattered across their former territories, were highly acculturalized and absorbed by western civilization. Their myths about strange forest and lake beings, giants and dwarves, monsters and wild creatures vanished with their ancient knowledge, irrevocably lost.

Only later, during the mid XXth century, would anthropologists and sociologists approach the last reluctant elder natives in an attempt to document their fading childhood recollections before they died.

It is on these three types of sources, the Missionaries’ chronicles the explorers’ travelogues and the anthropologists’ papers that I have pieced together the monsters portrayed in this blog.

Several publications have dealt with Patagonian cryptozoological creatures, most of them focusing on a few well known yet evidently apocriphal examples such as "Nahuelito"; others deal with European tales recently incorporated into the Patagonian lore such as gnomes and elves, ignoring the genuine native dwarves such as yosi and trauco.

I, on the other hand have preferred to emphasize the many lesser-known and even obscure mysterious beasts that abound in the native myths and in forgotten and scarcely read travelouges, historical accounts or journals.

These Patagonian creatures have walked through the forests of my mind for over three decades, now I want to share them with you. Perhaps under the veil of mythology lies a solid reality, a truth waiting to be found and proven by science.

My purpose is to introduce readers to the rich variety of bizarre creatures that Patagonia harbors, and I hope that this blog will answer some questions and provoke others; that it challenges readers to conduct further research on their own.

Please read and enjoy it with a skeptical yet open mind.

Austin V. Whittall


El Argentino


Copyright 2009 by Austin Whittall ©

Patagonian Monsters

4 comments:

  1. Are you kidding? If you have found lots of sources afirming in details that such and such animal/strange creature/monster existed, how the hell you think is a correct decision to offend all this people of the past by calling them liers?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Who are you to think I offend anyone. Read my book then we talk.
    Science not bigotry is the way to persuade people that your cause is right, to insult someone who thinks differently is a measure of your intelligence. I did not call anyone a lier, I just point out what could or may be.
    If you don't like it, well, it is your problem, I believe in free speech and accordingly posted your nasty comment.
    Are you the same person who insulted me using "M" as your name when criticizing my post on "china did not discover America?", if so, then re read my answer which can be summarized as follows:
    China = Totalitarian government = censorship = non accessible blog, facebook or google = lack of information = ignorance = you do not understand how free speech in the Western World works.
    As I told many a Chinese who pushed in front of me in a queue or taxi drivers trying to run me over as I crossed a street: bu hao.
    Try to be less angry and tolerate dissent.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well, they are dead, but by deciding they relates/stories should not be trusted, you are saying that evidence shows that they were liers or crazy or dumb, etc.
    But if a kind of animal/monster/different people are mentioned in different countries stories and appear on various draws/relates/books as fact. It's obrigatory that you have to say that evidence shows that this being exist or existed on the past, not mattering if there is no report of one being saw on our current time.
    It's unscientific for you to afirm the contrary, and if it goes against what the "scholars" of our time say, then so be it, they are wrong or they were lying in the first place for some reason that you don't know/understand/have a clue.

    "Science not bigotry is the way to pesuade people that your cause is right", not exactly correct, in a certain way, but never mind, just be sure that you are not the blind one imposing one thing as truth when evidence shows the contrary (but you don't even think about accepting it because it goes against other things that may not be what you think it is).

    Yeah, and I explained there that I was not intending to insult you, but I understand that it is hard to not see it that way because you read it on a text. My point was for you to, after be angry, to think to yourself (to whon you can be harsh) "could it be that I am being blind in so a direct way about this subject that some guy decided to callme dumb with reason?"... "even if so, he should not have called me that, unles he was some old friend who has a natural permission to talk with me in private in this way, to make me see what I have to see".
    Hahahaha.

    So, yeah, it don't justify, but I was kind of angry when I posted that, so I acted wrong by talking that way, I should have said instead "you are being blind about this".

    So, I sorry, but nevertheless, think about what I said. When men in geral grow old, they tend to become slowly blind to certain things that they come to decide to consider as a permanent fact in their mind/personality.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Where have I called anyone a lier, crazy or dumb. Please re read my post it does not insinuate or explicitly state that anyone lies is mad or stupid.
    Regarding science, it is the rational way of analyzing evidence using the scientific method.
    Once again, you have my mail, my name and surname yet you shield yourself behind a pseudonym, that is not the way a gentleman behaves.
    End of conversation.
    Blindness is not only in the mind of the old, it is in the mind of young bigots too! and the world is full of them, much to my regret.
    As you see, I posted your comment, once again I believe in free speech, but, please, evidence is needed to prove something exists or does not exist.
    And the fact that I dissent with the existence of many alleged cryptids does not mean or imply that those who believe in them are crazy, liers or fools. Those were your words not mine. Think about it.
    Snake-oil-sellers harm cryptozoology and attacking those who do not share your point of view is symptomatic of a bigot.

    ReplyDelete

Hits since Sept. 2009:
Copyright © 2009-2018 by Austin Victor Whittall.
Todos los derechos reservados por Austin Whittall para esta edición en idioma español y / o inglés. No se permite la reproducción parcial o total, el almacenamiento, el alquiler, la transmisión o la transformación de este libro, en cualquier forma o por cualquier medio, sea electrónico o mecánico, mediante fotocopias, digitalización u otros métodos, sin el permiso previo y escrito del autor, excepto por un periodista, quien puede tomar cortos pasajes para ser usados en un comentario sobre esta obra para ser publicado en una revista o periódico. Su infracción está penada por las leyes 11.723 y 25.446.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other - except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before accessing this blog.

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy

Patagonian Monsters - http://patagoniamonsters.blogspot.com/