Beasts of the Southern Wild

     Beasts of the Southern Wild is a movie following the life of a little girl called Hushpuppy who lives in The Bathtub, a community in Louisiana that's on the wrong side of the levy. Her mother's gone, and her struggling father isn't afraid to dole out the tough love. This film is in many ways similar to Wiley and the Hairy Man. Hushpuppy has the same childish, independent spirit as Wiley, and when she's on a mission, she does it with the same determination.
     One thing that I really loved about this movie is how it featured the culture of the people in that particular part of Louisiana. They celebrate everything-births and deaths, creation and destruction. When talking about the town on the other side of the levy, Hushpuppy remarks that 'they only have holidays once a year.' Even if something terrible happens to the little town, they celebrate what they have. They have a strict rule: no crying. Tears won't change anything.
     While I was watching Beasts of the Southern Wild, I noticed that their clothes weren't anything special, and they were often very dirty. The girls didn't do anything fancy with their hair, and didn't wear any makeup. These people aren't afraid to get dirt on their clothes, being a part of the nature around them is part of their way of life. Hushpuppy goes out into the wilderness near her home wearing nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, but that's all she needs. There is a freedom about it because no one is watching her except maybe her Dad or any animals nearby. I think it would be wonderful to live in a culture where keeping up appearances didn't matter so much.
     In the beginning of the movie, Hushpuppy's teacher shows her a tattoo of prehistoric beasts that used to live in The Bathtub. After that, whenever something bad happens that makes her scared, she thinks of the beasts. When her father collapses because he's sick, she imagines the ice caps melting and the beasts coming out from inside of them as a way of explaining things that her six year old mind can't understand. That made me think: what if Wiley's way of understanding his father dying was the Hairy Man?

A clip of a good part from Beasts of the Southern Wild:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqzWdcoq1Lc

The Hairy Man and Big Foot

from the blog "A Central Coast Paleontologist" by Doug Shore
http://accpaleo.wordpress.com/about/

America’s fascination with Bigfoot began in 1958 when a bulldozer operator found strange footprints on his construction site in Bluff Creek, California. One Ray Wallace later claimed to have faked the tracks and skeptics claim that this proves Bigfoot is not real. But what about stuff that predates the Bigfoot craze? There are reports from the late 19th/ early 20th centuries (including one by Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoors-man ), but again, science disregards eyewitness testimony. So this is where the archaeological record comes in. If we found precolumbian art that depicts tall hairy humanoids, would that lend support to the existence of large, bipedal apes living in North America? Let’s find out.

The first artifact in our investigation is the “Hairy Man” pictographs (their Yokut name isMayak datat, which translates as “hairy man”. They have another name for the creature: Shoonshoonootr, one of the few natives words to literally translate as “big foot”). This set of rock art in east central California seemingly depicts three of these hairy giants. They are believed by some to represent a male, female, and juvenile Bigfoot. It’s easy to see why: The male is drawn with a tall body with long arms attached to a broad chest. The female has short arms but is nonetheless tall. The baby is proportioned like the female with short arms and a tall body.  This creature is counted among animals when humans had not yet been created.

Could the “Hairy Man” in fact be based on a real animal, a creature who looks like a hairy human? Of course, mythical animals need no basis in reality (though sometimes that is the case. Centaurs, half human half horse, are thought to have originated when a people encountered another people who rode on horseback, believing the horse and rider to be one creature (that’s certainly the impression the Aztecs had when they first saw Spanish cavalry). Also, it is thought that the myth of the Cyclops, a one-eyed giant, was inspired by ancient discoveries of mammoth skulls). Just because real animals are featured doesn’t mean that this “Hairy Man” is something in our world as cultures the world over often gave everyday animals supernatural powers. But the similarities of these human-like creatures across the vastness of Native American culture certainly can’t be a coincidence. Whether they describe an upright primate or are the product of cultural exchange or racial memory will require more study.

As monsters do...

Hairy Man Legend

The Legend of the Hairy Man (Texas)

By Gwen King, Local Historian.  Children whisper tales of a strange hermit, the Hairy Man, who haunts the winding road along the Brushy Creek. Many legends persist about the Hairy Man. Some believe he was an infant accidentally left behind by settlers heading west in the 1800s. Raised by wild animals in the fern bluffs, the Hairy Man viewed the creek as his own. He resented the intrusion of strangers into his territory and would jump out of the trees to frighten people away. Or, hanging from the leafy canopy above the road, he would drag his feet across the top of passing carriages. On one occasion, the Hairy Man attacked a horse-drawn wagon, spooking the horses. The old hermit was supposedly run over by the wagon and killed, and now his spirit lingers along the creek and road. On a silent, moonlit night, perhaps you will see his eerie silhouette on the bluffs along Brushy Creek.

The faint, other-worldly moan that echoes through the night. Is it the sound of the wind as it pushes through the treetops or the lonely cry of a coyote or perhaps....something more sinister?

There is also an animation of this version of the folktale: WATCH.