THE “WILD MAN” OIKOTYPE: THE HIMALAYAS AND TIBET

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of the “Wild Man” (Yeti, Migoi, etc.) in the region of the Himalayas and Tibet. The study is based on texts collected from various ethnic groups (Sherpa, Tibetans, Lepcha, etc.), as well as from travelers’ records and 20th-century publications, including materials from the Soviet “Commission on the Snowman”. A stable regional oikotype has been identified: long arms, large teeth, specific direction of fur growth, absence of speech, non-use of fire, temporal and spatial distancing, specific signs of presence in the present (whistling, screeching or crying, sensations of suffocation or anxiety, sharp smell) and in the past (footprints, remains of particular food/food eaten in a specific way, nests, pyramids of twigs). However, local differences in Bhutanese descriptions are highlighted – marking presence primarily by a sharp smell, not by sounds, and absence of fear of fire. The analyzed descriptions of the “Wild Man’s” height confirmed the previously noted bimodality by G. Forth – the simultaneous description of both a taller-than-human and a shorter creature. An important function of the “Wild Man” is its marking of a shifting semiotic boundary between mastered, human space and the unmastered, wild world.