“Beast or Human Being?” Monstrous Humanoids in Early American Religion

A close look at the history of an apparently secular popular culture phenomenon like Bigfoot reveals a deeply religious attempt to negotiate the boundaries of the human. Medieval images of the Wild Man have long been recognized by scholars as depictions of the human in a state of wildness, beyond the reach of civilization or the grace of God. This article locates this image in an entirely different place and period, traced from medieval Europe to the early United States. Focusing on newspapers, periodicals, and religious sources, the article analyzes the appearance of “wild people”—hair-covered, monstrous humanlike figures—in the United States before the twentieth century. This analysis shows how the meanings attached to wild people diversified along social, religious, and scientific lines during this period. These sources show that the meaning of the American wild person underwent a significant transformation during this period, from a preternatural “wonder,” an essentially medieval notion of ruptures in the order of nature, to a scientific anomaly: a missing link or a hidden primate.