Page 24 - 201003 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2010

March 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 29/03/2010 11:53 AM Page 24 24 Where Have All The Werewolves Gone? Where Have All The Werewolves Gone? Did the arrival of Darwin's theory of evolution put paid to a widespread belief in half-human creatures? By Brian Regal For most of recorded history, the half- man, half-wolf lycanthrope reigned supreme as the creature travellers most feared encountering in the woods and along dark roads at night. Numerous legends concerned werewolves – the awful deeds they committed, how to protect against them, how to kill them – and belief in their reality can be found in many cultures from ancient times to the present. But while the werewolf still holds a place in fiction and films, few people today actually fear meeting one in reality. Many individuals and groups actively search for cryptids, but there are no werewolf- hunting organisations. So – where have all the whether the human soul was capable of understanding of the workings of nature so that werewolves gone? becoming genuinely bestial, and such people would be less likely to believe in the From the late 19th century on, anomal - theological reservations posed the same existence of werewolves and other wonders. ous primates like the Yeti, Sasquatch and problems for werewolfery as evolution did two Charles Darwin himself made little mention of Bigfoot nudged aside the wolfmen of old and and a half centuries later. [1] It was during this monsters in his work. When he did, he referred stepped forward to occupy the niche of this period of scient ific revolution that to hereditary mutations in plants rather than fearsome man-like monster. But what accounts psychological, rather than physical, long-toothed, hairy killers. While he didn’t for this curious transformation? explanations for lycanthropy gained currency. address the werewolf issue directly, A mythology as potent as that of the The slide towards oblivion already circumstantially he dismissed the idea. In 1843, werewolf doesn’t disappear because of any being experienced by werewolves took on some years before the publication of the Origin, single cause – if it ever does. Superstitions die added momentum in 1859 with the publication he wrote to fellow naturalist GR Waterhouse hard, and a complex of ideas, cultural changes of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Evol ution (1810–1888), who had just published an article and other social elements helped put an end to science played a complex role in the discussion on biological links. “I never understood,” the werewolf’s biological reality. One of those of monsters, and monsters played a complex Darwin wrote, “a half-way link, but merely one elements, the appearance of Darwinian role in early discourse on evolution. Some who in a long series. I think you have done good evolution theory – centred on the idea of natural objected to evolution pointed to mermaids and service in pointing out how rare half-way-links selection and descent through modification – in other similar composite creatures and chuckled are, if indeed they exist… one cannot have a the mid-19th century, played a key role in that belief in evolution meant belief in the poss - simple species intermediate between two great pushing the werewolf out of the realm of the ibility of such childish and superstit ious families.” [4] In general, such attitudes, along real. Paradoxically, while evolution helped do phantasms. Others argued that mermaids, the with the view that dogs and primates followed away with belief in one kind of monster, it Minotaur and sea serpents were purely two very different lines of descent, suggested helped give a form of scientific legitimacy to imaginary, so, in order to prove evol ution, they could in no way join together or one turn another. The evolution from werewolf to Darwin and his supp orters would have to into the other. Natural historians had also shown Bigfoot, though, did not happen quickly, but by produce examples of such beasts; if none were that while various living organisms could transitional forms. forthcoming, then evolution must be a sham. change their shape or colour temporarily, when Anti-transmutationists argued that the world threatening or being threatened, for example, THE SLOW DEATH OF THE WOLFMAN should teem with such creatures if Darwin and none could shape-shift in the manner attributed his followers’ ideas had any merit. Some to werewolves. The werewolf can trace its lineage back naturalists countered that evolution actually The scientific method and evolutionary at least to 2,000 BC. In the later Roman period, supp orted the notion of mythical creatures like theory put such a stain on monsters that by the Pliny the Elder gave it a cousin amongst the satyrs and sea serpents, offering plausible end of the century any attempt by naturalists to monstrous races. The Cynocephali, or dog- scientific explanations for legends from the engage with them could be seen as an headed men, didn’t have the supernatural past. intellectual step backward – a problem which accoutrements of the more fearsome werewolf. Others, though unwilling to accept still haunts crypto zoology today. In 1886, They weren’t shape-shifters, and could be both mermaids, argued that even more wond rous Cornell University physio logist Simon Henry enemies and friends. In some versions of his creatures existed as a result of evolution. Gage believed monsters and mythical creatures story, St Christopher was a cynocephalus. Archaeopteryx, for example, no less fan tastic had finally been put down. “Fairies are fled,” he Despite the widespread cultural acceptance of than a hippogriff, existed in the fossil record. wrote, “the genii banished the mermaid and the werewolves as a reality, by the late 1500s some The dinosaurs and long-necked plesiosaurs remora are captured.” [5] However, this heroic European writers were questioning the concept. bestrode the land and swam the seas just as narrative of science triumphing over darkness While belief in witches flourished with majestically as anything from Greek mythology. and superstition is not quite as straightforward murderous abandon, views on werewolves had [2] Most evolutionists, however, dismissed as it appears. Science caused one monster to little consistency in learned circles, and though monsters as charming creatures of folklore and whither, but another to flourish. werewolves often found themselves associated superstition, which Darwin had helped do away with witches, no werewolf ‘craze’ ever with. In 1865, Francis Buckland expressed the (Continued on Page 25) developed. In fact, there are only a few opinion that to “anyone with the slightest werewolf trials on record. As the Enlightenment pretence to knowledge of natural history [a Dare to Believe, Dare to be Heard dawned, a debate ensued over whether demons mermaid is] a decided make-up”. [3] Monday - Friday Night in could transmute a human into a werewolf. Evolutionary biologists felt proud that The ‘X’ Zone with Rob McConnell Philosophers and theologians wondered their work brought a deeper and more profound www.xzoneradiotv.com