THE HAIRY MAN PICTOGRAPHS – PART I:

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man
Pictographs,published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12,
(2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

Drawing of Hairy Man, from Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012,
Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in
the Relict Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12, (2012), Idaho
State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

There is a recurring theme in writings about rock art that can be called gestural analysis, in general it is the application of sign language to the gestures and body positions of figures seen in rock art panels. Perhaps the most influential recent proponent of gestural analysis was LeVan Martineau, who, in his book The Rocks Begin To Speak claimed that he could read rock art panels like a book. I have always personally believed that it was a fiction book that he was reading (and writing). Martineau was by no means the first proponent of that idea. Back in the 1880s Garrick Mallery used gestural analysis to try to decipher rock art.

Garrick Mallery, Picture-Writing of the American Indian,
in the10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology
to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, republished
by Dover Publications in 1972. Page 638.

The pictograph panel in these illustrations was first published by Garrick Mallery in his encyclopedic “Picture - Writing of the American Indian” in the 10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972. On pages 637 and 638 Mallery attempts to decipher the meaning of the panel by gestural analysis. In his imagination the figures are all making the gesture for rain referring to tears (eye rain) and they are apparently mourning  a very small figure in the middle of the composition which he identified as having died of starvation.

Now we have a scholarly look at this amazing pictographic panel from Kathy Moskowitz Strain, a professional archaeologist with the U. S. Forest Service at the Stanislaus National Forest in northern California. In her informative paper Strain applies the beliefs and stories of Hairy Man held by the Tule River Indian Tribe on the Tule River Reservation. According to members of the tribe, the thousand-year old pictographs “depict how various animals, including Hairy Man, created People. Other stories tell why Hairy Man lives in the mountains, steals food, and still occupies parts of the reservation. Since the Tule River Indians equate Hairy Man to Bigfoot, the pictograph and stories are valuable to our understanding of the modern idea of a hair-covered giant.”

“The Tule River Indian Reservation was established in 1873 on 54,116 acres and currently boasts a population of approximately 500 people. Today, although there are three federally recognized Yokuts tribes with associated trust lands, most descendents live off-reservation in various local communities and are part of non-federally recognized tribes. This article focuses on the Tule River Reservation and the beliefs and stories of Hairy Man held by the Tule River Indian Tribe.”

“Painted Rock, also known as CA-TUL-19, is a rockshelter associated with a prehistoric village. The site, located immediately adjacent to the Tule River, includes bedrock mortars, pitted boulders, midden and pictographs. The pictographs are located within the rockshelter, and are painted on the ceiling and walls of the shelter. The pictographs include paintings of a male, female, and child Bigfoot (known as the family), coyote (known as Coyote Eating the Moon), beaver, bear, frog, caterpillar, centipede, humans, eagle, condor, lizard and various lines, circles, and other geometric designs. The paintings are in red, black, white, and yellow.”

“Archaeologically, the village at Painted Rock was occupied in the late prehistoric, around 500 years ago. Since it is believed that the paintings were present prior to the village, the paintings are likely 500-1000 years old.”

I have written elsewhere on the various meanings of rock art, not only to the original creators but to later interpreters, be they prehistoric peoples or modern researchers.  In this case if the paintings were truly present prior to the village then we will have whatever they meant to the original creators. Then the inhabitants who built the prehistoric village would have had their explanation of the pictures. Then we have the interpretation of the modern inhabitants of Tule River Indian Reservation, which Strain has explained concern Hairy Man and his conflation with modern stories of Bigfoot. Finally we can add layers of interpretation by Garrick Mallery, and modern researchers.

My next posting will discuss this question of the meanings in a little more detail.

REFERENCES:

Garrick Mallery

1989    Picture - Writing of the American Indian, 10^th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972.

Strain, Kathy Moskowitz

2012    Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in The Relict
            Hominoid Inquiry, 1:1-12, (2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.

http://www.isu.edu/rhi/pdf/Mayak%20Datat%20Hairy%20Man%20Pictographs-1.pdf