Just exactly what is a Sasquatch?
Maybe you don’t believe all the hoopla about Bigfoot being close to a human being and possessing human or even superhuman qualities, but continuing primate research inadvertently suggests otherwise.
Even with all the new evidence pouring in every day, it’s probably safe to say that the mystery of Sasquatch is going to keep us all guessing for a very long time. Although we’ve learned a lot about them (we think) in the past few years, given their obviously superior intelligence, the possibility of anyone becoming a true sasquatch expert is a few years down the road at least. And it leaves us with the question: “Who are the elusive hairy ones? And what can we learn about ourselves from them?”
Many Native American tribes that tell stories of sasquatches refer to the creature as “man” or “people” or “brother” suggesting they believe the creature to be a relative of humans or a fellow human in a slightly different form. But there is always at least some truth in legends, and with all the new physical findings of blood, hair, and skin samples, it’s been suggested in some circles that they may be our closest living relative found to date. Only time and research will tell.
But there may be a lot we may be able to learn about them now if we start looking in the right places. And it could be done to a certain degree without securing a living specimen in a cage or a body on the examination table. We can start by taking a long look at the closest living relatives that we know about right now: chimpanzees.
Chimps share about 97% of our DNA structure, and in studies conducted over a period of years, anthropologists are finding that these cousins of ours are more human in behavior than we ever imagined.
Professor Richard Wrangham, and anthropologist at Harvard University along with many other researchers like Jane Goodall accumulated nearly 151 years of study of ape behaviors including hierarchy, grooming, relationships, courtships, obtainment of food, etc. And they came to some startling conclusions.
Researchers found that chimps, as well as other apes, shake their heads in a gesture of “no” and really mean no in the same sense we do. They laugh out loud when tickled, have the ability to pick a face out of a crowd, and when they’re given human toys to play with, choose the toys specific to their gender. Young female apes picked dolls and young males picked the toy trucks.
They also display a strong sense of morality when treated unfairly and, when they need comfort, choose to eat the junk food instead of other more healthy foods. And chimps honor a kind of “police force” within their groups that make sure all other members of the group follow the rules. And ape behaviors and cultures seem to vary from one region of the planet to another. They adapt to different environments and utilize objects and tools in their surroundings slightly different from region to region, much like our human ancestors were said to have adapted to their varying environments. And they teach their offspring the same skills and rituals developing a type of culture that’s unique to apes in that particular area. Professor Wrangham believed that this was the precursor to the development of the varying, complex cultures of humans around the world.
So what does this say about us and our hairy counterparts?
If sasquatches do indeed share a more common DNA structure with humans than these other apes as is theorized, how many more human like traits do they possess? If they are the most intelligent ape second only to humans as we believe, how far apart are we from them on the genetic scale? If we take a long, hard look at the apes we’ve come to know and understand, not very much.*******
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