Anthropology and Cryptozoology: Exploring Encounters with Mysterious Creatures

Cryptozoology is best understood as the study of animals which, in the eyes of Western science, are extinct, unclassified or unrecognised.

In consequence, and in part because of its selective methods and lack of epistemological rigour, cryptozoology is often dismissed as a pseudo-science.

However, there is a growing recognition that social science can benefit from engaging with it, for as as social scientists are very well aware, ?scientific? categorisation and explanation represent just one of a myriad of systems used by humans to enable them to classify and make sense of the world around them.

In many cultural contexts, myth, folk classification and lived experience challenge the ?truth? expounded by scientists.