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Manufacturing Cryptids: A Mini Lecture with Daisy Ahlstone
The April Patreon video is a Cryptid Vid! Daisy did a cool lecture! This presentation describes how animals with “contested existences” (cryptids) come to hold such a title.
Cryptozoological species are more popular than ever in mainstream media. Comparatively, stories about threatened and endangered species are becoming increasingly popular and demonstrate a shifting relationship with wild animals due to effects of the climate crisis. Ahlstone tracks the motif patterns in legends of persistence in current cryptozoological species to predict which threatened and endangered species will be more and less likely to becomes cryptids themselves. Using the recently extinct thylacine as a guiding example, Ahlstone walks the audience through the features, stories, and material culture that help to create cryptids, and rationalize belief in their existence.
This lecture was originally presented virtually with the support of the ISFNR Belief Narrative Network. Hope you like it!
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