Comments on: Who Were The Dogheads?

By: Sordes

Sordes — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 15:06:43 +0000

There were also some larger primates, which could be well described as “dog-headed”. Only about 500 years ago, also at a time when there was already much intercontinental trade between Africa, Asia and Europe, there were not only still giant Elephant birds at Madagascar, but also several species of giant lemurs. Some of them were in their size similar to chimpanzees or man, one species even larger than goriallas. For example Palaeopropithecus, a strange tree-dwelling giant lemur the size of a chimpanzee, or Megaldapis, a larger form with a strange long head. Animals with approximately human-like proportions, but with more dog-like heads, could be the origin of biased stories about dog-headed humans, which entered Europe from Asia or over the African continent.

Another possibility for the origin of dog-headed people would be cults, whose members wore animal furs and hides. One example would be the famous bersercers, a germanic warrior caste whose members wore the furs of bears. But there was also another caste, the so-called Ulfhednar (wolf-heads), warriors who were dressed in wolf-hides.

By: Greasus

Greasus — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 03:50:39 +0000

I don’t think just hairiness would make people back then think you were dogheaded, look at old medieval images of wildmen. They weren’t stupid, they knew the difference between a dog’s head and hairiness, a dog has a different shape to its head, with a muzzle and all.

By: cryptomunk

cryptomunk — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 17:42:19 +0000

I think trying to link the dogheads to ancient Egypt is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction. Yes Anubis had a jackal head, but the Egyptian pantheon had any number of animal-headed gods. i doubt anyone is going to try and argue there are diseases that make people have falcon heads.

The dogheads seem much more likely linked to the rare diseases we know about today that have evoked similar reactions and comments in the modern era as you have seen in relation to the dogheads in the past.

The truly fascinating facet of this topic to me is how people with such diseases were or were not accepted into society. The fact that someone with the disease could have been integrated enough into society and accepted enough that either in his lifetime or years afterwards he was considered enough to have achieved Sainthood seems exceptional. At the same time that such people most likely gave rise to stories of demons and werewolves offers up such a dichotomy human reaction.

By: busterggi

busterggi — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 13:35:17 +0000

Here’s where I’m a sceptic again because I agree with the folks who mentioned babboons and indris or folks wearing masks/head coverings. No one is looking for reindeer people despite the famous cave painting of ‘the shaman’ with his antlers and tail. Nor have there been any recent reports of minotaurs.

By: Riptor

Riptor — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:54:43 +0000

Indeed Mystery_Man, however I dont think it was a sign of power. Any illness or deformation is immediatly associated with weakness.

People do fear the unknown as you said. The are afraid of what they don’t understand. That is somewhat still true today.

High priests usually wore Anubis masks at the burials of pharaohs. That much is known. But although priests were regarded with much respect, they were second only to the power of the pharaoh himself, it doesn’t seem to me as they would be worshiped.

This makes me think of the Stargate theory. That a species of aliens came to Earth and impressed people so much they we considered gods. But I don’t want to take this conversation in that direction.

I to find these stories very interesting, and I would love to find out exactly where and when the stories of the “dogheads” find their origin. Egypt seems to be the best candidate, because I believe it is the earliest culture to record them.

By: ToddPartain

ToddPartain — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 04:39:56 +0000

An internet search of “Gaddarah” turns up lots of returns that appear to be written in Arabic or Egyptian-type syntax. Any experts?

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 02:33:59 +0000

Yes, Riptor, that is a good point. If it was a disease, why regulate it to a god-like status? Interesting. Maybe in this particular case, it was not considered a disease, but a sign of power? Maybe in this case it didn’t scare them? If it was a real human with a dog head, wouldn’t that scare them no matter what the cause? Humans are afraid of the unknown, so how did this become a being of worship? I wonder what happened? I don’t know, but it’s compelling stuff. As I said, I am fascinated by how this all got started. I feel there must be some kind of origin of these dog head stories and it is interesting to speculate about. The fact that many of them were revered seems to lead away from the disease or deformity theory, but I sure would like to know what was going on here.

By: drypondscout

drypondscout — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:36:31 +0000

Indri(s) because of their specialized feeding habits they end up walking almost upright(well sorta skipping)from one group of trees they feed on to the other.Arms outstretched for balance.Because of the particular poisonus trees they feed on is the main reason they haven’t been able to be kept in captivity.

By: Tengu

Tengu — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:11:09 +0000

Baboons.

Or something called an Indris…Look at that!

By: skeptik

skeptik — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:05:14 +0000

Good question, Riptor. And let’s not forget that Egyptians were excellent physicians.

Let us look at another fact; Dogs have been with men for oh-so-long. It is nothing strange about fairytales mixing the two. In Norway we have an underworld being who’s part woman and part cow (“Huldra”). The stories are wide-spread, even, but I wouldn’t dream of classifying that as of cryptozoological interest.
In case of the Saint (if you follow the links thru to the tale) the dog was clearly associated with something dirty and/or ugly.

But I wouldn’t go as far as saying this fairytale theory applies to all the cases, of course.