Giantology is the study of giants. The study involves mythology, history, language, archaeology and anthropology. Much of the study of giantology has been based on myth and a lack of physical evidence. Much of the purported evidence of giant humans (bones) have been shown to be the bones of other large animals. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries newspapers around the world reported on discoveries of giant skeletons. The news stories about giants were never verified.
Investigation of "giants"
A person who studies giantology is referred to as a giantologist. Giantology concerns Giants, as opposed to dwarfs, and is distinguished from general anthropology. Much of the study of giantology is taken from mythological or oral tradition evidence: the existence of giants has been passed down through through various cultures from around the world. Hugh Newman who authored the book Giants on Record: America's Hidden History, Secrets in the Mounds and the Smithsonian Files stated that Ross Hamilton is considered to be the godfather of giantology. Hamilton is credited with setting a "scholarly standard for giantology". His 2007 book A Tradition of Giants "synchronized the native and archeological records". His team is credited with laying the foundation for modern giantology.
The bible features stories about giants: specifically the Nephilim tribe. In may of 2019 Hugh Newman was scheduled to give a lecture at the Contact in the Desert conference in Indian Wells. The lecture was about "Nephilim, the Denisovans, and giants" and it was titled: "Giantology: Scientific Evidence For A Worldwide Culture Of Giants in Prehistory".
Claudine Cohen, in her 2002 book The Fate of the Mammoth, argued that the history of human interaction with fossil bones of prehistoric megafauna was heavily influenced by giant lore. Per Cohen, the proto-scientific study of giants appears in several phases of human history: Herotodus reported that Orestes § Reported remains were found in Tegea; Pliny described a giant's skeleton found in Crete after an earthquake, and seemed to refer to evolution as the process by which giants become human-size over time; and Saint Augustine mentions what is believed to have been the fossilized molar of an ancient Elephantidae in his City of God, in a passage reflecting on the nature and meaning of the Noahacian deluge. The academic consideration of giants continued through the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and even the early modern period. Boccaccio devoted a passage of his Genealogies of the Pagan Gods to purported archeological discoveries in Sicily that he thought might be evidence of the historicity of The Odyssey's Polyphemus. Massive bones found in 1613 in France were initially assigned to Teutobochus but the examinations of them by various physicians and their publication of diverging conclusions about the bones kicked off a "pamphlet war" between anatomists and surgeons of the day.Rabelais created a wholly "fabricated giantology" for his 16th-century Gargantua and Pantagruel. The discovery of the so-called Claverack Giant in colonial New York triggered giantological investigations by two important early American intellectuals, Cotton Mather and Edward Taylor.
Folklorists and historians examine the role giants are assigned in regional geomythologies. For example, Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have built the Giant's Causeway on the island of Ireland. Per a 1965 examination in an American studies journal, "It is generally admitted today that Paul Bunyan was a synthetic figure conceived by advertising men rather than the spontaneous product of the folk mind, yet he has been adopted by the American people with enthusiasm...Paul and his blue ox Babe are supposed to have altered the appearance of the American continent; the animal's hoof prints became the lake beds of the Northwest and from its drinking trough spilled the Mississippi River." Fossilized remains of ancient mammals and reptiles common to the Sivalik Hills of India may have influenced aspects of the Mahabharata that tell of battles in which "hundreds of mighty, and sometimes gigantic, heroes, horses, and war elephants are said to have died."
History
There is written evidence which has been documented by writers throughout history. There is also the fields of archaeology and paleontology which recover the physical evidence relating to giants. Throughout history there have been tall people who may be considered giants. In 1936 giantologists studied Robert Wadlow who at 18 years old had already reached a height of 8.375 ft (2.553 m). Giantologists were concerned with Wadlow's Pituitary gland disorder because everyone in his family was of normal size. Students of giantology were interested in just how tall Wadlow would get. In 1939 "noted giantologist" Dr. Charles Humberd was sued by Wadlow for US$100,000 after he published an article in the American Medical Association Journal critiquing Wadlow's personality. A jury ruled against Wadlow.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries newspapers around the world printed stories about the discovery of giant skeletons. These fanciful news stories about giants were used as evidence by giantologists to reinforce their belief in giantology.
Popular culture
In 2018 The Washington Post published a review of a television show (Legends of the Lost with Megan Fox featuring an "expert" giantologist. The show suggested that stories about the discoveries of giant skeletons related to, Native Americans had been suppressed by the government. The The Washington Post concluded that the show promoted pseudoarchaeological claims.
In 2019 The History Channel show, produced a show called Search for the Lost Giants. the show is centered on Jim Vieira's search for evidence of a civilization of giants in North America. Viera stated "...it seems mind boggling to me that there are so many accounts and so little physical evidence... physical evidence is the holy grail of giantology." Much of the purported evidence of giant humans (bones) which have been discovered from time to time have been shown to be the bones of other large animals.
See also
- A Book of Giants
- Giant
- Giantess
- Giants (esotericism)
- Gigantism
- Half-giant
- List of jötnar in Norse mythology
- List of giants in mythology and folklore
- List of tallest people
- Megafauna
- Processional giant
- Processional giants and dragons in Belgium and France
- Somali mythology
Further reading
- Kuusela, Tommy (2021). "The Giants and the Critics : A Brief History of Old Norse "Giantology"". The Giants and the Critics: A Brief History of Old Norse "Giantology". Helsinki, Finland: Kalevala Society. pp. 471–498. Retrieved 15 May 2023.