Account of Chinese government teaching language to the Yeti (Updated)


M.K. Davis has been researching the Patterson Sasquatch film for the last 14 years. He has a blog analyzing the Patterson-Gimlin footage and sometimes he post gems like the one below.
There is a linguistics expert named Tim Pulju, who uncovered documents in China detailing a government sponsored effort to teach the Chinese language to the Tibetan Yeti. What…you might say, that’s impossible. Or is it? Here’s a paper that was published while Mr. Pulju was at Michigan State University. He is currently at Dartmouth College.
It's an interesting observation of an account recorded in the fragmentary 10th-century Chinese text known as Neìge dà bá’i rén shwō Jūnggwo hwà, which translates as Preliminary Report of the Imperial Yeti Language Intercultural Understanding Project.

Read below from specgram.com.

New Directions in the Teaching
of Human Languages to Non-Humans

[...]

The bias of Western “science” is plain to any observer. Not only do most Westerners call yeti by the derogatory name “Abominable Snowmen;” there are some closed-minded bigots who go so far as to claim that yeti are mythical! The basis of this claim is that very few Westerners have seen yeti; implicit in the argument is that the indigenous human inhabitants of the Himalayas, not being Westerners, are hence not trustworthy. A non-prejudiced analyst, realizing that the local people are obviously best qualified to report on local conditions, accepts the universal report of Himalayan residents that yeti do exist. Further it is certain that while yeti are not human, they are far more similar to humans in mind and culture than are any of the great apes. If Western “science” were not so illogically hostile to the age-old wisdom of the East, it would have seen from the beginning that the best non-human candidates for human language learning are yeti, not apes and dolphins. Certainly, given the failure of ape and dolphin projects, only a muleheaded ethnocentrist could deny that it is time to eat some humble pie and embark on research that could actually be meaningful.

Read more at specgram.com


Update: We've updated this article to only include a portion of the text. Also, here's an update from M.K. Davis about the removal of the entire article from his website:

The article “New Directions in the Teaching of Human Language to Non-Humans has been removed. This is the reason why. The article, as it was seen here, was copied to me some time ago. Mr. Trey Jones has brought it to my attention that the article is not genuine in nature, but, rather, is a satirically written article that was submitted to the Website “The Speculative Grammarian”. I thank Mr.Jones for bringing this to my attention. Speculation may or may not be intended for satirical purposes. The entire article that I wrote here, about the origins of the Sasquatch is speculative, but not intended to be satirical. Evidence  for the “EXISTENCE” of the Sasquatch or Yeti, is scant at best. Much that is written about it is postulation. It’s like filling in the dots, when there are not a lot of dots to fill in. The direction that it takes you is uncertain. The connection between the Sasquatch and the Yeti is no different, but the postulation that was, that they may have a common origin, did not, and does not… hinge upon Mr.Pulju’s article alone. There were already some indicators there for that, so…that postulation remains. Mr.Pulju’s article, in its intended format, may be found here. http://specgram.com/PsQ.XVI.2/05.pulju.teaching.html  Thanks, M.K.Davis


[via thedavisreport.wordpress.com]

Comments

  1. “abolished the outdated capitalist system and replaced the oppressiveness of the ruling class with the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

    What a joke! Must be from the Occupy Beijing movement.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shawn, amazing post, I love it. This kind of thinking is exciting. Thanks for the sources as well.
    I can see a future with Skype Bigfoot stations, posted here and there, linking our two worlds in a kind of ethereal netherland?
    Seriously, many reports of BF's TV watching thru rural windows, and consdier our own TV interest, and the known interest of Chimps (even instruction) and other captive primates...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wait... do you guys not think this is a joke? I mean ... it's obviously satire. Or are you just doing satire upon satire.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It appears to be a "joke that keeps on giving" as a search shows it turning up at face value all over. The author, assuming he actually wrote this, is a Sr. lecturer at Dartmouth. What is the point, other than April Fools Day joke or some other satire to test a journal for review?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I guess I'm just gullible, but I never read something like this and think that it's impossible. We can't possibly know or understand the context of ancient China, and the relationship between men and their environment. People in the West are unbelievably narrow-minded in what they'll accept. But I'll admit, the line about the proletariet ruling class seemed a bit far-fetched, but again, I just don't know.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm thoroughly entertained, boys. I love the ominous concept, "assimilate, become one of the borg!"

    ReplyDelete
  7. “abolished the outdated capitalist system and replaced the oppressiveness of the ruling class with the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

    That's the giveaway - either the original source has seen some clever editing by the People's party (who, let's be honest, are fascists and not communists) or the original is a hoax fabricated to create early historical precedents that support fascist Maoist ideology.

    The reference to the ancient linguist and scholar, Panini, is noted, and the introduction makes some excellent points about Western "science" (which is increasingly practised not as the tool it should be, but as a religion). That said, when dealing with fascist China, one can't be too careful in sorting out the propaganda from the facts, just as one would with fascio-capitalist America.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, this guy really has a problem with "Westerners" and calls us everything including bigots.

    Strangely enough, while he points his finger, he fails to see his own bigotry and even worse, he accuses us of disrespecting Yeti while he seems to have no problem with using them to fight as soldiers for China.

    Something doesn't seem quite right here.

    Scott McMan
    Ghosttheory.com

    ReplyDelete
  9. Now I know what's not quite right! It's this warm, gushy feeling running down my leg.

    This my friends, is a pantload....

    In fairness, It's not Shawn's job to verify. He is merely the messenger.

    Scott McMan
    Ghosttheory.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. There is more than one anonymous and I am not
    "Tuesday, November 29, 2011 4:12:00 AM PST" whose
    opinion is not one shared by this anonymous.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well known among academics...on almost any subject..the Western World ignored the East for quite some time, maybe cultural divides/political, or just distance and language.. I don't know.
    But, I do know we collaborated in the past with Chinese Scholars about like BFRO cooperates with Paulides in Bigfoot research...

    so toss out the ideology that is sidetracking you and focus on the BF stuff....it is a common problem in BF research...people seem to organize based on bias and ideology rather than evidence..it is very weird...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Can no one else tell that the author of this "article" is being facetious? Honestly, people! It's a joke. I thought it was pretty funny to be honest, but really, it's a joke.

    ReplyDelete
  13. If you don't believe me, check out what course he teaches

    http://www.dartmouth.edu/~classics/faculty/pulju.html

    Latin! You really think a Western-hating guy would teach Latin and specialize in Indo-European linguistics?

    ReplyDelete
  14. @anonymous - "stupid honkies", dude that was awesome.....

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Chris I will follow your advise...do I seem gullible?
    No, actually my acceptance was based on my own experiences in the field. I (and others)have been preaching Bigfoots are very much like us in so many important ways, but for whatever reasons most BFers still consider them as cultural-less animals....
    Those that see them more "human" get rewarded with some limited contact..and so on.
    So, joke or not? It, in my mind, it is entirely possible and within my hopes for our future with Bigfoots....
    I say put a BF Station with laptop/video instruction to begin to cross the divide of fear....I feel on some levels they want to know us like we want to know them.
    I spent so many nights in close proximity - actually locking eyes in the dark, quietly, hopefully, wondering if tonight she would come out of the shadows or I would enter...
    we never quite could bring ourselves to that point. Her comfort level on new moons and mine on bright days!
    I plan a trip back next Spring (why so long..oh the reasons!) and I expect to be remembered and visited..(and this time with my own FLIR lol) and hope my courage takes me into the shadows...if not, oh well!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I can't tell who has their tongue in their cheek and who is gullible, so I'll just tell you the facts, to make sure they are clear to anyone who is uncertain.

    I'm the managing editor of Speculative Grammarian, and I can say in no incertain terms that the article by Tim Pulju is a joke, as is everything that appears in SpecGram. I'll grant that not everything turns out to be funny, but everything we publish was intended to be funny.

    Speculative Grammarian is basically the same as The Onion, except it is for linguists. The main page of the website spells that out fairly clearly. To use anything printed as SpecGram as evidence of anything other than the quality of our sense of humor is madness.

    Finally, reprinting the entire article on this site is a clear copyright violation. Please limit your quotation to something that approximates fair use, and direct your readers to the SpecGram website for the rest. (That will also encourage them to realize that the source is satirical in nature.)

    ReplyDelete

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