The Archetype of the Ape-Man

Book excerpt: This interdisciplinary dissertation explores the archetype of the "ape-man" from a phenomenological perspective, with its genesis and present continuation dependent on extant and accreted human behavior and morphology. In order to ascertain the embedded components of the ape-man archetype, an identikit ape-man as a discrete phenomenon is derived after the examination of cross-cultural examples world-wide. Next, this discrete phenomenon and its constituent parts are compared both to extant ape species' behavior and morphology and the paleoanthropological evidence to determine in what ways -- if any -- components of each are reflected accurately in the phenomenon. Utilizing concepts in the fields of cultural and physical anthropology, ethology, psychology, and philosophy, this dissertation asserts as its conclusion that the archetype of the ape-man is a result of accreted and enacted collective memories, and reflects an important phenomenon integral to human thought and form.