Monsters Of The Frontier: Mokele Mbembe and Mammoths (with Dr Edward Guimont)

Cian is delighted to welcome Dr Edward Guimont to the cabin for a wide-ranging chat about monster hunters and strange beliefs in the context of post-colonial Africa and the American frontier. Dr Guimont teaches at the University of Connecticut and has written about archaeology in Zimbabwe, cryptozoology, myths of living mammoths, and is now working on the Flat Earth idea within the colonial period. Amongst other things, we cover:

-History of Great Zimbabwe and the myth of Ophir

-Nessie and Scottish Nationalism

-The Sirius Mystery

-Arthur C Clarke and Carl Sagan

-Qanon, Bill Cooper as UFO conspiracy

-The origins of the ‘dinosaurs in Africa’ myth

-The Scramble For Africa and Neo-Colonialism and Cryptozoology

-Young Earth Creationists and Ctyptozoology

-The Myth of the Living Mammoth In North America

-The Closing of the Frontier and American Monsters

-EcoGothic Extinction Fiction

-Links to Conspiracy Culture

NOTES:

Dr Edward Guimont’s Twitter

https://twitter.com/edward_guimont

Hunting Dinosaurs in Central Africa, Dr Edward Guimont

https://contingentmag.org/2019/03/18/hunting-dinosaurs-africa/

Dr Edward Guimont’s Website

https://edwardguimont.com/

The Sirius Mystery, Robert Temple

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Sirius-Mystery/Robert-Temple/9780892817504

Africa Is A Country

https://africasacountry.com/

A Living Dinosaur?, Roy Mackal

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Dinosaur-Search-Mokele-Mbembe/dp/9004085432

Thomas Jefferson Monster Hunter, Justin Mullis on the Monster Talk Podcast

https://monstertalk.skeptic.com/webpage/thomas-jefferson-monster-hunter

EcoGothic Extinction Fiction, Jennifer Schell

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315464930/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315464930-12

Floating Coast, Bathsheba Demuth

https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635164