The entire phenomenon seems to be part of a human-wide idea that we live alongside near-humans or sub-humans – animals that are like us overall, but somehow bridge the gap between humanity and the rest of nature. The fact that all human cultures have a ‘need’ for near-human monsters of this sort probably explains why creatures interpreted as undiscovered hair-covered hominids are so ubiquitous. In other words, the idea of the near-human monster is always there in the human psyche, and it has never gone away.
