Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid

by Gregory L. Forth

A remarkable investigation into the hominoids of Flores Island, their place on the evolutionary spectrum—and whether or not they still survive.While doing fieldwork on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, anthropologist Gregory Forth came across people talking about half-apelike, half-humanlike creatures that once lived in a cave on the slopes of a nearby volcano. Over the years he continued to record what locals had to say about these mystery hominoids while searching for ways to explain them as imaginary symbols of the wild or other cultural representations. Then along came the ‘hobbit’. In 2003, several skeletons of a small-statured early human species alongside stone tools and animal remains were excavated in a cave in western Flores. Named Homo floresiensis, this ancient hominin was initially believed to have lived until as recently as 12,000 years ago— possibly overlapping with the appearance of Homo sapiens on Flores. In view of this timing and the striking resemblance of floresiensis to the mystery creatures described by the islanders, Forth began to think about the creatures as possibly reflecting a real species, either now extinct but retained in ‘cultural memory’ or even still surviving. He began to investigate reports from the Lio region of the island where locals described 'ape-men' as still living. Dozens claimed to have even seen them. In Between Ape and Human, we follow Forth on the trail of this mystery hominoid, and the space they occupy in islanders’ culture as both natural creatures and as supernatural beings. In a narrative filled with adventure, Lio culture and language, zoology and natural history, Forth comes to a startling and controversial conclusion. Unique, important, and thought-provoking, this book will appeal to anyone interested in human evolution, the survival of species (including our own) and how humans might relate to ‘not-quite-human’ animals. Between Ape and Human is essential reading for all those interested in cryptozoology, and it is the only firsthand investigation by a leading anthropologist into the possible survival of a primitive species of human into recent times—and its coexistence with modern humans.

Genres: Anthropology, Science, Cryptozoology, Bigfoot, Archaeology, Stem, Evolution

287 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 3, 2022

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, I did enjoy reading this book. That said, it is not a convincing argument for a living “ape man”. It lacks any scientific rigor and made me laugh out loud at times at the conclusions drawn. Additionally, there are large sections of the book dedicated to unreliable witness reports (described as such by the author) in extreme detail, which does get repetitive. Altogether, I found it worth reading as a novelty.

[Richard Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregory Forth, an anthropologist from the University of Alberta and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada was studying the culture of the Nage (pronounced nar-gay) people on the Indonesian island of Flores. One of their most interesting beliefs was that of the ebu-gogo or ancestor that eats everything. These were a race of meter tall, hairy people with ape like faces. The ebu-gogo mad a nuisance of themselves by raiding the Nage's crops and killing their livestock with bamboo spears. The Nage dealt with these sub-human pests by inviting them to a feast were they got the hairy dwarfs drunk on palm wine. When they returned to their cave the Nage blocked up the entrance with palm fibre and set light to it smoking the ebu-gogo to death as they slept.
All this seemed like nothing but a colourful piece of folklore, until 2005 when the sub fossil remains Homo floresiensis were uncovered in the Liang Bau cave on the island. The meter tall hominis lived around 50,000 years ago, an eye-blink in evolutionary terms. Most interestingly the sub-fossil remains were found to be a sister group to Homo habilis, an African hominin thought to have died out 1.9 million years ago. More recently the remains of a closely related species were unearthed in the Philippines and named Homo luzonensis.
H. floresiensis was a perfect match for the Nage's description of the ebu-gogo that Forth had recorded stories about years before. Further more he unearthed modern day sightings of creatures that sounded just like them. Forth wrote about the beliefs in ape-man over a wide area in his academic work Images of the Wildman in South East Asia.
Between Ape and Human is a work interned for consumption by the wider public. In this book Forth's research area is in the eastern area of the island with the Lio (pronounced lee-oh) people. The Lio talk of meetings with a creature they call 'Lia ho'a' or ape-men. They describe these as meter tall, upright walking, hairy, man-like creatures with faces like monkeys. The body hair is a darker colour than that of the local monkeys.
Between Ape and Human examines the Lio beliefs in the Lia ho'a (for example that they de-volved from humans after being driven out by God for bad behaviour), second had reports and first hand reports. Fort looks at the possibility of the influence of Javan TV shows featuring elves (played by human dwarfs) but finds that few of the Lio have seen or heard of the show, most not having access to television. What he uncovers from eyewitnesses is remarkably consistent and contains no fantastical elements. Witnesses usually meet the Lia ho'a in deep mountain forests in the east of Flores. They do not attack people but have been know to hurl rocks at attacking dogs. Despite their small size the ape-men are very strong. They sometimes raid crops and will eat corn on the stalk without breaking it off like monkeys do. There are no gibbons on Flores and only one kind of monkey, the long tailed macaque, (Macaca fascicularis) that is far smaller and walked on all fours. The Lia ho'a is seen alone of in pairs. It does not seem to form large groups.
Another witness, a man named Tegu, with a bachelor's degree in agriculture examined another dead specimen found by two woman. So struck was he with the creature's human appearance that he constructed a coffin from plywood for it and left it on a beach to be swept out to sea. He confirmed it was not a monkey or a human. This occurred in 2010.
In another case from the late 90s two women and a man saw a Lia ho'a near a cultivated area that threw stones at an attacking dog. The women were badly frightened by the creature.
Forth concludes that these hominins represent a surviving strain of H. floresiensis or something closely related. The mountainous jungles of eastern Flores being poorly explored and a perfect retreat for a small unknown hominin. He also notes an encounter by Professor Mike Hitchcock, an anthropologist from the University of London, on the island of Sumbawa, to the east of Flores. The Professor reported seeing four screeching creatures fitting the description of the Flores creatures, in a tunnel of dense vegetation in an isolated mountain area of the island.
Makes you wonder what else is out there.
A wonderful book.

[Arrie Perez · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave at least one star for the courage to even write this book. He's honest that anecdotal evidence isn't enough to confirm anything which we already know. However, the writing was very dry. Like so dry. One of my least favorite but happy someone has cataloged and went through the effort to share these people's experiences.

[Elizabeth Judd Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses the belief in lai h’oa, or small hairy humans, on the island of Flores. It was also in Flores that Homo floresienses, an ancient small relative of modern humans, was discovered in the early 21st century. Could these two be related, or even the same thing?

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid. Gregory Forth. Pegasus Books, 2022. 336 pages.

Flores is a small island in the Indonesian archipelago that was thought to have been rather unremarkable. The largest animals to have existed on the island were thought to be a now-extinct cow-sized elephant species, Komodo dragons, and giant tree rats. Then, in 2003, several skeletons of a previously unknown small early human species were discovered. Standing about 3 feet tall, the individuals were first thought to be immature or abnormal, but it was soon proven that they were adults. In 2004, Homo floresiensis was introduced to the world, and, of course, the press immediately dubbed them "Hobbits." Further research revealed that they had lived on the island 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

In 2003, anthropologist Gregory Forth started collecting stories from the island's indigenous Lio people about sightings of small living apemen on the island. The sightings go back for generations and as recently as 2018. Could there be Hobbit descendants out there? In this book, Forth collects accounts and tries to work out if it's possible.

Normally, this book would be totally in my wheelhouse, but I was disappointed. Most of the "eyewitness" accounts are unreliable, even by the author's reckoning, not even second- or third-hand, more like tenth- or fifteenth-hand. I would have preferred a book about the actual discovery of the skeletons and what researchers have put together about their lives. I don't know who greenlit this as a book, but it should have been an article at most. I can't recommend it.

[Michael Hitchcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominid
2022 Gregory Forth
London and New York: Pegasus Books
In 2004 the details of an amazing archaeological find were revealed and to say that this caused a global sensation is an understatement. The discovery was indeed truly remarkable because what had been uncovered were the fossil remains of a tiny human, standing little more than a meter (three feet three inches) tall on the eastern Indonesian island of Flores. Given the scientific name Homo floresienses (Flores Human), it became popularly known as ‘the Hobbit’ after Tolkien’s literary creation. The last known date for the existence of this hominid based is now estimated at 50,000 years ago, but this is based only on fossils found at the discovery site, a cave called Liang Bua. Why was it so astonishing? Simply put, we have long been used to the idea that at one time another kind of human, known as the Neanderthal, lived alongside us and possibly interbreeding with us in Eurasia before disappearing some 40,000 years ago. The idea that there was yet another, very different kind human living at the same time as us until relatively recent times was truly breath-taking. But, what if this tiny human or a close relative is still living today? This question is at the heart of Gregory Forth’s highly readable book based on decades of field research in eastern Indonesia.
I know from my own experience that stories of the existence of people of short stature living in the mountains and forests of Indonesia were known long before the extraordinary discoveries in Flores. Forth notes that there are sighting accounts dating from the 1960s—thus well before the discovery of Homo floresiensis—until as recently as 2017 or 2018, and these are what the book sets out to investigate. The book does not report on physical evidence, such as living or dead specimens documented by qualified zoologists. However, the author explains why such evidence, as encountered by local people, is unlikely to come to the attention of zoologists, and why, even then, professional zoologists would be unlikely to go in search of specimens.
If the reader is puzzled as to why physical or visual evidence should be limited, this reviewer would like to reassure them the absence is also not surprising if one takes into account the extremely rugged nature of these islands and the belief systems of the people that inhabit them. Let us start with the geography and way that maps and records of topographies play games with the way that people living outside these tropical islands perceive them. For a start, we are pretty well accustomed – and I am not just talking about the Western World – to seeing maps on a square page for convenience which distorts the way the equatorial regions are depicted when the earth is in fact a globe. Time and time again I have shown students maps of Indonesia showing where Indonesia is located in relation to other countries, notably China, only to receive the same response (whether in Europe of Asia) – ‘these islands are so small’. I am met with gasps of astonishment when I point out that many of these islands are very large and that the distance across Indonesia going from west to east is not unlike travelling from the west-coast of the USA to the east-coast.
But what of the topography? Again, we are having to deal with the way that information on maps is depicted, especially the use of numbers or contours to indicate elevation. By these means the Himalayas and Andes – and even the European Alps – look awesome, but the Indonesian mountains perhaps less so. Why should this be so? Well it is worth noting that many of these well-known mountain ranges are located inland and there is already a great deal of elevation before the existence of mountains becomes obvious. Let me give you a comparison from my own personal experience, as I have lived in both Switzerland and Indonesia, to show how our perceptions may be distorted. In Switzerland, I lived under the shadow of an imposing mountain called Pilatus, which is 2,126 meters above sea level, though it is far inland. Now let us compare Pilatus with Tambora on Sumbawa where I also used to live, which is only moderately higher at 2,850 meters. But the numbers do not do justice to how these mountains appear when seen with the human eye. Pilatus looks impressive when seen from the valley floor in Luzern and looks like a nice place to go for lunch using a convenient cable car. In contrast. Tambora looms massively when viewed from the beach, a rugged upland of impenetrable forest and – since the last time I looked – there is still no cable car let alone anywhere on the summit for lunch.
So what has this digression on maps and contours got to do with the Flores ‘hobbit’? Well it is at the heart of it because the author of this fascinating book carefully assesses the stories of the existence of a small human in these remote parts of Indonesia bearing in mind the truly daunting topography. We also have to be aware that local people do not see these creatures in the same way as Western readers, and probably don’t realize the need that biological scientists have for physical specimens when documenting new species. We should also bear in mind that life on these islands is a daily struggle and that the local people may lack the means and inclination to follow up these eye witness accounts. In 2022 interviews with the Canadian radio and television networks, Professor Forth makes the case for a fully resourced investigation of the existence of these small humans. But until such an undertaking is conducted we must keep an open mind and lend a sympathetic ear to the stories of people like Flores Islanders. Having seen natural phenomena in the mountains of neighbouring Sumbawa that I could not account for, this reviewer heartily concurs. One of these experiences includes a glimpse of a group of very large erect-standing ‘monkeys’ that I could not identify as I was in a narrow tunnel-like trail in dense woodland with poor visibility.
Michael Hitchcock
Goldsmiths, University of London

[Paleoanthro · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Between Ape and Human, Forth sets out to provide evidence for the existence of ape-men on the island of Flores through ethnographic evidence and tie that into the recent hominin fossil Homo floresiensis and its possible existence into modern times. Forth begins by reviewing the ethnographic evidence for sightings of ape-men, beginning with those the author admits are less credible and probably other creatures, to those more credible and possibly true sightings. He then rounds out and summarizes the evidence and finally connects it to the possibility that an unknown hominoid did indeed survive and has been seen by the local Lio population. I will admit, I found this text difficult to read, and at times struggled to get through parts; however, overall this is an interesting topic and should be taken with an open mind.

[Siri Olsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was, admittedly, unsure how to rank this book. On the one hand, I went through it very fast, which is typically a good indication that I am enjoying a book. On the other hand, I found it a little bit of everything and nothing, which is why I have settled on a ranking in the middle of the spectrum.
Between Ape and Human explores the idea that "ape-man" creatures known as lai ho'a, found in the stories of the Lio people of Flores Island, Indonesia, actually reflect real encounters with extant populations of H. floresiensis still living on the island. The author bases this claim on a number of second-hand and eyewitness reports of recent sightings, collected by the author through interviews with Lio over a period of more than twenty years of fieldwork on Flores. A sizeable part of the book is dedicated to recounting these stories, while other chapters explore the relationships between lai ho'a and more distinctly supernatural entities in Lio culture, the trade in ape-man relics believed to hold supernatural power, and Lio ways of conceiving the world around them in general. For instance, the author argues that Lio people conceive of animals, including scientifically documented animals, in dissimilar ways from the strictly scientific understanding common in Western societies and thus, even though they attribute certain supernatural characteristics to lai ho'a, this is not reason enough to exclude the possibility that these stories reflect real experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed those parts of the book, and I found the author's arguments to be, overall, nicely presented, consistent and evidently based on a very detailed understanding of Flores communities and their cultures. That said, I did not find the evidence for his argument overwhelmingly compelling. Interesting, certainly, and definitely worth exploring further - downplaying or downright excluding native voices and indigenous insight into the natural world is, sadly, far too common in scientific thinking, and I thoroughly agree with the author that reports of sightings by people resident in the area should be taken much more seriously than they are. But based just on the evidence the author presented, I was simply not convinced.

[Robert Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a fascinating topic and had lots of potential, but the author’s writing and investigative abilities didn’t fully live up to the subject matter. Other than conducting some surface-level interviews and categorizing them based on whether they were firsthand accounts or hearsay, he didn’t do much. Some more in-depth research into Homo floresiensis, analysis and comparison to recent sightings was merited. He also should have visited some of the locations of recent sightings and set up trail cameras at the least.

[Chris Ekral · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a scientific approach to legends of a cryptid relic humanoid in Indonesia. In many ways, this is exactly what cryptozoology needs: credible scientists exploring the possibility of their existence. The evidence is not sensationalised or exaggerated, and is assessed for bias and reliability. It is a bit of a dry read in places, due to this approach but the questions realised and some of the eyewitness testimonies linger in the memory long after the final page has been closed.

[Jonathan Comyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This author spends the first very many pages arguing why these hominids probably do not exist and why the evidence is weak. Then come the actual stories from the community members that the author also systematically discredits. There is a lot of hedging rather than allowing readers to imagine. Not terribly interesting, not written for a pop science audience as it is branded.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be a fascinating exploration of what's yet to be discovered. While I think that some of the points the author makes are flimsy, his other points of discussion really make you consider how quick we are to dismiss the potential existence of species that have been reportedly sighted but not scientifically discovered.

[Pratik Satpute · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great story about searching for a cryptid and a lesson on keeping an open mind. Dr Forth writes a refreshingly clear manner when reviewing evidence for and against the loi ho'a of Flores. Thoroughly enjoyable for those who enjoy zoology, cryptozoology, or just old-fashioned detective work.