UFOs and Cultural Anthropology

Copyright 2017, InterAmerica, Inc.

Most of us who (still) follow the UFO milieu do so across national and international boundaries; that is, we look at and are interested in UFO sightings or reports from all over.

But that may be the wrong approach, especially for UFO researchers.

There seems to be a cultural element in UFO observations, and particularly alleged UFO encounters where “beings” come into the mix.

For instance, the early 1950s, encounters with small humanoid-like entities, in western Europe (France, Italy Spain), were unique, as far as I can tell, from the accumulated UFO lore in the time-frame.

UFO sightings and encounters in South America have a flavor all their own for the countries in that southern hemisphere, with each country toting different mental flavors from their neighbors.

Mexico’s UFO “events” also take on a specific cast, pertinent to that country and its peoples.

Australia provides a patina of UFO sightings that differ from other countries in the British Commonwealth, just as sightings in Ireland and Scotland resonate differently than those in England.

Scandinavian UFO accounts also have a palette different from (than) that of neighboring Belgium or the Netherlands.

Chinese UFO tales appear slightly different than those in Japan or the Korean peninsula.

Countries in the South Pacific provide observations that speak to UFO investigators differently than observations from Mid-East nations.

Russian reports east of Moscow and the Volga differ form those west of the Capital.

And arctic sightings come in with an overlay that is different than those from Canada or the northern United States.

There are even dissimilarities between northern U.S. observations and those from the southern smear of states, Florida UFO sightings often odder than those from its more northerly neighbors.

And then we have reports from Africa, many from school children, and fraught with unusual details.

Antarctic UFO sightings are a category all by itself, in an area without a cultural substrate.

My point?

That studying UFOs, looking for an explanation, requires taking into consideration the cultural artifacts that impact observations or reportage.

We all like sensational UFO events, sightings, and purported encounters with odd entities.

But a peoples’ mind-set, with cultural elements intact, compromise evaluation, if ignored, and UFO researchers ignore them, researchers inept in most disciplines (such as Cultural Anthropology) that would nudge explanations in scientific ways.

(I'll be providing, upcoming, specific examples of UFO tales, affected by cultural artifacts that do not correspond to a generic overlay.)

RR