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comment by SteveMcK82
SteveMcK82  ·  3800 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Did Hobbits Actually Exist?!

Hey Cadell, do you disagree, or are you not aware of the possibility that they may have coexisted with modern humans? Apparently the indigenous humans of the area have a complex mythology of what they call "Ebu Gogo" that sounds just like our Homo floresiensis!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebu_Gogo

I have to wonder if similar coexisting homo sub-species are responsible for other similar myths, possibly even European myths about Fairies, hobbits, goblins, etc!

Obviously most evidence of these things is wiped out by time, and if these sub-species co-existed, I'm sure they would not have been generally friendly toward Homo Sapiens, as Homo Sapiens would be their greatest threat and competition. They would probably have avoided Homo Sapiens as much as possible, which could lead to their mythological status, as early Homo Sapiens may have anthropomorphized far too much into the fleeting glimpses and interactions.

Specifically, I was fascinated by the specific part of the above Ebu Gogo mythology that references them kidnapping human children! That is also a common part of Fairy/Goblin/Hobbit myth.

Apparently in the Ebu Gogo mythology, they stole human children in an attempt to force them to teach them how to cook and use fire! (In the tales the human children always manage to outsmart them and escape.)

Can you imagine? If there were competing and co-existing subspecies of Hominids one can definitely imagine a group without fire ability being intelligent enough to plan and execute a kidnapping raid in an attempt to gain that ability.

Which if the tales are true, had the opposite effect of Homo Sapiens counter raiding and exterminating them eventually.

But I have read enough mythology, and fiction based on mythology to recognize how common in myth humanoid like creatures who kidnap human children for various reasons, ranging from benign, to playful, to malignant are.

This Ebu Gogo myth that comes from PRECISELY the same area where Homo floresiensis was discovered could be that link!