#191 – THE ZANA PROBLEM

🎙️ Blake Smith flies solo for this one, revisiting one of cryptozoology’s most famous — and, it turns out, most troubling — cases: the story of Zana, the alleged Almasty (or “wild woman”) of Abkhazia. The episode takes a hard look at what Dr. Bryan Sykes’ DNA research actually revealed — and at what his book, The Nature of the Beast, chose not to say plainly enough.

Fair warning: this episode goes to some dark places. The DNA evidence shows Zana was a fully human woman of sub-Saharan African ancestry — which means the “wild woman” legend has been sitting on top of a story of slavery and sexual assault for over a century. Blake makes the case that it’s past time to tell it straight.

🧬 The Sykes Study — What It Found and What It Framed

Back in MonsterTalk Episode 100, Blake interviewed Dr. Sykes about The Nature of the Beast (later repackaged and retitled Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal — a framing Blake finds troubling). The book chronicles Sykes’ collection and genetic testing of alleged Bigfoot, Yeti, and mystery-ape samples, including hair and skeletal material linked to Zana and her son Khwit.

The headline finding for the Zana chapter: her DNA was fully Homo sapiens, with genetic ancestry tracing entirely to sub-Saharan Africa — not to any archaic hominin, not to a relict Neanderthal population, not to any unknown species. Blake notes that despite this, credulous sources continue to circulate the Neanderthal framing. His message is direct: please stop doing that.

Sykes’ writing in the book presents Zana’s story in the register of legend, describing her as “part human, part ape” and noting that she “became his slave” — passive voice that Blake finds deeply uncomfortable given that Sykes already knew her genetic results when he wrote it.

🌲 The Name “Zana” — A Balkan Folklore Connection

The episode’s most striking new thread comes from MonsterTalk Episode 179, in which guest Christopher Klimovitz described the Xana (or Vila-adjacent spirit) of Balkan folklore — a magical woodland entity, a protector spirit of groves and mountains, something you might beseech for help while traveling through the forest. Blake noticed the obvious parallel: “Zana” might not be a name at all, but a descriptor meaning something like wild spirit of the woods.

Sykes’ book claims “Zana means black in Abkhaz.” Blake went looking for any independent source for that definition and found none — every citation traced back to Sykes himself. After reaching out to Abkhazian contacts (including a native Abkhazian working in tourism), Blake was told that zana is not an Abkhazian word at all. The Balkan folkloric meaning — magical forest entity — is a far more plausible etymology, and a sobering one: a slave trader calling his captive “the wild woman of the woods” to increase her perceived exotic value is not a flattering origin story.

⛓️ Slavery, Abkhazia, and the Real Story

Blake offers a speculative but evidence-grounded reconstruction: Zana was an enslaved African woman, trafficked through Abkhazia, sold to the nobleman Edgi Genaba, and put to work on his estate. She was shown off to neighbors, and she bore at least four children — under circumstances that, as Blake puts it plainly, no enslaved person could consent to. Her descendants, including son Khwit, were likely subjected to racist ridicule about their origins.

The original fieldwork on Zana was conducted by Alexander Mashkovtsev and Boris Porshnev in the 1950s, interviewing elderly residents who recalled her. Blake is skeptical of the extreme physical descriptions (immense height, a body covered in red-brown hair, superhuman strength) that emerged from those decades-old recollections — and notes that such exaggerations fit neatly into a pattern of racially motivated dehumanization.

The skulls of Khwit — and a second skull believed to be Zana’s — were excavated by Russian Bigfoot researcher Igor Burtsev and have since been sold into private collections. As Blake notes, Zana is still being treated as property, even in death.

Abkhazia has a documented history as a transit point in the African slave trade through the Caucasus; Blake links to relevant historical resources in the show notes.

🔬 Criticisms of Sykes’ Book

Blake notes he was not the only reader with reservations. P.Z. Myers published pointed critiques, calling Sykes’ Bigfoot coverage credulous and poorly reasoned and describing Sykes himself in terms that Blake characterizes as “the least charitable take.” Jason Colavito also published a detailed analysis of the complex issues surrounding the book’s claims. Links to both are in the existing show notes below.

Blake’s own read is gentler: he attributes some of the book’s wide-eyed, believer-adjacent prose to a deliberate narrative persona — an open-minded researcher following the evidence — rather than to genuine credulity. But he acknowledges he could be wrong, and he wishes the Zana chapter had followed the DNA evidence more plainly than it followed the legend.

🗣️ A Note on Language and Cryptozoological Framing

As a brief coda, Blake returns to a theme from earlier episodes: the Tibetan word mi-go, used by H.P. Lovecraft for the creatures in The Whisperer in Darkness. Cryptozoologists often cite mi-go as a Tibetan word for “wild man of the hills,” but Blake notes it can equally mean “barbarian” or “uncivilized outsider” — a foreign human, not a monster. The same linguistic slippage, he argues, is at work in the word “Zana.” Names matter. Etymology matters. And when we get the words wrong, we can get the whole story wrong.

📚 Further Reading

– 📚 The Nature of the Beast 💵 by Bryan Sykes (also published as Bigfoot, Yeti, and the Last Neanderthal)
🔗 Related Links

– MonsterTalk Episode 100 — Interview with Dr. Bryan Sykes
– MonsterTalk Episode 179 — Legends of the Balkans with Christopher Klimovitz
– Almasty (Wikipedia)
– Afro-Abkhazians — history of African people in the Caucasus (Wikipedia)
– Boris Porshnev (Wikipedia)
– Jason Colavito’s analysis of Sykes’ book
– P.Z. Myers: “Sykes’ imaginary institute” (April 4, 2015)
– P.Z. Myers: calls Sykes “incompetent” (April 6, 2015)


Note: ads inserted into the distributed audio alter the timestamps in unpredictable ways, so timing references in these notes are approximate.

MonsterTalk revisits the story of Zana, the alleged Almasti wild woman of Abkhazia who was the subject of Bryan Sykes DNA research in his book The Nature of the Beast. A legendary forest spirit of the Balkans may have some relevance to the story of Zana and her descendants.

Mentioned in the episode

• MonsterTalk episode 100 with Dr. Sykes
• MonsterTalk episode 179 with Christopher Klimovitz (legends of the Balkans)
• Jason Colavito on the complex issues around Sykes Book
• PZ Myers criticisms of Sykes’ book:
  • April 4, 2015 — Sykes’ imaginary Institute
  • April 6, 2015 — calls Sykes “incompetent”
• African Slave Trade in Abkhazia:
  • African people of the Caucuses enslaved in Russia
  • The history of Afro-Abkhazians

Music

• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys