A back-footed being is a category of legendary creature that has backwards-facing feet or legs, from having clubfoot to being fully backward. A folkloric motif, back-footed beings are common across the world's folklore, particularly in Latin American folklore.
Back-footed beings are largely mythic humanoids. Back-footed beings are part of folklore traditions through the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. Ancient Greek historian Megasthenes wrote of back-footed "Nuli" in India in the 4th century BCE. The motif of back-footed beings as identified in the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature includes backwards feet, backwards toes, and those that can temporarily reverse their legs and feet.
The origin of stories of back-footed beings, particularly cryptids, may come from the mis-identification of animal tracks.
French folklore scholar Henri Gaidoz in the late 19th century noted the preponderance of back-footed beings in folklore worldwide in a set of articles in the journal Mélusine. Gaidoz framed back-footedness as the expression of a base human belief that physical disabilities were malevolent, hence many back-footed beings are antagonistic in their stories. A.T. Crawford Cree in 1905 rejected Gaidoz' claim, pointing to benevolent back-footed beings like Cú Chulainn, Hephaestus, and Leabharcham. Cree instead conjectured that back-footed beings stem from theriomorphism - humanoid gods with animal features - and particularly from avian humanoid (ornithomorphic spirit
) legends; he claimed that backwards legs evoke avian qualities in a "less violent combination" compared to winged humanoids.
Cultural anthropologist Ramón Sarró wrote in 2008 that back-footed beings evoke digitigrade legs of animals, while retaining other human qualities, making the back-footed being distinct from both human and animal. Slovenian folklorist Monika Kropej in 2015 identified back-footed beings as an example of the "backwards" fairy-like creatures of the Otherworld, comparable to other folkloric beings with backwards body features. Slovenian folklorist Barbara Ivančič Kutin wrote in Folklore in 2018 that "Depictions of creatures with backward-pointing feet can, given the fact that they extend across many different parts of the world, essentially be regarded as archetypal."
| Name | Country of origin | Continent | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abarimon | India | Asia (South Asia) | Attested to by Pliny the Elder | |
| Chirionossos | South America | Mythical tribe | ||
| Chinigua | Margarita, Venezuela | North America (Caribbean) | ||
| Churel | India | Asia (South Asia) | ||
| Ciguapa | Dominican Republic | North America (Caribbean) | ||
| Cú Chulainn | Ireland | Europe (British Isles) | Temporary transformation, while fighting | |
| Curupira | Brazil | South America | ||
| The Devil | Europe | Sometimes described with backwards knees | ||
| Douen | throughout | North America (Caribbean) | ||
| Hephaestus | Greece | Europe | Typically clubfoot, sometimes depicted with backward feet | |
| Krivopeta | Slovenia | Europe | ||
| Leabharcham | Ireland | Europe (British Isles) | Temporary transformation, granting running prowess | |
| Masisikiri | Venezuela | South America | ||
| Mapinguari | Brazil | South America | A man-eating cryptid creature with hook-shaped nails and backwards-facing feet | |
| Nuli | India | Asia (South Asia) | Attested to by Megasthenes | |
| Orang Pendek | Indonesia | Asia (Southeast Asia) | ||
| Siguanaba | Guatemala | North America (Central America) | ||
| Sisimito | Guatemala | North America (Central America) | ||
| Xəlvəlik | Armenia | Asia (West Asia) | Demon that does everything backwards, with backwards feet | |
| Yeti | Himalayas | Asia |