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Neandertals and Humans in Popular Culture
Neandertals and “Cro-Magnon” (early AMH) have long held the popular imagination. From Boule’s unfortunate depiction of the old man at La Chappelle as a stopped, brooding primitive, to the tyranny of the Paleodiet, pop culture is frequently drawing attention on our hominin cousins and early forms of our species to make sense of our place in the world. This paper provides a critical analysis of Neandertals and humans in the popular culture. This critical analysis will be based on the film The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), which is one of the films that provides a representation of pop culture of Neandertal and/or anatomically modern humans. Peer reviewed journal articles relating to the topic will also be incorporated in this critical analysis of the film’s depiction of Neandertals, AMH, and their interactions.
Film Depictions of Neandertals and AMH
The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986) is a classic, historical novel that was written by Jean M. Auel as the first book series in Earth’s Children. The author of the book, Auel, conducted archaeological and paleontological research for the book from her public library and through other measures. Some of these measures that helped in developing content for the book include attending archeological conferences/workshops and conducting tours on sites with information from active field archeologists. The film, which is derived from this book, provides significant...
anatomically modern humans (AMH).
While the film begins with the story of a 5-year-old girl who was orphaned and homeless due to an earthquake, it soon shifts to a group of individuals known as “The Clan” and regarded as Neandertals.[footnoteRef:1] The 5-year-old girl named Ayla is a Cro-Magnon who is adopted by group of Neandertals i.e. “The Clan.” One of the depictions of Neandertals in The Clan of the Cave Bear, is that they are a group of individuals with imperfect vocal apparatus. As a result, these individuals use a highly developed sign language for communication as they rarely speak. The speech difficulties for Neandertals is evident in various situations including the fact that they call the 5-year-old girl, Ayla, which is the closest they came toward pronouncing her name, which they considered strange. These individuals are portrayed as different from Cro-Magnons and modern humans since they do not share similar characteristics. In addition to speech difficulties, Neandertals do not display similar emotions like Cro-Magnon such as smiling, laughing or crying. In essence, Neandertals are portrayed as very different species in comparison to Cro-Magnon and modern humans. On the other hand, Cro-Magnon (or AMH) are depicted as humans with different capabilities compared to Neandertals. AMH share similar attributes to modern humans including the…
Bibliography
Hamilton, Anne. “Popular Depictions of Neandertals.” Totem: The University of Western Ontario Journal of Anthropology 13, no. 1 (2011).
Twomey, Terrence. “The Cognitive Implications of Controlled Fire Use by Early Humans.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23, no. 1 (2013).
Villa, Paola & Roebroeks, Wil. “Neandertal Demise: An Archaeological Analysis of the Modern Human Superiority Complex.” PLOS One 9, no. 4 (2014).
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