A talk with my cousin made me rethink the whole 'caveman' idea

He's a grad student in anthropology and said the term 'caveman' is a huge oversimplification that makes us think of dumb brutes. He pointed out that Neanderthals in Spain were making complex glue from birch bark tar 200,000 years ago, which is a pretty advanced tech. Anyone else have a simple idea about ancient people that got totally flipped?

2 comments

2 Comments

theagarcia2d ago

But come on, they still lived in caves. The glue is cool, but it's one trick. It doesn't mean they had cities or wrote books. Calling them cavemen just points out the huge gap between them and us.

kevin_roberts413d ago

Your cousin is right on the money. We picture them just hunting and gathering, but forget the social complexity needed to pass that glue recipe down through generations. That's a whole chain of teaching and learning we never talk about. It makes you wonder what other skills, like storytelling or basic medicine, were being shared around those fires. The "caveman" label really does rob them of their culture.