Caveman
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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| A '''caveman''' is a popular [[stock character]] based upon [[stereotype|stereotyped]] concepts of the way in which early prehistoric [[human]]s or [[Hominina|homininan]]s may have looked and behaved. The term is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the [[Neanderthals]] or [[Cro-Magnon]] (i.e., ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' of the [[Paleolithic]] era). The term has been discouraged in serious use, due to its inaccuracy and dependence on certain misconceptions about early humans. | A '''caveman''' is a popular [[stock character]] based upon [[stereotype|stereotyped]] concepts of the way in which early prehistoric [[human]]s or [[Hominina|homininan]]s may have looked and behaved. The term is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the [[Neanderthals]] or [[Cro-Magnon]] (i.e., ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' of the [[Paleolithic]] era). The term has been discouraged in serious use, due to its inaccuracy and dependence on certain misconceptions about early humans. | ||
| - | == History and meaning of the term == | ||
| ==Archetype== | ==Archetype== | ||
| Popular conceptions of cavemen can be seen as reflecting either the brutal savage image of the 17th-century [[philosopher]] [[Thomas Hobbes]], who famously held that the life of the human being without civilization was "...[[poore, nasty, brutish and short]]"; or, on the other hand, the [[noble savage]] vision of uncivilized man, popularly associated with [[Rousseau]]. | Popular conceptions of cavemen can be seen as reflecting either the brutal savage image of the 17th-century [[philosopher]] [[Thomas Hobbes]], who famously held that the life of the human being without civilization was "...[[poore, nasty, brutish and short]]"; or, on the other hand, the [[noble savage]] vision of uncivilized man, popularly associated with [[Rousseau]]. | ||
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A caveman is a popular stock character based upon stereotyped concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans or homininans may have looked and behaved. The term is sometimes used colloquially to refer to the Neanderthals or Cro-Magnon (i.e., Homo sapiens of the Paleolithic era). The term has been discouraged in serious use, due to its inaccuracy and dependence on certain misconceptions about early humans.
Archetype
Popular conceptions of cavemen can be seen as reflecting either the brutal savage image of the 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who famously held that the life of the human being without civilization was "...poore, nasty, brutish and short"; or, on the other hand, the noble savage vision of uncivilized man, popularly associated with Rousseau.
Caveman-like Heraldic "wild men" were found in European iconography for hundreds of years. During the Middle Ages, these creatures were generally depicted in art and literature as bearded and covered in hair, and often wielding clubs and dwelling in caves. While wild men were always depicted as living outside of civilization, there was an ongoing debate as to whether they were human or animal.
Cavemen are portrayed as wearing butty animal hides, armed with rocks or cattle bone clubs, unintelligent, and aggressive. Cavemen are often shown as living in caves, possibly because that is where the preponderance of ritual paintings and artifacts have been found. Although it is probable that Neanderthals and early humans lived elsewhere as well as in caves, artifacts proving this would have been destroyed over millennia, while that which had been left in caves survived to be discovered. Nevertheless, expressions such as "living in a cave" have become cultural metaphors for a modern human who supposedly displays traits of brutishness or extreme ignorance. See also troglodyte.
In fiction
In fiction, especially as pure entertainment or satire, cavemen are sometimes as living contemporaneously with dinosaurs, a situation contradicted by archaeological and paleontological evidence which shows that non-avian dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago, at which time true primates had not yet appeared.
In popular culture, the comic strips B.C., Alley Oop and occasionally The Far Side, and Gogs, portray "cavemen" in that way. The animated television series The Flintstones, a spoof on family sitcoms, portrays the Flintstones, not in caves, but in 1950s-1960s ranch-style homes that suggested caves and had stone fittings.
Stereotypical cavemen are also often featured in advertising, including advertisements for Minute Maid. More recently, GEICO launched a series of television commercials and attempts at viral marketing, collectively known as the GEICO Cavemen advertising campaign, where GEICO announcers are repeatedly denounced by modern cavemen for perpetuating a stereotype of unintelligent, backward cavemen. The GEICO advertisements spawned a TV series called Cavemen (TV series) which is currently on indefinite hiatus.
