Let's continue with now a very specific topic that, once again, I already talked about on ny main account.
Paleolithic fantasy:
Cavemen being human.
As always, let's start for what...
I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT
And fortunally, someone made it better for us. Pelycosaur24 from Deviantart.
For some god forsaken reason, the subgenre of paleolithic or cavemen stories always deal with the stereotype. In case you didn't know, the caveman stereotype we see in silent films—which were literally the first of their kind—came from a lawyer who drew a cartoon about a caveman hitting a woman in a leopard-print dress over the head and taking her away to copulate. It was quite a sexist cartoon and was even criticized at the time, but for some reason it became so popular that for several years that was the image of cavemen that people had in movies. It was so prevalent that even in the early 1970s it was still around.
I'm just pretty tired of that stereotype, enough to completely reject it and not tolerate it even in paintings. The only ones I truly enjoy within this stereotype are The Croods movie, because it's a very beautiful film, and the sequel is not; and the Caveman movie with Ringo Starr, a rather nostalgic film for me that also makes fun of many of the stereotypes of so-called caveman films.
Now, this is a rather difficult topic to portray, mainly because on several occasions, even when we try to find documentaries about cavemen in modern times, the closest ones we have are documentaries that were made either in the 2000s or 2010s, meaning they were approximately 10 or 20 years outdated. It may seem like a short time, but between 10 and 20 years, quite a few advances have occurred in the anthropological understanding of humanity.
However, I also wouldn't say that what I like are scientifically correct cavemen, mainly because not only do we not have much of an idea of what their culture was really like, but we also usually limit ourselves to the European area of the region, meaning that we usually tend to ignore many of the other human species and their respective cultures unless you are a Neanderthal.
Quest for Fire is a very good example of what I'm talking about because it's well-executed. The film is an adaptation of a book published in the 1920s, and not only that, but it also eliminated many of the stereotypes of the time and rescued those that, even at the time of the film's release, weren't considered scientifically accurate. These ideas aged so well that time ultimately proved them right. However, that doesn't mean the film is without flaws. The central theme revolves around a group of Neanderthals trying to find fire, a tool that we are not only quite aware they mastered perfectly, but it also portrays them as beings who are either foolish or at least simple-minded compared to the complex and multicultural Homo sapiens depicted in the film. But at least there are interspecies relationships. So no discrimination.
Ice Age was also quite subversive when it came out. It's true that it has more to do with Hindu culture than anything else, but beyond that, we have a pretty clear idea of what the people who lived during that time were like, and they weren't so different from how they're portrayed in the film. Anyway, it's a shame that they weren't brought back as recurring characters in the sequels. Although, in any case, I think it's a pretty accurate and respectful representation, even considering the time it came out.
But then we have things like Far Cry Primal, a video game that I personally liked quite a lot when it came out. Although it's true that once you reach certain levels, the game becomes quite boring, the interesting thing about all this is the enormous and diverse variety of cultures that were invented for it. We have three in total; two, I think, were Homo sapiens, and one was cannibals, mostly based on and inspired by Michael Crichton's novel *13th Warrior*. We'll talk about it later.
However, here we can still see a couple of the problems I'm talking about that perhaps aren't entirely to my liking. Neanderthals are still portrayed as brutes, even people who worship bones, meat, and cannibalism. On the other hand, Homo sapias are in two distinct styles: the first, which we'll associate with the typical caveman, which has been portrayed for some years now, and the other, those who worship the sun in a way very similar to how it's seen in Far Cry 3 and also Sex Appeal? I mean, their leader is a naked woman that doesn't resemble any other woman in the game, so is still sexist? Idk.
As you can see, I'm finding it quite difficult to come up with examples of what I really enjoy seeing in Paleolithic media, and it's difficult because not many people portray themselves this way, and those who have are usually not part of popular culture. I've mentioned that several of these works I'm citing are quite old, so it's understandable that by now people won't be very familiar with how humans are perceived today while still living in caves. But that's where I should mention that, at the end of the day, we're not technically using actual cavemen, but simply not trying to make them look like they're from the cave. So I think we could create a Paleolithic fantasy.
To understand this, we need to put into perspective some of the things that ancient humans did that we often overlook. Starting with one of my favorites, so much so that I even based one of my paintings on this type of work: cave paintings.
Many people tend to dismiss ancient cave paintings as mere doodles, like scribbles in a child's notebook, but the truth is they are far more complex than one might initially expect. They depict techniques that wouldn't be formally used until several years later, such as pointillism and silhouette painting. They also show precise anatomy, as well as artistic freedom in how human beings were portrayed, despite what conspiracy theorists claim. These are not aliens; they are simply human beings drawing themselves however they pleased, much like we do today.
We can even find different uses for cave paintings, sometimes thanks to a kind of timeline we can see. We realize that they were calendars with which primitive humans could see what kind of animal would be in each season so they could prepare for its arrival. We can also find some that have repetitive limbs, and we know thanks to experiments with fire that they served as a form of primitive animation. When cavemen passed through the cave with a torch in their hands, the silhouettes on the walls began to move as if they were a herd. In other words, these people invented cinema and theater before we would have thought.
So when we portray Paleolithic paintings in the simplest way possible, we are technically reinventing the wheel for those who actually painted that kind of thing in the past. Because they weren't stupid, they developed techniques over time.
Another thing I don't often see discussed is the topic of human species. Historically, I think Homo sapiens only encountered Neanderthals. The truth is, there were several human species, and even before we developed the ability to use complex tools, the world already had many types of apes on the African plains. So, I wouldn't mind integrating this perspective into a slightly more complex world. I mentioned this in another post, where I discussed the time when dwarves, elves, trolls, goblins, and so on existed. But in the most common way you can imagine, they are simply humans of different builds, adapted to different environments, each with their own unique circumstances, but at the end of the day, they are still human.
I say this because it is also quite common to portray cavemen as white men in the middle of Europe when the truth is that we have DNA analysis that has shown us that melanin, that is, a slightly more tanned complexion, was common at the time. If you wonder what happend to them... well... proto-indo-european people happend.
Another thing that people often overlook is the significance of clothing. We tend to think that all cavemen did was clean up after animals and then put their clothes on. But the truth is, throughout history, people have always been comfortable. Besides being practical, clothing is a form of self-expression. We even have a theory that Neanderthals used feather necklaces. And considering that there are regions where, despite maintaining a very primitive way of life, we can still find clothing that could be considered modern, even if it's not Paleolithic, a few years ago some garments belonging to a teenage girl from Nordic tribes were discovered that surprisingly resemble modern clothing, but they aren't old at all. This simply demonstrates that people have always been people.
Not to mention that clothing also varies quite a bit depending on the region and culture we're talking about, whether in colors, practicality, functionality, and so on. So it frustrates me a little that in the Paleolithic era we were restricted to just animal skins on the outside, because they didn't even treat the animal skins properly. I mean, those tendons are still under the skin, are they left to dry or what?
So, with all these elements together, we can say that a Paleolithic fantasy doesn't necessarily have to be restricted to Neanderthals with peanut-sized brains and leopard-print clothing, but something much more complex. Perhaps not so much the winner of riding mammoths, but enough to make it clear that these aren't animals in the most traditional sense of the word, but more like the human beings we know today, simply trying to live and not just survive. Ironically, there's a kind of aesthetic that encompasses many of these things that I've been seeing lately on social media, mostly on Pinterest, although I think it originated on TikTok. And while I think it would be disrespectful to put it here... what the heck. This is my blog.
What you see here is an artistic style of dress typical of some Scandinavian heavy metal or rock bands. And while it's not clear that they're based on any specific culture, but rather on a modern stereotype, honestly, it's one that impresses me much more and that I even find healthier to consider. For the simple fact that, as I said, if we're dealing with fantasy and maximum cultural expression, what better way to start than by using this type of visualization for primitive tribes? As I said, Far Cry Primal more or less took this concept and I try to expand on it, but it still maintained certain popular tropes from over 50 years ago.
I could even include neopaganism within this, mainly because some people consider themselves modern druids, even though the original druids actually went around naked most of the time, and the clothing that most of these people wear is quite interesting and very admirable to see; these are things that clearly have a meaning behind them, they have work and effort put into them, and it's not simply the first thing they found in the forest and put on their heads.
And ironically, I think there is only one character in all the fiction I've found that encompasses these kinds of characteristics: Mother Wendol in the movie The 13th Warrior.
Let's ignore the fact that this is supposed to be a Neanderthal woman when she doesn't actually resemble one at all, and let's ignore the fact that in the original book, Mother Wendol was technically a representation of a Venus figurine—that is, an obese woman with plump legs and breasts—because that's supposedly what the Neanderthals in the book were admiring. This was actually changed because the writer himself, Michael Crichton, the author of the book, wanted Beowolf to be captivated by Mother Wendol's beauty, which I honestly don't know whether to call a terrible idea or a very good one because, my God, this character looks great.
Long, ornate hair coiled around her head, a venomous snake passing around her neck, a bear's claw in ink like a poisoned pen so she could fight the Beowolf, the look on her face, the strange chamanic decorations around her cave...
And surprisingly, she's not as sexualized as one might expect. I actually quite liked this character when I first saw her, and it's a shame she didn't have more screen time, but she left a huge impression on me, at least enough to make me wish that Paleolithic fiction would start taking these settings into consideration more. Anyway, it's an era where we don't have much of a record of what humanity was really like on a larger scale. We even know that during that time we were almost wiped out by a volcanic eruption, and it's a miracle we're still alive. Therefore, even though I might complain about representations like feudal Japanese ones or the stereotypical Vikings you find on YouTube, I wouldn't mind seeing more cavemen like this, more Paleolithic fantasy.
In the next post we will finally leave behind the past of our land to begin delving into medieval fantasy; we are going to talk about dragons, folks!
