The Cave Bear

1324 Words3 Pages

Clan of the Cave Bear depicts life of a Cro Magnon girl, Ayla, growing up with a Neanderthal Clan struggling for acceptance. Throughout the movie we see Ayla struggling to comprehend, and follow the traditions and customs of her adopted clan. In the end Ayla sets out on a journey to find her people and her destiny. However, is this movie an accurate portrayal of life, traditions, and culture of the Neanderthals? It is my opinion that the social, political, and economical developments shown in Clan of the Cave Bear is a moderately accurate portrayal of life during the Stone Age. The social developments in this movie were moderately accurate in comparison to what we currently know of traditions and cultures of Neanderthals during this …show more content…

The leadership system in the movie is a sort of mix between a monarchy (leadership passed down father to son), and a power based leadership (might is right). Now, in history there is not much of a way to determine whether the political structure of Neanderthals because they lived so long ago, but it is very likely that this monarchy/power based system of politics existed. Though, during the Neolithic revolution a monarchy/power based system of government was used, so it is reasonable to assume that this system made an appearance in the past.. So on the aspect of leadership Clan of the Cave Bear is an accurate portrayal of the time period. An inaccuracy in Clan of the Cave Bear was the role of women in the clan. Women were pictured as childbearers much like history says they were, but the men did the providing, and the sexual inequality, and role of women were not correct to the time period. In the movie, women of the clan were expected to kneel when addressing men, and the leader. Women were also not allowed to hunt, and were sentenced to death if they so much as touched a hunting weapon. In the book/show Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond, he described the start of sexual inequality around 13,000 BCE or around the last ice age. Since this story takes place before the start of inequality ((25,000 BCE) women should have probably been treated more human than they were during the movie. Women, and men during the time of early humans, according to researchers had similar (though not entirely equal) status, so this is a large inaccuracy of Clan of the Cave Bear. So overall the political developments were fairly accurate to the time with the exception of

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