caveman n : someone who dwells in a cave [syn: cave man, cave dweller, troglodyte]

English

Etymology

From cave + man, based on the supposition that early humans dwelt in caves.

Pronunciation

Noun

1. Early humans or closely related species, popularly held to reside in caves.

   The political cartoon showed the politician as a caveman, clubbing the budget depcited as a mammoth.

2. A brutish or savage person.

   The football squad was comprised of cavemen who were responsible for trashing many a locker room.

3. A man with old fashioned or backward opinions, particularly with regard to women.

   Old Sven is a bit of a caveman; he figures giving women the right to vote was a bad idea.

Synonyms

• sense early humans or related species neanderthal, troglodyte
• sense brutish or savage person boor, lout, savage, thug, troglodyte
• sense man with regressive opinions chauvinist

Translations

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.

History and meaning of the term

In the past, many people shared the view of the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes that the life of a human being without civilization was "...solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short". The modern scientific perception of prehistoric lifestyle is now that of the hunter-gatherer.

Caveman is traditionally portrayed as being clothed in animal skins, armed with bone or wood (like sam)clubs, unintelligent, aggressive. Furthermore, cavemen are often shown as living in caves; but this stemmed from the ritual paintings found in caves: it is more probable that the caves were religious gathering places or temporary shelter, and not the actual dwellings of the supposed 'cavemen'. Thus, expressions such as "Balrog" or "living in a hole" have become cultural metaphors for a modern human who supposedly displays traits of brutishness or extreme ignorance. See also troglodyte.

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.

Depictions of the Paleolithic in the media

Documentaries

• Walking with Cavemen
• Walking with Beasts

Caveman characters

• Cavedudez
• Captain Caveman
• The Flintstones
• Gogs
• Stig of the Dump
• The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw
• Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer, a Saturday Night Live sketch
• GEICO Cavemen
• Yahoo in Gulliver's Travels
• J. P. Manoux, plays Curtis the Caveman on the Disney show Phil of the Future
• Bob from Prometheus and Bob on KaBlam! on Nickelodeon
• Cave Guy, a villain on Freakazoid
• Scratch ("Your Favorite Golfin' Caveman") from RockBottomGolf.com

Caveman movies

• Three Ages (1923 film), 1923
• One Million B.C., 1940
• One Million Years B.C., 1966
• Planet of Dinosaurs, 1971
• The People That Time Forgot, 1977
• Caveman, 1981
• Quest for Fire, 1981
• Luggage of the Gods!, 1983
• Iceman, 1984
• The Clan of the Cave Bear, 1986
• Encino Man, 1992
• Bikini Cavegirl, 2004
• 10,000 BC, 2008
• The Flintstones

Caveman novels

• The Inheritors, 1955
• Dance of the Tiger, 1980
• Earth's Children series
  • The Clan of the Cave Bear, 1980
  • The Valley of Horses, 1982
  • The Mammoth Hunters, 1985
  • The Plains of Passage, 1990
  • The Shelters of Stone, 2002

Caveman plays

• ''Defending the Caveman'', Broadway 1995-1997, worldwide tour 1997--2008

See also

• Human evolution
• Paleolithic
• Cro-Magnon
• Neanderthal

External links

• Online community of people who strive to emulate the diet and fitness of cavemen
• Online community of people who study and practice the wisdoms of primal man
• Website for prehistoric / stone-age tools and artifacts

Bronze Age man, Hominidae, Iron Age man, Stone Age man, aboriginal, aborigine, ancient, antediluvian, anthropoid, ape-man, autochthon, bucko, bushman, cave dweller, fossil man, he-man, hominid, humanoid, jock, jockstrap, man of old, missing link, preadamite, prehistoric man, prehuman, primate, primitive, protohuman, troglodyte