Understanding our roots through the lens of prehistory. On Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear.
When Harari wrote Sapiens back in 2011, I didn’t know that prehistoric humans also mingled with other species and was able to procreate. Back then a few different type of homos co-mingled before homo sapiens, and our gnarly ancestors somehow came out on top. But whatever really happened to the rest of them? The neanderthals just kind of… disappeared.
But the Clan of the Cave Bear is not only a look at what happened during that period, it is an important book to examine our own norms, beliefs and cultural fabric. It is a complex and rich work, written simply and elegantly, through the eyes of a young girl growing up as we turn the pages. It is a novel about a life and culture in transition, and in our world where things change quickly before our eyes, Auel’s work is an important steward in the harbinger of change.
Gosh I didn’t know what to expect from this book and my goodness it blew me away. Time will tell whether this will be one of my favourite reads (there aren’t many), but I have no hesitations in giving this book the five stars it deserves.
A little girl lost, a little girl found
After having lost her family in an earthquake, Ayla had to wander in the wilderness on her own. She took refuge in a cave and barely survived a mauling by a lioness protecting her cub, somehow managing with a scratch on her leg. She was picked up by a clan of neanderthals who almost left her for death, given that she was an Other, not only somebody who was outside of their tribal circle, but somebody who was outside their species. She was an abomination, but the medicine woman and the shaman took a liking to the girl. They took her in and in turn, the community had to slowly accept her.
Ayla was a rebel to begin with. The clan, having lost their cave and impelled to find another, wandered around lost before Ayla strayed and found a cave very much habitable for the lost clan. Since then, Ayla has been breaking conventions but has also been beneficial to the group. Over the years, she learned how to make medicine from her adopted mother, Iza, and had loved the deformed but endearing shaman, Creb, who also loved her as his own. On the side, she managed to secretly learn how to hunt with a sling, to the point that she was more proficient than the best hunters in the clan.
Her presence is not without cost however. Her biggest antagonist, Broud, has always been uneasy around her. Though he was destined to be the next clan leader, Broud fostered a deep hatred of Ayla. As the years go by, this enmity forged by Broud would only deepen. After all, it was Ayla who stole his thunder after he had had his first kill, as she was given the totem of the cave lion (as she survived her mauling), something unheard for a female. But Ayla and Broud would have to tow in line where they can under the instructions of Brun, their clan leader. However, the two would push the conventions of the clan with their strained relationship.
The otherisation of Ayla
The story of Ayla is our story, in a way. It is the story of growth, breaking the mould and overcoming obstacles to survive. As a young girl otherised from the clan, Ayla was the perfect candidate as an underdog. Ayla, as a cro-magnon early human was already different physiologically from her neanderthal counterparts: she was taller, has the ability to use speech with her mouth and is able to show emotions such as crying and laughing. At the same time, she had to adapt to the ways of the clan by learning how to gesture to communicate and adopting the customs of the clan as her own.
But she has the innate ability to break some of these conventions. She strays often, learned how to hunt, decided to keep a deformed child. Yet, by breaking these conventions, Brun, as the leader of the clan was forced to rethink his position to maintain the traditions that had been passed for generations, or to change these very customs to ensure the survival of the clan. Ayla as a hunter who was able to hunt carnivores would be ten times more useful than the average hunter.
We can see the lens of otherness from Ayla as the individual (or the minority), or as the clan (as the majority). We should not take sides, but instead, as any good literature instructs us to do, to reflect on our own experiences. We must ask the question ourselves: are there aspects of culture holding us back? What if there is a better solution, even if that means breaking established conventions which had been held by the majority? Where is the role of the “other” in changing these conventions?
It is a difficult question which will polarise many. Can we view Ayla perhaps as an immigrant to a new country, who has her customs and distinct cultural understandings, but is forced to adopt the way of her new adopted home? As an immigrant myself, it is a question that I ask constantly. And like the book, these two forces of breaking and accepting is a process of give and take, but with unclear lines. Where is this line? I guess that is really up to the individual.
Ayla, being a female, was no stranger of breaking the standards of the gender roles. Though she was more capable than any of the men to hunt, she must not neglect her duty as an understudy of the medicine woman, and also as a female was responsible for fulfilling the domestic responsibilities.
Yet, the story acknowledged that females used to be on par with the males. They were at one point hunting side by side with their male counterparts. But those pesky males stole all the power, and left the females to gather food and prepare their meals. It was not clear in the story what happened in between to result in this gender imbalance. But it is also the gender imbalance that we experience as modern humans.
A glimpse of our past, a glimpse of our present
So how much have humans changed since the cro-magnon era? The world of the clan is a world full of superstitions taken to the extreme. The mog-ur, or the shaman, plays a prominent role in deciding the fates of the young, responsible for giving them their animal totems and to name them accordingly. They also hold the main positions in the ceremony to ensure that things run smoothly, lest they infuriate the spirits to bring misfortune to the clan.
The first kill of the new habitat would determine the suitability of the land. Deformed children are bad luck and they must be killed. A newborn must survive seven days before they are named and taken into the clan. These examples of superstitions may seem absurd, but they are quite possible in a tribal setting, where the gap in knowledge not supplied by science is filled by stories and conjectures. Overtime, with luck or a lack of it, these stories become the norm and a way of living.
In some ways, this is the intra-subjective reality that Harari discussed in Sapiens. We exist because of these stories that we have made into reality, regardless whether they are based on cold, hard facts or not. The invention of money is a prime example. It is a piece of paper which determines what we can purchase. Yet, this money is not really based on anything (it used to be gold), but the trust that the economy will run in perpetual continuity.
Ayla, as a cro-magnon human is one of the first kind of the representative of humanity. Creb, as the shaman holding the knowledge of the traditions and spirits, is the last of his kind. In a poignant scene where Ayla joined the collective thought of the other shamans through a trance, Creb learned that his line will never develop anymore. His ability to create inter-subjective reality will no longer be enough to forward his kind. Ayla’s species on the other hand, will rule the land, with a glimpse of visions of animals moving at breakneck speeds, birds out of metal flying in the air, and grey forests reaching the clouds.
The relationship between the two became strained after that, but Ayla was not to blame. She was only the representative of her kind. But the neanderthals have already had a taste of the sickening capability of these new man: sexually assaulting their women without a care of their baby, killing the baby. This can be contrasted even with Broud’s behaviour, who was more than willing to ravage Ayla, but still let her put her baby down before the carnal pillaging.
But the Clan of the Cave Bear, more than anything, is about this resiliency of humans. Our resiliency. We have been breaking traditions and adapting for such a long time. At the same time, we can also never let go of our roots. These two are always opposing forces, sometimes destructive, sometimes complementary. The friction between the old and new are what defines us, what keeps us grounded one side, and what makes us break our own self-imposed barriers on the other.
But this question between the old and new scare me, especially in the age where the young is replacing the old like no tomorrow. Creb and his kind will have been replaced by Ayla and her kind. But we are moving at supersonic speeds now. The generation of my parents are quickly being replaced by my own generation who are more knowledgeable in technology, and my own generation is being replaced by the next one, who has even more knowledge now. And that generation is quickly being replaced by the artificial intelligence.
Our position in the story is no longer as Ayla and her kind now. We are quickly becoming Creb and his people. If you’re not terrified yet, you should at least be worried.
