Saturday, June 13, 2009

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel

AUTHOR – Jean Auel was born in Chicago on February 18, 1936. She moved to Oregon and attended Portland State University, receiving her M.A. from the University of Portland in 1976. It was not until after she had raised five children that she began to write poetry and fiction. In fact, The Clan of the Cave Bear started as a short story exploring Auel's interest in Paleolithic humans. As Auel asserts, "the story lead to research, the research fired my imagination, and the wealth of material made me decide to write a novel." The original manuscript was almost one half-million words long and was rejected by several publishers.

In the mid-1970s, Auel began revising her mammoth manuscript. She rewrote The Clan of the Cave Bear four times. Finally, in 1978, she found a publisher willing to devote the time and resources to publishing the series. The novel was finally published in 1980. Over the following twenty-two years, she published three more novels in the series: The Valley of the Horses (1982), The Mammoth Hunters (1985), and The Plains of Passage (1990).

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On a recent visit to the Boston Museum of Science, I photographed these bones. On the left is Homo Sapiens Sapiens (that's us humans) and on the right is Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis. As the book so accurately describes, you can see the brow ridges on the Neanderthal and the lack of chin. Cool, huh?
















Some moments of insight from our conversation:

We appreciated the way the medicine/healing made Ayla “valuable.” Ayla needed to be taught the traditions, while Iza already had the “memories.” We had a brief debate (with no resolution) about whether the “memories” were “instinct,” and how cool it would be if that were really in our genetics (we are born knowing everything that our ancestors through the centuries knew). We were also interested how the medicine was collected, preserved, and stored.
• Medicine bag was made out of otter skin
• Type of knots and string are used to identify individual/different medicines from one another

We had another question/answer session as we wondered where in the world the story took place. Many of the animals and plants are native to the Americas, yet, our evolutionary teachings tell us that Neanderthals were only in Europe. Reading the critiques of the book, help us better understand this confusion. Auel overlaps contemporary knowledge (particularly Native American beliefs) with Neanderthal anthropology and archaeology.
• Women’s energy is stronger than men, especially after menses.
• Men stole women’s power.
• No “thank you” just reciprocal obligation
• Smoke ceremony
• Vision Quest helps discover Animal token
• Bears and salmon of “American”

We talked about the relationships between biological and “adopted” (Ayla) children to their parents, between brothers and sisters, for leaders and clan people, and between men and women. Ayla learned the clan ways, and hid her own tears, laughter, and language (Home Sapien Sapien traits).

Again, there is more, but I didn’t have my laptop with me and the memory grows weaker over time…

CONDENSED FROM BOOKRAGS WEBSITE: Characters
Ayla
The Clan of the Cave Bear chronicles the early life of Ayla. As a young Cro-Magnon girl, Ayla's parents are killed in an earthquake at the beginning of the novel when she was just five years of age. She is rescued by Iza, the Clan's medicine woman, and she is brought into the Clan. However, Ayla is uncomfortable with the rules and customs of her adopted people and she makes a series of costly mistakes that eventually lead to her exile…

Broud
Broud is the son of Brun's mate, Ebe, and is therefore destined to become the next leader of The Clan. He is also shallow, vain, egotistical, impatient, and illogical. Yet he is a brilliant dancer, a fearless hunter, and a great storyteller. His resentment of Ayla begins early on, and grows stronger as they grow up; he resents her strength, resourcefulness, and the fact that she does not respect him…

Brun
Brun is the leader of The Clan. He is a very traditional ruler and does not like to upset the old ways. However, he is very concerned about doing whatever is necessary to help his people survive. His only blind spot is for Broud. He knows that Broud is a vain, selfish boy—but Brun cannot bring himself to break the tradition of giving power to the son of his mate…

Creb
Creb (also known as The Mog-Ur) is a great holy man and a respected member of the Clan. He is the brother of Brun and Iza. Born deformed, Creb was later horribly scarred in an attack by a cave bear. This attack cost him his right eye and heightened his ability to speak to and interpret the sayings of the "spirits": the supernatural entities that The Clan believed surrounded them…

Durc
Durc is Ayla's son. Born when his mother was only eleven years of age, he is half Neanderthal and half Cro-Magnon. The Clan decides that he is deformed and must die, but Ayla forces the Clan to accept him by hiding for seven days. Creb realizes that Durc is the future of the Clan people…

Iza
Iza is Ayla's adopted mother and the sister of both Creb and Brun. She is also the greatest medicine woman of the entire species, her status being handed down in an unbroken chain from mother to daughter for countless generations. It is Iza who discovers a starved, scared, half-dead, five year-old Ayla and nurses her back to health. She also decides to train Ayla as a medicine woman…

Uba
Uba is Iza's biological daughter and Ayla's adopted sister. She and Ayla are devoted to each other and she silently agrees to raise Durc when Ayla is cursed…

Themes
  • Nature versus Nurture
  • Individual and Society
  • Cultural Stagnation Equals Extinction
  • Problems with Patriarchy