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Caveman

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 for its inaccuracy, as it is dependent on misconceptions of early humans. 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 hairy, clothed in animal skins, armed with bone or wood clubs, intelligent, and aggressive. They are often shown 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. 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 "caveman" or "living in a cave" have become cultural metaphors for a modern human who supposedly displays traits of brutishness or extreme ignorance.

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. 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.

• Walking with Cavemen
• Walking with Beasts

• 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
• Callum McGuinness in the BBC documentary "The Modern Day Caveman"

• Three Ages (1923 film), 1923
• One Million Years B.C., 1966
• 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 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

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

• Human evolution
• Paleolithic
• Cro-Magnon
• Neanderthals

• 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