Christopher’s Comments (group member since Mar 06, 2021)

Christopher’s comments from the BBC Big Read 2021 group.

Wow, you'd really be out there! No tribe, no tools, no weapons, no extra clothes. It's hard to imagine ourselves in that position.

In the 6th chapter, we get back to Neanderthal anatomy. They have shorter forearms and legs than Homo sapiens sapiens. She says "Not fine control but leverage was the price they paid for strength." That sentence makes no sense. I think it should read "mobility was the price they paid for leverage that gave strength." I get the feeling again that the author was reading about something and incorporated it into the book without really understanding it. Others have said she does "info dumps" and some sections seem to read form an encyclopedia. As an author, you really, really have to understand your subject. You really have to do your homework.

Homo sapiens sapiens have comparatively weak shoulders. They are easily, and often, injured by something as simple as a fall or yanking too hard on a tuber. Ever had a rotator cuff injury? The sacrifice in strength brings a great advantage in mobility. We can throw a baseball, or a rock, at 100 mph. We can kill almost anything on the planet with a good and well aimed throw, whether a rock or a lance. The point she is getting at is the Neanderthal may have had less throwing ability due to a tighter, stronger shoulder joint. Also, short forearms don't give you a quicker throw or thrust, they give you a stronger thrust or jab. The muscle works on a shorter lever arm with a *stronger* force from better leverage, but lower speed. Looks like Neanderthals were built for a sturdy stance and a strong and powerful thrust.

I was moved by the description of the Clan sitting around using bones and hides as utensils and dishes. Why not use bones for every possible use? "Jaw and head bones were ladles, cups, and bowls." That gives us a real view of the 'cave man'. The animals become not only the meat, but the very elements and utensils of daily life. The Clan is intimately connected with their environment. In our lives, every plastic spoon, drinking straw, and piece of tech separates us.

Pate 83, she says they cooked the bison whole, and then feasted on it. That's my understanding, they lower the animal into the cooing pit. They also carried it back to the camp on two poles. That's hard to believe, 300 pounds per person. I would think they would cut it into quarters, like we do today, and let someone carry each fore-quarter, two men carry each hind-quarter, someone else the neck, another the ribs. After the feast, it wasn't all eaten. In fact, "there were left-overs to spare." Not being familiar with hunting or butchering, I think she grossly underestimates how much meat is on a bison bull, even a young one. We'll use a modern bison, maybe this one was a little smaller:
Gross Weight: 1100 lbs
% yield: 56% or 616 pounds
About 20 people in the tribe, so even if a person gorged themself and ate an entire pound at a sitting, that is still about 31 meals for 20 people. You would never roast the whole animal and then leave it to rot, as they would have needed to. You would cut the meat into fine strips, and put it out to smoke and dry. Or, if in a Northern country, you could burry it to freeze in the Fall. It's the ice age after all! Then you go out all winter and cut frozen strips off it from the "freezer." Sadly, our Clan has more than leftovers, they have a 97% of the meat left. What are they going to do with it? Will another chapter show them smoking it?

I did really enjoy the drama of the hunt recreation around the fire. You can hear and feel how the pounding of the spears on the ground let everyone not only hear, but feel the pounding bison hooves! It's a dramatic scene, right down to the sensuality of the final "thrust" of the spear. End of the ceremony? Of course, when you mix black carbon ashes into fat and smear it into a wound, you not only have a scarification, you have a tattoo! (page 88). A great description, and a great scene in the dancing firelight if you could have been there!

In the 5th chapter we learn the complex ways that mating and grouping occur in the Clan. More importantly, we get to follow a great hunt. Not only do the humans have numbers, but they have much greater distance endurance than the bison, and almost any other animal on the planet. Did you know that humans can run down most other creatures? Partly, we are more efficient runners on two legs. We also have a very efficient spring system in the leg tendons, that returns much of our energy with every stride.

However, science tells us the great advantage is our lack of fur and copious sweat glands that allow us to manage heat better than the lower animals. We feel vulnerable and inadequate at times because we really aren't very fast, but we can, in the end, outrun the bison, the zebra, and sometimes even the horse. It's not seed, just endurance. They get hot and exhausted, and the human jogs up and stabs them, just like in this story.

Here were find the Clan has found a new cave to call their home, potentially. Choosing a cave is not a simple matter. It's a big decision steeped in both practical considerations, spirituality, and tradition. It's not just a cave, but a location. From this point, their lives will emanate: all their hunts, gatherings, firewood collections, battles, and so on. Probably, it is the most critical decision of all.

We are used to having shelters around us. How much more important for these people. When you think about it, a cave is so much better than a house. There's an impregnable rock wall behind and around you. The security is unmatched. Sometimes there is a secret escape tunnel in the back. It's easy to see out, but not easy to see in. It's warm in winter, and cool in summer. Often there is a built-in water supply. Large cave patterns can be learned, but are impossible for invaders to understand. The downside? The are really limited in number!

I highlighted another statement, which relates back to my chapter 2 comments. "The small clan of hunter-gatherers lived off the land, and this land held an over-whelming abundance." This is another reason the cave location was so critical.

Here the clan struggles with acceptance of Ayla. Both inclusion and xenophobia are powerful forces. You should keep Others away, as they could be spies, saboteurs, or parasites. But you should also welcome Others, as they bring genetic diversity essential for life, new trade, new skills, and new knowledge. Other than the cave, this is probably one of the greatest decision the leaders face. We see they made the right decision, for without Ayla they never would have found the "perfect' cave and home.

Ayla is having a hard time settling in, and Iza is becoming a surrogate mother to her. I find the herbal knowledge of the medicine woman a fascinating topic. Most of our modern medications come from nature, or were found there first. Iza takes willow bark and makes a pain medication and fever reducer to help with Ayla's infection. By trial and error, ancient people discovered many secrets of nature.
On page 37 there's a description of certain mental functions being dominate in one sex or another. That might seem odd in an era where people want to think all races, sexes, and cultures are the same, but she gives a valid reason for the theory. Human brain size is limited by the need for women to give birth to a large head, which puts pressure on hip size in women. Wider pelvis, broader hips, better birthing of large heads, but negative effects on survival if extreme. Already women suffer from less efficient knee joints than men, as they have to take up the abnormal angle of the femur coming down to the knee table from wider hips. Think about that natural selection survival pressure to have efficient, strong knees contrasted with natural selection pressure to have a wider pelvis to give birth to children with bigger, more developed brain vaults!

So, but parsing up the knowledge between male and female: the men with their hunting skills and the women with the memory for herbs and food sources, nature could keep the brain size manageable. Interesting idea! This also made men and women completely dependent on each other, not just for procreating but for daily living.

I was fascinated by the procedure for testing plants on page 38. How do you safely test a plant for poison or medicinal quality? First, you rely on your long lineage of genetic memory, your tribal traditions you have learned, and on all your senses: smell, taste, and so on. Nature makes poisonous things often bitter, and leads you to eat good things by sweetness. Smell will alert you even sooner, perhaps a mile away when it comes to a cesspool, a graveyard, or a rotting carcass. But when something is unknown, there is the method described. This particularly applies to medicines, which are often just poisons at low concentrations, and like willow bark or Aspirin, they do taste bitter. You could say that most medicine and poisons taste bitter.

In my line of work, I often hear of children who eat nothing but candy and other junk food. They can't stand to eat any vegetables or fruit. This is completely the parents' fault in failing to properly teach their children how to eat. Human children are very keyed into their parents eating habits, especially from he ages of 1 to 4 years. If a parent spits something out, says something is gross, or refuses to eat something, the child is already genetically programmed to pay attention and remember that thing is probably poison: don't EVER eat it again! You can see this genetic programming in yourself: If you ever ate a certain dish while sick, it's likely you associate that dish with illness and dislike it to this day. A human child should enjoy all foods that are nutritious, that is the normal human condition.

On page 42, the author hints that the Neanderthals are doomed as a race. The kindness of picking up a sapiens was "a failing [not] of him as a leader, it was a failing of his race." There were 'logical consequences' of rescuing her. I think she's getting at the idea that Neanderthals, much less the barbarians, were perhaps the kinder, gentler creature compared with sapiens. Their failure to be cruel and fight the invasion of sapiens from the South was their undoing and ultimate extinction.

Let's close by commenting on the author's excellent descriptive writing. I always appreciate that in a novel. After all, we aren't watching a movie here. We need description to pain the picture and sent the scene.
"The deeper colors of conifers intermingled with the rich primary greens of the broad-leafed trees and the limes and pale-white greens of the small-leafed varieties. Mosses and grass added their shades to the verdant mosaic of lush growth and small plants, from oxalis, the clover like wood sorrel, to tiny succulents clinging to exposed rock faces. Wildflowers were scattered through the wood, white trilliums, yellow violets, rose pink hawthorn, white yellow jonquils and blue and yellow gentians dominated some of the higher meadows. "

Reading Schedule:
Week 1: March 21-27 please read Chapters 1 - 7
Week 2: March 28-Apr 3 please read Chapters 8 - 14
Week 3: April 4-10 please read Chapters 15 - 21
Week 4: April 11-17 please Chapters 22-28

This chapter finds the Clan journeying and looking for a new cave home. Their walking formation, arranged by safety tactics and hierarch is interesting. The author beings to describe the Neanderthals, and in page 11: "She had a large beaky nose, a prognathous jaw jutting out like a muzzle, and no chin." With my understanding of anatomy, I'm not sure what the author's understanding is. The chin is the end of the mandible bones, and Neanderthals had large mandibles. The jaw consists of both the mandible which is movable and the maxilla which is the fixed upper jaw. A prominent mandible would give the man a large chin. I feel like she read some anatomic descriptions of these creatures without really understanding. I don't see anything in the fossil record that would indicate they were bow legged, but they did have shorter limbs.

Truly, seeing the child Homo sapiens sapiens the Home sapiens neanderthalensis (many don't believe a separate species as they interbred) would have appeared misshapen and ugly. Only our vanity would say we were somehow more beautiful to them.

I appreciate on page 15 that the author drew on research that debunks the idea that the hunters primarily fed the Clan. As primitive hunter gatherer cultures have been examined, it is found that while meat is essential and the preferred food (men talk of the ideal food being meat with fan running down their chins), it was the foraging gatherer who created the food stability. Often when men returned from an unsuccessful hunt of many days, while fasting, there was food on the table, gathered by children and women, and the tribe survived. "the women often contributed the greater share, and their sources were more reliable."
This gave me an interesting and new view of what it must have been like to be a hunter-gatherer. In modern life of the agricultural age, we not only feel in control of nature, but the incredible stress of "needing" to be in control for our survival. We have the power to corral animals and plant fields. The agricultural age man can turn the earth, literally to our design. But we really are not in control and we know it. A storm, a drought, lack of rain, too much rain, an early frost - all can bring crop failure and starvation. With power comes great worry. Not so for the gatherer of the Clan. The healthy ecosystem of the planet just provides food. Just as God provides for the birds and they do not go hungry, God provides through nature for the gatherer. The birds have a ready supply of insects and seeds. The gorilla has more leaves than he can eat. Walking through the forest, the herbs, roots, grubs, fruits, nuts, seeds, and fish are readily abundant. You just reach out your hand and eat. So much so, that humans of survived the ages and reached the modern times. What a peace to just let nature provide for you. What a different perspective contrasted to that of modern man.

Moving on to page 21: "Iza held the girl close as she walked back with her, making soothing murmurs that sounded like soft growls." I'm reminded of an associates recent description of the gorillas when he went on a modern safari for photography. They were very close the massive, and potentially dangerous gorillas. The guides carefully instructed them that if they gorillas were making soft growls and murmurs, they were content and happy. Growls can be good!

A lot of people highlighted on page 29. Interesting that Neanderthals had larger cranial cavities and brains than us. More room for the type of brain that retains memories and processes visual information. Like in the elephant, a hunter gatherer lifestyle benefits from a large memory bank: where are the best food sources, what dangerous areas to avoid, where are the best watering holes. We've learned that memories from 10 or more years ago guide the elephants to their watering holes.

In the modern era, we are leaning more and more on the crutch of the peripheral brain. That iPhone you have in your pocket that has your shopping list and the phone numbers of your friends is a peripheral brain, so to speak. It's doing the memory storage for you. It has a GPS function, so while humans have relied on excellent spatial memory for ages, you can still use it to find your way around town. You have given up valuable memory skills to that device. Scientists say our brains may shrink as a result, but become faster at the calculations we need in modern life.

Of course the author's ideas telepathy is pure conjecture, but the idea of racial or genetic memory is sound. We just don't think about it applying to us much. All animals have something we call "instinct," where they just know what to do: how to crack a seed, where to find pollen, how to dig a den, where to live in winter, how to store up food for hibernation. Some of this is learned from parents, but much of it is just genetic memory. When we look at our children, any parent can observe how personality traits are not entirely learned, but in many ways present since someone was a baby. Something they used to call temperament.

Happy Reading.

What an interesting first chapter! The idea of a novel set 35,000 years ago, is in itself very intriguing. Since it's pre-history, of course this will all be fiction, but as I understand it, the author did a lot of research.
I've been reading about the Neanderthals, and there is contention about whether they were a separate species, Homo neanderthalenis, or Homo sapiens neanderthalenis contrasted with Homo sapiens sapiens. In other words, a sub-species? Most take a species to mean the smallest group that can reproduce and have offspring that can reproduce. A mule is a sterile offspring of a horse and donkey, a hybrid, not a separate species. There is no race of mules. While many say Homo neanderthalenis was a separate species, they also state that we have some DNA in some humans that was a product of sexual reproduction between the Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalenis. Obviously, if the latter is true, then we are not a separate species if we bred together.
There is conjecture that some of the improvements in DNA came form them but also some of the disease, autoimmune ones like Crohn's and Lupus.
Much has been made about the large mandible of the Neanderthal. Why does the author keep saying "chinless" when they have a large mandible. Isn't the chin the end of the mandibles? Anyway, another book I read supposed the large jaw was for the work of processing a vegetarian diet. Along with being vegetarian, maybe they were peaceable creatures that did not kill. The other author supposed that perhaps the Homo sapiens, with their small jaw and meat loving ways, were the vicious ones that caused Neanderthals to go extinct. Could Neanderthals actually embody the opposite of what we call "being a Neanderthal?" Even Mr. Biden last week said that people not wearing masks were acting like Neanderthals, smearing the name yet again of these possibly benign and pleasant creatures. Chapter 1 brings up a lot of interesting thoughts to chew on. I hope you are all enjoying, comment below.

Reading Schedule
The average person can easily read 20 pages per half hour. The original book is 468 pages long. We can easily finish in 24 days. Since there are 28 chapters, let's just read a chapter per day with a discussion once per week. We can start Sunday the 21st or we can make it an April read. What do you think, too slow? It should be 15-20 minutes per day.

Ok everyone, Clan of the Cave Bear wins by a significant margin for the first book. Next I will publish a reading schedule.

I think you need to be on desktop version to see the poll

Nice to see more people joining us! Please feel free to comment and discuss!

Hi everyone! Welcome to the book club! Please start by selecting your top 10 books for the first selection. https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/to... Put the books on the group book shelf. I will make a poll for our first book tomorrow.