IN DEFENSE OF THE CAVE-MAN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3334, 16 August 1926, Page 8

IN DEFENSE OF THE CAVE-MAN.

With the' embarrassing trick science Ims of coufounding our most cherished convictions, wo are now, it seems, forced to abandon —or draw laughtor of the knowing upon us—our conception of the cave-man as an all but man-eating, certainly wife-beating oaf, distinguished chiefly by hair and an animal pelt. As a matter of fact, he was a simple, kindly, happy hunter, not at all brutal and selfish as men go, who struggled hard for a livelihood, wasWdnd of his male, and whittled household implements for her beside the hearth in the winter months, played with his children, took care of the old. and hurled his dead with affectionate care. A man, who beside all this had a strong sense of the beautiful, and could express that sense in carvings and paintings. Such at least was the Oro-mag-non cave-man who lived in Europe 110,000 to 2-5,000 years ago. as his life and nature are reconstructed bv the authorities who are responsible for our knowledge of Ids existence. The evidence in his defence is admirably presented by one of these authorities, Professor liarold O. Whitnall, in the (Scientific Monthly (New York) for June.

tty vocation the Cro-niaguun were hunters, bv avocation artists, we are told:

The cave-man dragged from his remote prehistoric past to be the scapegoat of the race, has symbolically received the sins of all his descendants. But now he has risen from his tomb (aided by the spades ol the Pre-his-torians) and demands justice to his memory and recognition of his virtues. Physically they were superb specimens of mankind, of majestic stature, averaging nearly six feet, sinewy in limb, deep chested and with a large head balanced on a muscular yet moderately slender neck. . . . They left behind imperishable evidences ol their industry ami culture in the form of tools, utensils, weapons, ornaments and art.

Because of the change in climate nrecedmg, tlu: Fourth CUuciutiou, the Crumagnons were forced to take up their abode in caves, which seems to have been a spur to their social development as much as was the bleak climate which called upon them for energetic effort—adversity- which Professor Whitnall calls Nature's great whip to progress. Among .oilier results ot his poverty was monogamy, with its usual outcome, equality and respect lor the wile. Wo have studiously avoided introducing any element that could be called emotional into deluding the oneman against the charge of cruelty and complete bestiality. Yet is it permissible to Jock at him as a human being and accord him natural kindness anti even the glimmerings of conjugal love. . . . it has-been shown that economic conditions and a natural balance between the sexes, with propinquity added, especially the latter, produced affection akin to love.

The cave-man hunted about J(J different kinds of wild animals, most important among them the reindeer, who provided him with food, tallow for light and heat, hide for clothing, and horns and bones for various industrial and artistic purposes, while the guts and tendons were used for cord and thread. Other favorite animals were the rose, bison, and mammoth, beautiful objects being made from the ivory tusks of the latter. In the representsion of these animals in carvings and polychrome drawings on the cavern wails, nearly the whole tribe seemingly excelled. During the closing stages of the caveman period, fishing seems to have largely taken the place of hunting, and the first simple and crude bone harpoons were developed into an advanced, double-barbed type.

01 their artistic achievements. Prolessor Henry Fairfield Oshoni says: ‘‘These people were the Paleolithic Greeks; artistic observation and representation and a true sense of proportion and ot beauty were instinct with them from the beginning.” If we think of these cave men as men who-wore in the childhood or the race we can better understand them. They • wore crude and ignorant . . . but ii is not the cave-man whom we should blame for what is low and vile in society. .His life was indeed a simple and primitive one, but it was as tree Horn selfishness, greediness and all that constitutes ‘‘man's inhumanity to maji” as any savage race of which we have any knowledge.