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The Clan of the Cave Bear


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The Clan of the Cave BearYears ago, while still in college, a "foine" sister I was infatuated with, recommended that I read The Clan of the Cave Bear. It was not a book I would have ever picked up on my own in fact the title made no sense to me.

 

For no other reason than her recommendation, I read and ultimately and I enjoyed the book a great deal. The story and the woman are perhaps the only reason I recall the book to this day

 

The book, like all books I really enjoy is a love story.  In this case familial love. Not one of biology, but adoption.  It is not like any adoption story that you'll ever read.  

 

The story came to my mind during a dragged out debate I'm having with @Chevdove, who believes that Neanderthals are still among us rather than being extinct as all the current scientific data tells us.

 

What I did not know when reading this story, over 35 years ago was that it tells the story of a Homo Sapien girl being adopted by an Neathanderthal clan [my take thinking back on the story]. 

 

It really is a brilliant story and I highlighly recommend it.

 

Side bar: Now I don't sell this book on AALBC, so I can't post a link to this title here on this site (technically I could but I don't feel like adding this book to my database). In the past, I would have simply linked readers to Amazon, but since I'm boycotting Amazon, now I figure it is a good time to test the Bookshop affiliate program, which has been getting so much press lately. 

 

As a bookseller, I could not think of any benefits of Bookshop to AALBC, at least until now.  I'll experiment with linking readers to bookshop for books that I recommend, but do not plan to stock or sell, because they are outside the scope of books we cover on AALBC.

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I do think you would like it @Chevdove 

 

People wonder what happened to the Neanderthals and how did they get swiped out.  I always just assumed that the same thing happened to them that happens to any race, culture, civilization, species, now planet that encounters more than a handful of europeans total annihilation 😉  (I'm surprised this is not the theory @Pioneer1 buys into).

 

 

 

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7 hours ago, Troy said:

do think you would like it @Chevdove 

 

I do plan to look into the Bookshop Affiliate program first and then look into this book. Since this forum is for Black Literature, then would that be a reason that you won't list this book? Just wondering. 

 

Wow, @Troy i just re-read your first post and just caught this:

 

On 4/17/2020 at 5:54 PM, Troy said:

What I did not know when reading this story, over 35 years ago was that it tells the story of a Homo Sapien girl being adopted by an Neathanderthal clan [my take thinking back on the story]. 

 

 

This is enlightening; your realization of Homo sapien vs Homo neanderthalensis as separate species.

But also, I would like to clarify too. I am questioning scientist on what they report about their findings on Neanderthals. Neanderthals MRCA--the Denisovans, I would say yes, they are definitely extinct.

 

On 4/17/2020 at 5:54 PM, Troy said:

The story came to my mind during a dragged out debate I'm having with @Chevdove, who believes that Neanderthals are still among us rather than being extinct as all the current scientific data tells us.

 

"Neanderthals are still among us rather than being extinct as all the current scientific data tells us."

 

The current scientific data tells us that mostly all Europeans and Asians carry about 2% to 3% Neanderthal DNA and have traits--visible traits but, however they conclude that Neanderthals are extinct; yet in specific titles of articles published by National Geographic and etc, they say "Why Am I Neanderthal" and "Most people are Part-Neanderthal ...Hybrid vigor".

 

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/neanderthal/

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/10/04/most-people-are-part-neanderthal-that-may-be-a-protection-against-viruses

 

 

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On 4/19/2020 at 2:50 AM, Chevdove said:

National Geographic and etc, they say "Why Am I Neanderthal" and "Most people are Part-Neanderthal ...Hybrid vigor".

 

These titles are unfortunate.  They are designed to attract readers in our hyper-competitive online environment.  Even if the articles themselves are perfectly fine, the titles create a bias for the reader coloring how the article is interpreted. Of course these articles also attract readers who already have the bias...

 

The National geographic knows full well that no one on Earth is a Neanderthal.  I know this without reading the article.  I defy you to find a statement in the article that counter this Chevdove.

 

Unfortunately competition on the web is a race to the bottom, so you have "reputable" periodicals running articles with very misleading titles.  The result is just a lot more confusion.  These misleading titles causes off sorts of confusion and can even be deadly when the subject is corna virus or climate change.

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Guest Word Dr. Chi-town

I recognize both the book title and the author's name. It's been a very long time since I read this, but remember that I really liked it at the time.

 

I remember promo material saying that the author had done no scholarly research to create the characters and plot, yet as I recall, it was a best seller. 

 

I don't remember the plot but In one chapter the main character noted that the beings she encountered had an unusual habit of pulling back their lips and showing their teeth (smiling).

 

Her later books had more research and were equally popular. Can't recall any titles, though. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 4/20/2020 at 1:09 PM, Troy said:

he National geographic knows full well that no one on Earth is a Neanderthal.  I know this without reading the article. 

 

Ah! @Troy The National geographic is a reliable source and would NOT support lies but rather support scientific data. Their title has substance whether or not you believe it. 

It would be absolute truth that no one on earth is full Neanderthal. No scientist believe that because they see the data. However, their title goes into depth about 'Part-Neanderthal' and 'Hybrid Vigor'.

 

 

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