Having read Stephen Baxter's 'Evolution', taking a broad scope on human evolution, I had a hankering for more stories of the deep past. 'Clan of the Cave Bear' by Jean M Auel, the first of a six book series, is a great introduction to the beginnings of humanity.
Following a young girl called Ayla this fictional account of her life with the Clan is an absorbing human drama. Lost in an earthquake the five year old Ayla finds refuge with the Clan who, with some reluctance, accept her as one of their own. All except the son of the leader of the Clan, Broud, who is filled with intense hate and jealously towards the stranger.
Among the Clan is their Mog-Ur, the crippled magician Creb, who looks after Ayla along with her surrogate mother Iza. Ayla grows up in the Clan, but she is profoundly different from them, as demonstrated when she tries her hand at hunter, a sport forbidden to women of the Clan.
From careful research and use of imagination Auel brings the life of these cave people to life and it is very different from the knuckle dragging, club wielding thugs so often presented to us. Full of detail and feeling this book helps us to understand the beginnings of our species.
Evolution moves pretty quickly these days but back then these people could sustain the same lifestyle for tens of thousands of years; a stability thoroughly lost now. Reading this book how radically different the environment was back then, a smaller global population, a land coming out of the Ice Age and a life centred on hunting for food.
We might want to go back to that time but Auel is careful not to romanticise such a world as it was one full of danger. At the beginning Ayla is almost killed by a cave lion, in the Clan women must submit to the men which even allows rape, they had no knowledge of where babies came from and the Spirits were the honoured unknown forces that seem to do what they wish regardless. It was a fearful place.
Though there was great fear there was also great love, and kinship between people were strong and family everything. They meet at Clan Gatherings for a combination of sports, politics, ceremony and finding prospective mates. They were able to do more than just survive.
Going back into time was an experience I deeply enjoyed as it is so removed from the routines and life I live, making me wonder what it would be like to be Clan.
