Caveman

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For the 1981 film, see Caveman (film).

A typical depiction of a caveman, as seen in a Minute Maid advertisement.

A caveman is a popular stylized characterization of how early humans or hominids may have looked and behaved. The term is sometimes used colloquially to refer to Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, or Homo sapiens of the Paleolithic era.

The term has been discouraged for its inaccuracy, as it mostly refers to misconceptions of early humans. In the past, many people shared the view of the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes that the life of early humanity and the state of nature was "...solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short". The modern scientific perception of prehistoric lifestyle is now that of the hunter-gatherer.

Cavemen are usually portrayed as being hairy, clothed in animal skins, armed with clubs, shown using that club to knock a potential mate unconscious so he can drag her by the hair to his cave, unintelligent, and aggressive. They are often shown as living contemporaneously with dinosaurs, a situation totally contradicted by archaeological and paleontological evidence. Furthermore, though cavemen are often shown as living in caves, the lack of habitable caves makes this depiction of early humanity inaccurate.

The comic strips B.C. and Alley Oop and the 1960s American animated television series The Flintstones portray cavemen. Cavemen are also often seen in advertising, including advertisements for Minute Maid. More recently, GEICO has launched a series of television commercials where GEICO announcers are repeatedly denounced by modern cavemen for perpetrating a stereotype of unintelligent, backward cavemen.