Earth's Children

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Earth's Children is a series of historical fiction novels written by Jean M. Auel, who has sold 34 million books worldwide.

There are five novels in the series so far and a sixth is being written. This series is set in Paleolithic times, based in many locations across Europe, south of the great sheets of ice that covered the world at that time. It mainly covers the experiences of the protagonist Ayla with various cultural groups of Cro-Magnon humans as well as with the genetically and cultural distinct Neanderthals. The series is based largely on archaeology and anthropology, with healthy doses of romance and poetic license. As with many series of speculative fiction, there is a substantial fanbase that organize websites, hold meetings, and write fan fiction. The author's treatment of unconventional sexual practices has earned the series a place on the American Library Association's 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000.[1]

1 The Books
2 The Setting
3 External links

[edit] The Books

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Clan of the Cave Bear was originally released in September 1980. It introduces Ayla, the main character of the series, a Cro-Magnon child orphaned in an earthquake and wounded by a cave lion who is adopted by a group of Neanderthals who call themselves 'the Clan of the Cave Bear'.

The Valley of Horses was originally released in September 1982. Ayla, cast out of the Clan, goes in search of the Others. She settles in a small valley for the winter and lives alone there for three years. At the same time, a Zelandonii man by the name of Jondalar begins a long Journey with his brother.

The Mammoth Hunters was originally released in Fall 1985. Ayla and Jondalar visit a tribe known as the Mamutoi, or Mammoth Hunters, who live near Ayla's valley. The Mamutoi adopt Ayla, and she and Jondalar's love is threatened by Ayla's brief affair with Ranec, a member of the camp.

The Plains of Passage was originally released in November 1990. Ayla and Jondalar travel west, back to Zelandonii territory, encountering dangers from both nature and humans along the way.

The Shelters of Stone was originally released on the 30 April, 2002, and is the most recent novel of the series. Ayla and Jondalar reach the Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, Jondalar's home, and prepare to tie the knot and have a child. Unfortunately, nothing is ever simple, especially not with Ayla's background.

[edit] The Setting

As the stories take place during the Ice Age, populations are small in number, surviving mostly in sedentary hunter-gatherer fashion. Prior to the discovery of metal, flint is the primary medium for the creation of tools.

[edit] People

Two primary cultures vie for resources, space and survival: the Clan, which is what Neanderthals call themselves, and Cro-Magnon Homo sapiens (whom Ayla, with her Clan upbrinigng, generally referred to as the Others). Both races are fairly different in culture, society and technology, but with some overlap: both depend on flint for their tools, both recognize the importance of fire; both hunt and gather.

Physiologically, the Clan are heavier and larger than men of the Others. They are very slow to embrace change and to innovate, and still chase after animals to spear them (the Others have at least gotten round to throwing things). Their tools, clothing and implements are similarly less refined, and sometimes less effective than their Homo sapiens counterparts. The Clan's reluctance to change is a function of their cognition; they are depicted as being much closer to their racial/genetic memories, and the average Clan child needs only be 'reminded' of a thing to know it permanently. "Flatheads," as the Others call them (due to the distinctive back-sloping forehead), have a far more limited vocal repertoire than Others, and communicate instead via a word-based (as opposed to alphabet-based) sign language. Auel describes this language as being quite nuanced, especially as bodily posture, facial expression and other physical actions—in short, body language—can help expedite and expand upon the basic vocabulary of the hand signals themselves. Clan members, for this reason, become highly adept at reading body language and cannot be lied to; while one can certainly spell an untruth with one's hands, one's posture will give it away. Finally, The Clan have not only a colloquial, everyday language, but a more formal "spirit language" that every Clan member, anywhere, can understand; this facilitates easy communication without having to become multilingual, the way Others do.

The Others generally look upon flatheads as animals, hardly better than bears (the lack of vocal language is a primary factor in this verdict); the Clan, for their part, seem to have no opinions on the Others, and simply do their best to leave them alone.

Whether accurately or not, Auel depicts Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal as being able to interbreed. These half-breeds are generally not looked upon with favor. The Clan routinely exposes malformed children, while the Others persecute them with labels of 'abomination' (which may or may not be a kinder fate).

[edit] Organization

"The Clan" is an overarching term; every Neanderthal is a member of the Clan. Organizationally, they live in smaller tribes, also called "clans" but named after the man who leads them; for instance, Ayla is adopted into Brun's clan. Later, when Brun steps down and, as is traditional, passes leadership of the clan on to the son of his mate, it becomes known as Broud's clan. Every seven years, Clans from the immediate area meet in a Clan Gathering; the only one Auel has depicted consisted of approximately 250 people. The Clan is mostly patriarchal: women cannot hunt, make tools, lead a Clan or become a Mog-ur (a spiritual leader or priest). But men cannot become medicine women, a job that is almost as prestigious as clan leader.

"The Earth Children" is an overarching term; their primary allegiances are to their people and their caves. Each culture has a name for itself (Zelandonii, for instance, means "Children of the Great Earth Mother who live in the Southeast") and may subdivide into smaller Caves or Camps (the Twenty-Ninth Cave of the Zelandonii, the Lion Camp of the Mamutoi). Curiously, however, most Other culture names includes their word for Great Earth Mother: Doni in Zelandonii, Mut in Mamutoi ("Children of the Great Earth Mother who hunt Mammoths"), Gaea in Sungaea (translation unknown), etc. Their culture is far more egalitarian, with different twists and customs at every hand; Mamutoi Camps, for instance, are co-ruled by headmen and headwomen who are biological siblings, and the Sharamudoi, a people that lives half-on and -off the Great Mother River, form complex co-mate systems between river couples (Ramudoi) and land couples (Shamudoi). Each entire people generally gathers for Summer Meetings every year, during which a number of important ceremonies, such as the Matrimonial, take place.

[edit] Religion

The Clan worships animal spirits, most notably Ursus the Cave Bear, for, as is related in Ayla's favorite Clan legend, it was the Spirit of the Great Cave Bear that taught the Clan to wear fur, live in caves, and store up reserves during the seasons of abundance in order to survive the winter. The honoring of Ursus is what binds the Clan together as a people, and it is for this reason that the Bear Ceremony, and Feast of Ursus which follows it, held at the Clan Gathering are the highest religious rituals of the Clan. As described in Chapter 22 of Clan of the Cave Bear when Brun's clan chanced to see a living cave bear on their way to the Clan Gathering, "But it was more than the tremendous size of the animal that held the clan spellbound. This was Ursus, the personification of the Clan itself. He was their kin, and more, he embodied their very essence. His bones alone were so sacred they could ward off any evil. The kinship they felt was a spiritual tie, far more meaningful than any physical one. It was through his spirit that all clans were united into one and meaning was given to the Gathering they had traveled so far to attend. It was his essence that made them Clan, the Clan of the Cave Bear."

The Clan's animal spirits are always male. However, the ancient spirits that are honored in the highest ceremonies--the spirits which can be spoken to only by the mog-urs--bear female names. Creb also speculates that Ayla's totem may be the Cave Lioness, rather than the Cave Lion, although this would be unprecedented in the Clan.

All Clan members are assigned a totem at birth, and boys are marked with that totem's ritual tattoo as part of the ceremony that marks their passage from child to man following their first major hunting kill. People are also believed to possess personality traits similar to those of their totem spirit. Totems are also responsible for pregnancy; a woman's moon time is believed to be her totem fighting off the presences of marauding male totems. Should the male totem prove stronger, the woman will become pregnant. If the totem is not strong enough by itself, it may ask for the help of one or more other totems, in which case it may be one of the other totems that leaves behind an impregnating essence. It is considered especially lucky for a boy to have the same totem as the mate of his mother. Totems are assigned by Mog-urs, men whose talent is understanding of the world of spirits. Each individual Clan has its own Mog-ur, but one is traditionally recognized as being first among them.

The Others worship the Great Earth Mother, and to some extent the Moon, her Fair Celestial Mate. The Great Earth Mother goes by many names, depending on which people you ask, but is worshipped unconditionally as the source of all bounty. Faith and spiritual leaders are administered by... Well, once again, the name changes with the people: a Mamutoi priest is called Mamut ("mamuti" in plural), a Zelandonii priest is called Zelandoni ("zelandonia" plural), a Losadunai priest is Losaduna (plural unknown, but potentially "losadunia," as Auel later points out that the Losadunai language is very similar to Zelandonii; Ayla speculates that they once were Zelandonii, before they became their own people), and so on. Those Who Serve abandon their personal names in favor of the name of their people and god. To avoid confusion, they generally take appendices after their cave or camp (Mamut of the Lion Camp, Zelandoni of the Ninth Cave), leading Ayla to muse that they have traded their names for counting words i.e. numbers. As with the Clan, one among Those Who Serve is generally acknowledged (or elected) First. (There is no Last.)

[edit] Sex and Reproduction

Whether accurately or not, Auel has incorporated sex into her prehistoric culture in a number of unique ways. Neither Clan nor Other society requires monogamy, and sexual rituals are a significant part of Other culture.

Among the Clan, there exists a hand sign that only men can make and only women can receive, instructing the female in question to present for copulation. Any man of the Clan (a male who has made his first hunting kill) may give this instruction to any woman of the Clan (a female who has passed menarche), should he feel the need for relief, regardless of marital status. (The female's state of arousal is never addressed directly, though Auel suggests that reception of the signal may contribute to an immediate interest; certainly Clan women are able to communicate and encourage sexual desire through body language, so enjoyment of the act is not unknown.) Because the Clan believes babies are created by the Totems and have no concept of any connection between copulation and conception, physical lines of descent are traced solely through the mother, but the children of a man's mate are in some ways his heir (especially in regards to the son of the leader's mate becoming the future leader) and a woman's mate is expected to provide for any children she bears and train her sons to hunt. Who marries whom is decided solely by the men, though wise leaders do of course take the prospective bride's feelings into account (inside a close-knit Clan, which can be as small as thirty people, even one discordant marriage can cause huge amounts of trouble).

Sexual maturity is the subject of semi-religious customs among the Others, both of which take place at Summer Meetings. Every year, women volunteer to become sexual tutors to boys who have reached maturity (and made their first kill); these women are generally furnished with some distinguishing marking, often the Mother's sacred color red (red dye on the soles of the feet for the Mamutoi; a red fringe among the Zelandonii); the name of their office changes from culture to culture. That these women are often pregnant by the end of the summer is believed to be the Great Earth Mother smiling upon their piety. Young women who have reached menarche, on the other hand, are the subject of a far more formal ceremony called First Rites, in which she is ritually deflowered by a man (often specially chosen by her friends and family). Both these relationships are meant to be solely physical, and social contact between the involved parties is frowned upon for at least a year afterwards. Finally, during "Mother festivals" which take place at various times of the year, men and women are free to copulate with whoever they choose. Once again, these polygamous practices blur the lines of heredity, and descent is generally traced only through one's mother. However, certain familial resemblences have been noticed (for instance, Jondalar looks almost identical to Dalanar, his mother's spouse at the time of Jondalar's conception), which has led to the belief that the Great Earth Mother chooses the "spirit" or "essence" of a nearby man to impregnate the woman with.