Jean Auel's Earths Children series

S0rceress0

S0rceress0

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I was talking to an author today as part of my job. I mentioned I was learning about Deaf culture and she told me that if she was Deaf she would be very offended by Jean Auel's Earths Children series. (Clan of the Cave Bear, etc)

I had to sigh a bit. (She's not Deaf, she doesn't have any Deaf family or friends, how would she know?) Is this attitude taking offense a bit too far, or are there Deaf who are offended by the portrayal of cavemen using sign? The books to me are just fiction. What are they to you?
 
I have read her books. I didn't really take offense to the neandertals signing. It is because some people believe that they don't the capable of speaking. She didn't make them out as idiots. Some of them in her books are good people and some are plain mean.

I just am glad that sign language is older than spoken language. The chimps don't speak but they do communicate with noises and signs.
 
I've read the first three books in the series (got bored with The Plains of Passage). I had no problem with the portrayal of sign language, and I think that's absolutely ridiculous that someone, especially a hearing person, would try and turn it into a Deaf thing. The use of sign language was simply Auel's theory that the earlier species of human being didn't have vocal chords capable of producing verbal language.
 
Off topic....my doggie uses body language for me...yawning when she's ready for bed....licking my thigh when she needs to go out....runs round and round when she's excited...barks when someone is at the door...growls when she hears a strange noise....shakes her head when she wants to be left alone....many ways of communication to me and the family....
I don't consider this a "deaf thing"...since she can't talk or even sign, her body language says it all.
 
I remember reading somewhere that visual/gestural language was actually how language began in humans.

So that author was really just following science. No one should be upset.

And my dogs do the same types of things as Rockin Robin's. They can make it very clear what they want.
 
Bottesini said:
I remember reading somewhere that visual/gestural language was actually how language began in humans.

So that author was really just following science. No one should be upset.

And my dogs do the same types of things as Rockin Robin's. They can make it very clear what they want.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh, your little doggie,,,away in "dream land"...one of the cutest pix I've ever seen....it's all I can do not to snuggle with him!
 
rockin'robin said:
Ahhhh, your little doggie,,,away in "dream land"...one of the cutest pix I've ever seen....it's all I can do not to snuggle with him!
Click to expand...

:lol: Joe is a popular guy with the ladies! Even our groomer says she can't resist kissing him. :)

And when we arrived one day while a big manager was there, he said Joe was such a sweet dog, he wished he could have him.

And all this, from a deaf , badly abused, rescue dog. I adore him.
 
I see that Jean Auel has the latest book out - "The Land of Painted Caves". It is her sixth book on the Earth children series. It was supposed to be the last one but I have seen some websites that said that it might not be the last one.
 
I just read that she had a new book but didn't know it was available for sale:)
:cool2: :ty: for news!
 
What I do not like about Auel is that she takes way too long between books. Not counting the last two books in the series, I have read all of them. My favorite of the series is The Valley of Horses.
 
I really liked the first couple of ones, but she got way too repetitive in the last ones. Still I've read them all.

As far as anyone being offended by the cavemen signing - I think I'd be more offended that Ayla and Jondular seemed to have invented just about everything important....

Actually thinking back on the books as far as sign language, I like the fact that she always made sure that it was known that there was FAR more to it than just the gestures: body language, slight differences in posture, direction, etc.
 
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