“James, I dig your extreme masculinity stance, and your primal view. But, I was reading Pillages of Time, and noticed that your Neanderthals have this quasi-matriarchal family structure. Matriarchal Neanderthals? Really James? What the hell, guy?”
-Al
Okay Al, I do not believe in time travel, yet have written 11 time travel novels. It is a mental exercise, bro. I write from the point of view of as many different character types as possible. When it comes to science-fiction I am not an advocate for this theory or that, but essentially an adventure writer who wants to do action with character depth and is willing to experiment with any sci-fi theory.
Personally, if I had to bet, I would guess that the Neanderthals were patriarchal. But, hey, Bro, what’s left of them is quite matriarchal, don’t you think? Look around at all of these sissy boys!
Why did I decide on a matriarchal structure for the Neanderthals in Beyond the Ember Star? Beyond The Ember Star In Print
First, you may not know, that five novels later in Den of the Ender I went with a patriarchal Neanderthal family structure.
I went with a Neanderthal social structure in Europe that was pseudo-matriarchal because of the following reasons:
1. Neanderthals picked flowers and used them in burial rites [not a dude’s job, so I would argue for female shaman]
2. From the evidence of only one antler used to record the lunar cycle, I reckoned that Homo Neanderthalis was concerned with menstrual cycles [something only a hen-pecked dude is worried about]
3. Cave habitation was prominent, and the life in caves, I thought, might argue for a womb-oriented theology, rather than a rain [cock and balls] oriented theology.
4. Evidence I saw in 2011 suggested a low birthrate among Neanderthal women, which increases reproductive value in a community without missile weapons when you are playing the Green Bay Packers with four legs and horns against harp sticks every Sunday just to put meat on the spit. They mostly ate rodeo bulls and had to kill them with hand weapons.
5. I owe Michael Crichton for the first inkling that Neanderthals might have been matriarchal, from his book Eaters of the Dead, in which he attributes the legend of Beowulf to a memory of remnant Neanderthals eating modern humans in the Nordic lands.
6. If we find out that our remnant Neanderthal DNA is matrilineal then it points the finger at Neanderthal women for having left their men for the guys with the better tool kit.
If you want to know what I really think happened to Neanderthals read Jackal And Jill.
