Why are cavemen so often depicted as white even though prehistoric man was most likely dark to avoid sun damage?
by 
RFlagg
ANSWERS: 15
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I think it is probably just a matter of convenience and political agenda. Can you imagine the ruckus that the depiction of a black neanderthal would cause in certain black communities? White actors are easier and using them won't cause a riot.
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More than likely, you're referring to the cavemen from popular entertainment, such as movies. If you were to look to actual anthropological representations of them, you'd probably see something closer to reality.
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Homo Neanderthalus was from Ice Age Europe, and parts of the ancient Middle East, and is the most commonly assosiated primitive man with cavemen. Chances are, as with Modern Europeans (Such as the Swedes, Finns, or Norse)they were, in fact, light skinned. For those from the Middle Eastern region very well may have been darker. Looking at the map of their range, I will also point out they came from the same regions modern Caucasians do. There really is no such thing as an African Neanderthal. The Hominids of that region were of a different species than Homo Neanderthalis. I don't actually remember their scientific name, though... I believe they were descended, or may have been Homo Heidelbergensis. If memory serves, some Heidelbergensis migrated down when the ice age hit and eventually came back to Europe as Cro Magnon man.
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politics, pure politics. But some Northern people may already have been quite light skinned. we cannot know really what their skin colour was.
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Because when the first films came out, the white race was the most accepted. Racism was still in full force. Anything but a white man used to play a caveman would have caused problems, and the film would have been unpopular, either because people refused to see a film that starred people of another race, or out of fear of being hurt by any protesters.
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Ethnocentrism? Or maybe for the same reason Jesus is depicted as being white...
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Most of the remains have been found in Europe, Northern Asia and North America they have been reconstructed through DNA and they had very hairy bodies to protect them from the cold and hot weather. This does not mean that dark cavemen did not exist, the problem is that their remains have not been found yet.
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It's just McCain-Palin Marketing.
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There isn't any conclusive evidence of Neanderthal man's skin color. He probably was light skinned,like today's Europeans. Those who live in cold environments need more exposure to sunlight to produce vitamin D. Seeing as Neanderthal man had lived in Europe for thousands of years he certainly had enough time to evolve to a cold climate.
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Of course caucasions (whites) are from cave dwellers for that is what they classified themselves as caucasions meaning from the caucus mountain range in asia !Duh!
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caven men or neanderthals lived in the north mostly during the ice age so there wasn't much sun like there was in africa so they didn't need as much protection
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The same reason you always see Jesus depicted with blonde hair and blue eyes.
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Because of a lack of knowledge of that era and most directors dont really care. The audience is rarely smart enought to know.
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Because the people drawing the images are also white.
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the out of Africa theory, doesn't mean that everyone was black once 'Cavemen' lived in an iceage, and Africa wasn't a desert at this time, the southern portion was a fertile area like the central US and the upper portion was like Canada don't know where you're going here....
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