"Caveman" is not a specifically scientifically recognized state in the evolution of hominids. However, when most people discuss "Cavemen" they are discussing one of two groups, Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons.

The Neanderthals were a separate co-occurring species of hominid that evolved separately from humans. They were probably our closest non human relatives before they all died out. Some people theorize they actually interbred with Cro-Magnons and that some of their genes are still swimming around in our pool. I personally like this theory, but there is not science to back it up.

The Cro-Magnons who the "Geico Cavemen" seem to be are essentially us. The difference between Cro-Magnons and Homo sapiens is essentially as the commercial points out is two bits (the cost of a shave and a hair cut).

As Cro-Magnons are essentially humans with primitive technology, it is felt by most scientists that if one where to be transported to our world they would have little difficulty interacting and adapting to our world (unfrozen Cavemen lawyers are a possibility, film at 11). As to Neanderthals we know much less about their intelligence level as they existed as an individual species for such a short time. What we do know about them is that they did have tools, occasionally arguably more elaborate than comparable Cro-Magnon tools, and seemed to have some sort of ritualized customs implying an awareness beyond the self. As such it is entirely possible that they too would have little difficulty (beyond that of any immigrant) to adjusting to our modern society.

I doubt there is any great cultural meaning to the ads except that it is funny that this caveman (who is essentially a hairy affluent white guy) feels put upon by his cleaner shaved brethren and receives no sympathy from his peers or his therapist. One interesting fact of the commercials is of course that despite being offended by the popular view of cavemen and feeling it is applied to himself. The main character is not in fact a caveman, in that he does not live in a cave. While he may be a Cro-Magnon he lives in a well appointed high-rise apartment building (it is not clear if he owns or rents) and interacts with a community of Cro-Magnons who seem equally affluent and urban.

Perhaps the culturally significant joke isn't about minorities but about people who claim minority status despite the fact that their status as a minority and the attendant oppression long ago ended. Various European American groups leap to mind, but I don't see a point in mentioning them here.

Either way, Cro-Magnons were not a primitive species, they were us, but hairy.

Thanks,

"There is a truth there, in that fundamentalist ministers often try to sell it that way to their flocks."

Which was my point, evolution becomes a hot point because authority figures create a climate of absolute authority with regards to it.

It is not that people are accepting creationism because they are stupid; it is that they are rejecting a science that is being pressed on them without explanation.

There is no mystery to fundamentalism; there is only what is put forth. Explanations are easy, and are offered at the drop of a hat. To truly understand evolution, you need to understand exactly how the biochemistry of cells work. Not just be able to name the parts of the cell which could have just as easily come forth fully formed from the head of Zeus, but understand how the elemental atoms of the molecules that make up the hydrocarbons that make up everything interact. Without that knowledge evolution is just another God creating things in its own image. To reject this popular but unknowable God for an easier to understand God is as American as apple pie.

There is a really good film called “insignificance” in which there is a scene where an actress (ostensibly Marilyn Monroe) explains to a scientist (Einstein) the theory of relativity. Upon her completion a smiling scientist asks the actress if she understands what she just told him, to which she say no, but that she knows it. This of course upsets the scientist, because simply parroting back a theory without understanding what it means is no more knowledge of science than parroting back your belief that the moon is made of green cheese because it is what someone told you.

Fundamentalists can claim an embattled status because their way of life is embattled. And Americans by and large love an underdog, which this embattled belief system is. It is an underdog because when faced against real understanding of science or theology it crumbles into so much dust.

The way to combat creationist science is to teach actual science, not the rote memorization of taxonomy that passes for biology today, but the true understanding of the world.

If you want to see creationism go away, let it be taught in schools but insist that science be taught as well. The truth will set us all free if we trust in children to understand it, and not continue to force an English major’s view of science upon them.

(My apologies to all English majors, for that last crack, but I do feel your over representation in the teaching force has lead to some of our problems with scientific understanding in this country.)