# Anyone going to watch Walking with Cavemen?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-going-to-watch-walking-with-cavemen/182098>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 15, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-going-to-watch-walking-with-cavemen/182098 "2003-06-15T23:34:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\
**Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-going-to-watch-walking-with-cavemen/182098/1 "2003-06-15T23:34:43Z")

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It’s on Discovery Channel at 8pm. I liked Walking with Dinosaurs, and I thought I’d give it a whirl.

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**Author:** ![Major\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Major\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Kong)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-going-to-watch-walking-with-cavemen/182098/2 "2003-06-17T01:49:19Z")

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I saw it. It was OK. It seemed like a lot of conjecture. They gave a very limited view of what life was like for “caveman”.

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**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-going-to-watch-walking-with-cavemen/182098/3 "2003-06-17T02:11:09Z")

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I watched it. I was sort of vaguely disappointed. It was pretty cool though.

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-going-to-watch-walking-with-cavemen/182098/4 "2003-06-17T02:15:22Z")

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Yeah, they tried to show too much, not deeply enough – this has been a problem with all the “Walking With” series after the original (Dinosaurs). The technicals were OK. Then again there’s only so much you can do with actors in prosthetics and computer-sim cenozoic beasts.

I would have liked it a lot if for the very early period (australopithecines through early Homo) they would have had a segment showing how for some prolonged periods Africa had multiple distinct species of hominid simultaneously. Y’know, show africanus/afarensis/boisei/habilis on the same time frame; avoid reinforcing the linear-ladder fallacy (they did make brief points about that re: latter periods).

But yes, there was much speculation… for instance this presentation seemed to be of the school that the heidelberg/neanderthal men did have a spoken language, even if “abstractions” weren’t in their minds. And it was stated as fact that meat in the diet led to brain development.