Earth's Children: Difference between revisions

** Brun, who would be the best leader ever if he didn't love his [[Jerkass]] son Broud so much.

** Zoug, the old hunter who is all about dignity in the face of brash young [[Jerkass|Jerk Assses]].

* [[Cradle of Loneliness]]: Ayla does this ''Valley of the Horses''. When she is banished from the Clan and forced to leave her son behind, the bag she used to carry him around in becomes the only memento of him.

* [[Does Not Like Men]]: Attaroa, a villain from the fourth book, who was apparently married to a half-Clan husband. He treated her with about the same level of respect Broud treated Ayla, and Attaroa liked it about as much. She became a violently misandric nutjob thereafter, locking all her camp's men in a pen and working them to death.

* [[A Dog Named "Dog"]]: Ayla gets a pet named Wolf. Guess what kind of animal he is.

** Neanderthals are portrayed as almost universally dark-haired while Cro-Magnons show all the phenotypes found in modern (mostly European) humans. Recent studies in neanderthal mDNA have shown that at least some of them were red-haired.

** The technology and cultures of the Others are a mixture of several different distinct Late Pleistocene material cultures, now known to have been separated by multi-millennial gaps in time.

* [[Humans Are White]]: The story takes place entirely in Europe, and the characters generally have modern European coloration. Two exceptions:

** Ranec, who is half-black. His father walked from (modern-day) Ukraine to northern Africa (yes, ''walk'') before meeting his black mother's people. However, Ranec gets around sexually (like most men in this story), and many characters have observed his genetic influence on the younger generation, suggesting his skintone will not stay least-common among the Mamutoi for very long.

* [[Language of Truth]]: Because the Clan speak in a mostly-silent sign language that incorporates body language, it is impossible for a person of the Clan (or Ayla) to lie, or be lied to: they always know you're withholding something.

* [[Littlest Cancer Patient]]: Rydag, the half-Clan Mamutoi kid from ''The Mammoth Hunters''.

* [[Love Dodecahedron]]: In the third book, it starts as a [[Love Triangle]] between Ranec, Ayla and Jondalar (who are the [[Official Couple]], so you can guess how it turns out) and then the another Mamutoi character, Vincavec, makes a bid for Ayla's attentions, but nobody [[Small Name, Big Ego|except him]] ever thinks he's a real contender. Ranec also has his ex-girlfriend Tricie who still carries a torch for him, and Jondalar has his (not present) ex-girlfriends Zolena/Zelandoni, Marona, and Serenio. It continues in the sixth book: {{spoiler|Jondalar's cheating with Marona.}}

* [[Marital Rape License]]: When men of the Clan make "the Signal," women are expected to drop everything and present for a sexual encounter. The Signal is generally done only with one's mate, but it can be given to any female if [[I'm a Man, I Can't Help It|the male's need is that pressing]]. Broud does it to Ayla only to [[Walkyverse|pound her viciously]] (he's a [[Interplay of Sex and Violence|sadistic bully]]), and Ayla is shocked to learn later that other women ''like'' sex and are not above flirting with their men. Even Clan women employ certain seductive postures and motions to give men ideas.

* [[Poor Communication Kills]]: If it weren't for the lack of actual resultant deaths, ''The Mammoth Hunters'' could be subtitled ''[[Poor Communication Kills]]: the Novel.'' Ayla may have learned to speak Mamutoi and Zelandonii, but she and Jondalar still spend the entire book perpetually miscommunicating and misinterpreting each other. Part of the problem is that their unspoken cultural assumptions are totally incompatible; the other half of the problem is Jondalar's numerous silly hang-ups, unwillingness to just tell Ayla he's jealous, and rather low self-confidence. This trope nearly breaks them apart permanently before the Mamutoi finally talk sense into Ayla.

* [[Power Trio]]: Siblings Brun (the clan leader), Creb (the mog-ur/shaman) and Iza (the medicine woman). They're also the tops in their respective fields among all the local clans.

* [[Psychic Dreams for Everyone]]: Or at least Ayla, Jondalar, Mamut, and Shamud.

** For a short period of time in the first book, Ayla is raped by Broud, the son and heir-designate of the clan's leader. Since he gave her the Signal, the women of the clan can't figure out why Ayla objects, whereas Ayla knows he does it to humiliate her. And indeed, Broud loses interest when she stops resisting {{spoiler|because she got pregnant by him}}.

** Later, a band of ruffians rapes an adolescent girl, who had ''not'' gone through the ritual deflowering ceremony and now refuses to have sex. Though [[Fridge Brilliance|Auel doesn't mention it]], this brings up a possible reason for ''why'' a culture would guarantee girls have a magical first time: any woman who ''can'' have children will be willing to try, which is nice for population growth (or at least maintaining a population with realistic prehistoric mortality rates.)

* [[Revenge Against Men]]: Attora in ''The Plains of Passage'' doesn't like her man, so she kills him, makes all the women-folk give up their men too, and locks them in a cage.

* [[Runaway Bride]]: Ayla decides, on the day of her planned Matrimonial ceremony to Ranec, to go back to Jondalar and journey to his people.

* [[Troubled but Cute]]: Aside from having the wrong physical description (6'6, broad-shouldered, blond & blue) Jondalar fits this trope.

* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: Joplaya. Maybe just as well, considering that, while she and Jondalar are only considered 'hearth cousins' by the overall culture of the Others, the readers know that [[Incest Is Relative|she and Jondalar are half-siblings who share a father.]]

* [[Wandering Minstrel]]

* [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?]]: When Durc the [[Half-Human Hybrid]] was born, the Clan leader attempted to expose him because he was "deformed;" another Clan woman who bore a hybrid (she was raped by one of the Others) was demoted to the bottom of the pecking order. The Others rarely tolerate halfbreeds, calling them "abominations" and consider them ritually filthy -- and don't even get started about how they treat [[Double Standard|the women who bore them]].

* [[When She Smiles]]: Jetamio.