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Book: Stig of the Dump by Clive King (1963)

Stig of the Dump is a British children's chapter book about a boy called Barney who makes friends with a caveman called Stig. Stig lives in a shelter made from old rubbish in the bottom of a local chalk pit now used as a dump. Barney repeatedly visits Stig and they do various caveman-appropriate tasks such as digging, fire-lighting and hunting, before a slightly hallucinatory ending in which Barney and his sister briefly visit Stig's own time.


I will start by saying that I had this book as a child in the 1980s, and I loved it - I ended up going to university to study archaeology and anthropology, so the idea of exploring how a "caveman" would live in modern times was just my cup of tea. I can vividly remember trying to use plastic sweet jars to make a window for a den I had built just as Stig and Barney use jam jars in the story.


Having said this, when I revisited the book in 2019 I was really shocked by a lot of the content, which no longer seems at all appropriate - in particular there are several references to "Red Indians" and "Squaw" in the context of children dressing up in Native American costume and/or playing "Cowboys and Indians", and a use of "savages" as a descriptive term for hunter-gatherers when Stig's tribe are first encountered.

Both modern children are strongly pro-foxhunting - the sister actually rides with a hunt and Barney takes Stig out "to kill a fox" and "halloos" when play-hunting elsewhere. At one point the children visit a house full of taxidermied hunting trophies and are admiring, and they are familiar with/see no problem with a leopard-skin rug made from a real leopard pelt, and a travelling circus with performing animals.

There are several places in the book where the writer has very deliberately made it clear that no animals or people are harmed in perilous situations because it is a children's story, but also one paragraph where Stig casually shoots and kills a pheasant and Barney is only uncomfortable about this "because it is bound to be the wrong season or poaching". Barney and Stig also casually cut down a tree "around two foot wide", which is also deeply unfashionable now.


The datedness also includes the central plot device that Barney is allowed to roam the countryside and do quite hazardous activities - including "borrowing" some fairly dangerous tools from his Grandfather's shed - totally unsupervised for the bulk of most days, only going home occasionally for meals. I cannot see the same situation being allowed in 2019, but also the story wouldn't work without Barney being free to wander around a rubbish dump on his own and get into trouble, so that part needs to stand and perhaps be excused as escapism for children who might like to have those freedoms.


With regard to the actual "caveman" content - I actually still quite like this book, even though I can see some archaeological issues with it as an adult. As each episode unfolds in the story, it is possible to recognise which "Stone Age thing" the writer is thinking of and trying to present - whether flint-knapping, touching on Venus figurines in alcoves or chasing horses over a cliff to kill them - and I think that Stig of the Dump presents each one in a very engaging, memorable way. Vivid description and real emotional connection means that the reader is left with the feeling of having been there to witness Stig's behaviour first hand, which I think is probably more educational overall than being told that there is a suggestion that real people once did something similar in a particular place in the Near East or France a very long time ago.


On the flip side, there is a major problem that Stig seems to exhibit every Stone Age behaviour - at the start it is very unclear if he is supposed to be a Neanderthal or an early modern human, which is a pretty fundamental distinction, and then he does things from every part of the three "Stone Age" periods and from all over the world as if they are all one single rudimentary culture.

It also annoys me in particular that Stig never brushes his hair, as there is no reason to think that humans in the past would have been less keen on personal grooming and making themselves look good than humans in the present - hair-styling is as uniquely human as striking a fire so it is likely that all human societies have participated. Nowadays I would also expect him to be described as having tattoos, which were less widely accepted in the 1960s.


On several levels, I think the book should have ended before the final section in which Barney and his sister travel back in time during the shortest night and participate in a festival to raise some standing stones/a barrow - it has some good features like pointing out that the group would have had language, religion and a social structure, and linking the stones with remains still visible today, but it doesn't really fit in with the mechanics of the rest of the story.

There is also a slightly strange part where a baby is rescued from under the stone as it falls into place and then "how did it get there" is asked again later, but the question isn't answered - it feels as if you are meant to conclude something but I'm not sure what, unless perhaps the implication is that the baby was put there as a sacrifice - but no-one from the stone-moving group seems to object to the rescue...


The very very final paragraphs explaining that Stig has since been seen in the modern world should just be dropped, in my opinion - it is exciting for a child to think that they might see Stig themselves, but it raises huge unresolved plot issues about the time travel and how Stig is positioned in his culture of origin if he spends so much time in the 1960s, as well as the lingering feeling that Barney abandoned his friendship by losing touch.


In conclusion, I still really enjoyed reading about Barney's adventures with Stig (even though I enjoyed the parts where he interacts with the 1960s a lot less than I used to) and I think that the story still has a lot of value as an accessible and entertaining introduction to some Stone Age concepts.

It would be flawed to teach Stig as a "real caveman" who would have existed exactly as described (quite apart from the time travel aspect!) but as a composite and a thematic piece of light relief between actual teaching about the various Stone Ages he is ideal.


There is a slightly abridged 3-CD audiobook of Stig of the Dump read by Tony Robinson that is particularly suitable for playing in long car journeys to Stone Age days out.










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