In this passage, the character Yasha uses the terms «Cro-Magnons» and «troglodytes» figuratively, as put-downs, applying them to bodybuilder-athletes. It’s a vivid example of how scientific concepts from anthropology and archaeology turn into slang with a negative edge.
Cro-Magnons: Our Direct Ancestors
Cro-Magnons is the general name for early modern humans (Homo sapiens) who appeared in Europe around 40,000–45,000 years ago. The name comes from the Cro-Magnon rock shelter in southwestern France, where the first remains of these ancient people were found in 1868.
Physically, Cro-Magnons were nearly indistinguishable from modern humans, aside from a somewhat sturdier build and a slightly larger brain volume. They created the cave paintings at Lascaux and Altamira, made sophisticated tools from stone, bone, and antler, had developed social organization, and used articulate speech.
Cro-Magnons coexisted with Neanderthals for several thousand years but ultimately displaced them entirely. They are the direct ancestors of all modern humans.
Troglodytes: From Myth to Reality
Troglodytes (from the ancient Greek for «cave-dweller») have a more complicated history. The term originally referred to various peoples who, according to ancient authors (Herodotus, Strabo, Pliny the Elder), lived in caves along the Red Sea coast and other regions.
In the 18th century, Carl Linnaeus classified troglodytes as a separate human species (Homo troglodytes), characterized by «a human form, abundant hair, and undeveloped speech.» This was an attempt to systematize the scattered, and often unreliable, accounts of ancient authors and travelers.
As evolutionary theory developed, «troglodyte» came to describe purported ancestors of humans supposedly surviving to the present day in remote corners of the planet. In the USSR, the historian B. F. Porshnev tried to give a scientific basis for the existence of troglodytes, classifying Neanderthals among them, but this classification never gained acceptance in the scientific community.
From Science to Slang
In modern Russian, both «Cro-Magnon» and «troglodyte» have taken on figurative meanings, both used to describe people seen as primitive, crude, or uneducated. That said, «troglodyte» more often implies someone culturally backward, while «Cro-Magnon» implies someone physically developed but intellectually limited.
In the 1990s context, when the novel’s events unfold, such terms were especially popular among the intelligentsia for describing «New Russians,» bodyguards, bodybuilder-athletes — anyone associated with physical strength and a presumed lack of intellectual capacity.
An interesting detail: The irony is that real Cro-Magnons were quite advanced people for their time — they created works of art, had complex social organization, and possessed technologies that let them successfully compete with Neanderthals and eventually populate all of Europe.