The writer stated that " our pre-historic forebears are often portrayed as spear-wielding savanges". in your own words, discuss what could be the probable bases for such 'portrayals'

On an unrelated point, great question! Now, back to the great question. Anthropology, the study of humans (anthr- meaning human, and -opology being the study of), has done a lot of archaeology. Upon which were tools used to hunt for food, among which were spears. They would use these to kill animals for their own survival. Killing animals for food with a weapon like a spear is considered savagery. Also, the bones along with the analysis of them has concluded that they have done some hefty damage upon themselves and other animals. According the the online merriam-webster dictionary, the second definition of "savage" goes as such: "lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings". Civilization is defined by the following points: currency, government, written language, large areas of population, social classes, and architecture. Since the history is defined as not being written, they therefore had no writing, meaning no civilization, meaning they are defined as savage. Of course, this is just definition based. The word "savage" has a drastically negative connotation, which has been given based on ignorance as to the reason for using weapons and being so "uncivilized". Everything they did was needed for survival, and the people of today are uneducated as to why everything was done, so they put the negative term of "savage" on to them.

Hope that helps!