had driven out less civilized tribes from the
region,
Hermann explained that these were the bones
of a pre-Roman race,
“barbarous and savage.”
Homo neanderthalensis
Seven years after Schaaffhausen announced the
bones
with their pronounced brow ridges
found with bones of extinct mammals
from before the last ice age,
Professor William King in Galway
first acknowledged that they represented
an extinct and human cousin of our species
which lived side-by-side in Europe with our ancestors
for a hundred thousand years
before they disappeared.
The
disappearance
Everyone says we don’t know why
the Neanderthals disappeared,
but it should be obvious if one considers
the rate at which humans
have been destroying other cultures,
other languages, other habitats,
other tribes, races, and species.
It should be obvious
if one considers our recent histories
of pogroms, holocausts, and genocides.
In the darkness of every human persists
a disappearing region
touched by fear and hatred
that is difficult to question
and hard to own.
We know now that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred, which
means that they were not a different species from us;
nevertheless, they keep a different species name, Homo
neanderthalensis.
At the time, scientists were worried about how to reconcile
them with our notions of superiority. No one wanted to claim them
as human ancestors. Even though the bones were about 350,000 years
old, no one wanted to admit that the fossils were ancient. Rudolf
Virchow claimed that they were only bones of a modern man deformed
by rickets, arthritis, and heavy blows to the head. When Marcellin
Boule studied the nearly complete Neanderthal bones that were
discovered starting in 1908 in the Dordogne, he misconstrued
everything, ignoring the large cranial capacity and the fine
hands. He arranged the big toes like an ape’s, the knees so
they could not straighten, and the spines so they could not walk
upright. Boule declared that the Neanderthal were mentally
retarded and physically like apes.
I have resisted the idea that our own kind is special in the
capabilities of our hearts or minds. Other animals also have
hearts and minds and it is narrow-minded to assume that they do
not use them in the same ways we use ours. Our record of
intelligence is not matched by our ability to control and to
manufacture; other animals have better histories of survival
without killing others or destroying the environment that their
survival depends on.
Cro-Magnon lived in the same Europe as the Neanderthals for
about 10,000 years. The fact that the Neanderthals are gone today
does not show that they were incapable of surviving. Cro-Magnons
might have peacefully coexisted with Neanderthals, or competed
with them for resources, or assimilated them, or murdered them.
We know now that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens interbred, which means that they were not a different species from us; nevertheless, they keep a different species name, Homo neanderthalensis.
At the time, scientists were worried about how to reconcile them with our notions of superiority. No one wanted to claim them as human ancestors. Even though the bones were about 350,000 years old, no one wanted to admit that the fossils were ancient. Rudolf Virchow claimed that they were only bones of a modern man deformed by rickets, arthritis, and heavy blows to the head. When Marcellin Boule studied the nearly complete Neanderthal bones that were discovered starting in 1908 in the Dordogne, he misconstrued everything, ignoring the large cranial capacity and the fine hands. He arranged the big toes like an ape’s, the knees so they could not straighten, and the spines so they could not walk upright. Boule declared that the Neanderthal were mentally retarded and physically like apes.
I have resisted the idea that our own kind is special in the capabilities of our hearts or minds. Other animals also have hearts and minds and it is narrow-minded to assume that they do not use them in the same ways we use ours. Our record of intelligence is not matched by our ability to control and to manufacture; other animals have better histories of survival without killing others or destroying the environment that their survival depends on.
Cro-Magnon lived in the same Europe as the Neanderthals for about 10,000 years. The fact that the Neanderthals are gone today does not show that they were incapable of surviving. Cro-Magnons might have peacefully coexisted with Neanderthals, or competed with them for resources, or assimilated them, or murdered them.
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