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To: MeanWestTexan
One hypothesis is that the homo sapien sapiens “fragile” (cough) female who stayed back and the cave and had lots of babies, while the neaderthal females got themselves killed, thus getting outbred…A lesson from which Western Civilization should learn.

That’s an interesting hypothesis but I’m not sure I would subscribe to it as it seems a bit of an overstretch to me – applying a more modern concept of female “fragility” and concepts of femininity of more recent times and cultures to populations who lived in much different circumstances than we do today. Homo sapiens and Neanderthals would have both been nomadic or semi-nomadic and living a very hard, short and brutal life in some very harsh and dangerous conditions and subject to all types of serious and potentially life ending injuries - whether male or female. While the males were probably the primary hunters and protectors, women would not have had it so easy either and would have had to, out of necessity not only been the gathers, the keepers of the home fire, the preparers of meals, the pottery makers, the sewers of the clothes, the care takers of a brood of babies (a 24-7 job even today), but must have also have been called into action to help fight off animal predators, help with hunts in severe times and with hostile incursions by other clans that even sometimes happened while the men where off on hunts. And to top it off, at the end of the day she probably had to listen to her husband/mate whine and complain about what a hard day he had at work and complain that dinner wasn’t ready when he got home, that the babies were crying and that she hadn’t found the time to sweep out the cave and make him a new loin cloth:),

And I don’t think a “fragile” female – whether Homo sapien or Neanderthal, would have lived long enough to get to a child bearing age, live alone survived child birth which until very recent advances in modern medicine, was a very dangerous proposition in which many women died.

And one doesn’t have to look back 40,000 years to see that women had to be physically hardy, and mentally tough and strong enough to survive and pass on her and her husband’s genes on to subsequent generations. Look at the lives of our first American settler and frontier pioneer females and tell me that these women were “fragile” and just sat around in relative safety, looking feminine and beautiful and well coifed while pushing out all those babies, painlessly and effortlessly.

You owe your existence and your DNA to your ancestors who were some very strong and manly men but also to your female ancestors who were some pretty tough broads – relatively speaking.
32 posted on 06/23/2008 6:26:18 PM PDT by Caramelgal (Just a lump of organized protoplasm - braying at the stars :),)
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To: Caramelgal

“Fragile” (cough) is what I said. You took “fragile” too literally. I know She-Ra was a tough old broad.

Evidence shows homo sapien sapien females simply did not suffer the bodily injuries related to hunting and war that homo sapien sapien men had -— this indicates that there was a division of labor going on.

Specifically, women were gathering food and raising children; men hunting and/or protecting the tribe.

That’s the point.


42 posted on 06/24/2008 8:52:25 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Mossad!)
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