Neanderthals and Early Humans May Not Have Mingled Much

NY Times ^ | May 9, 2011 | Nicholas Wade

[Pharmboy]

I have thought for many years that our species wiped them out where they found them. This new and more exact dating method adds credibility to this scenario.

[Pharmboy]

Cro-Magnon-out-clubbing, ping...

[muawiyah]

Wiping out a related group is easy ~ show up with a new kind of headcold, maybe some TB, or possibly pneumonia.

You'll take over the cave without firing a shot.

Neanderthals appear to have lived in smaller groups than our own folks ~ which suggests they had a serious problem with infectious disease.

[ZOOKER]

I always assumed that Neanderthals were foragers while Cro-Magnons actually cultivated crops.

Sodbusters vs. Free-rangers?

Ants vs. grasshoppers?

[SMARTY]

Neanderthals probably lived in the low rent district, demanded entitlements and called Early Humans ‘racist’ or something

[muawiyah]

Agribusiness was initiated within the last 10,000 years or so ~ Cro-Magnons ate lots of meat, and picked berries, nuts and roots of different kinds.

This business of being farmers is quite new.

[dirtboy]

Yeah, look at the history of violent contact between tribes of modern humans - and now contemplate the level of violence when there actually is a significant genetic difference between the groups.

[Pharmboy]

Exactly.

The anthropologists twist themselves into knots to try and explain everything in the most non-violent manner possible.

And the primatologists were like that also until women like Jane Goodall lived amongst apes and reported back that they were quite violent.

[dirtboy]

Native Americans were hardly the peace-loving enviro utopians as some try to portray them. They were extremly violent towards each other as well. No particular knock on them, that’s just human nature deep in the genes - a fear of someone who isn’t part of your tribe, bred that way for good reason - because in the past, someone who wasn’t part of your tribe often represented a mortal threat.

[LRS]

The disease factor is the item I favor with my non expert opinion. So many animals of the Pleistocene disappeared, that that to me, I have to speculate that the Neanderthals succumb to the catastrophe as well. Something in the genetic makeup made them more vulnerable than the Cro Magnums that replaced them...

[wendy1946]

The Basic Non Evolution of Modern Man. The fact that we are not related to hominids other than possibly by similar design parameters, and that there is nothing on this planet which we could be descended from by any process resembling evolution.

[PapaBear3625]

Native Americans were hardly the peace-loving enviro utopians as some try to portray them. They were extremly violent towards each other as well. No particular knock on them, that’s just human nature deep in the genes - a fear of someone who isn’t part of your tribe, bred that way for good reason - because in the past, someone who wasn’t part of your tribe often represented a mortal threat.

It wasn't fear, it was practicality. When your tribe expands beyond the supporting capacity of your territory, the only way to avoid starvation is to invade your neighbor's territory.

As far as how Cro-mags killed off Neanderthals, a moderate advantage in speed or throwing ability translates into a BIG military advantage. If you can creep up to your enemies, throw spears at them from longer range than they can throw back, and then run away faster than they can follow, it would not take long to wipe them out.

[dirtboy]

When your tribe expands beyond the supporting capacity of your territory, the only way to avoid starvation is to invade your neighbor's territory.

And you either take that territory or solve your overpopulation problem trying.

[SMARTY]

I remember reading how appalled whites were when they saw the way Natives treated their prisoners (either whites or other Natives).

That THEY were shocked is saying something ... coming from Europeans THEMSELVES survivors of decades of internecine, abjectly bloodthirsty religious wars and wars of succession.

[Savage Beast]

"The disease factor is the item I favor"

That makes sense. It was certainly important in the killing of many American Indians. It seems likely that infectious diseases to which they had no resistance swept through North America after the arrival of Columbus, destroying entire tribes and leaving survivors lost and vulnerable.

[Jonty30]

Neantherdals are going to be needing some reparations, and interest owed over 39,000 years.

I am going to be needing my customary 30 percent cut.

[Reeses]

Bloodthirsty religious war is a leftist fantasy. The evolutionary purpose of religion is it helps a tribe win at warfare, especially if it is a superior religion. Envy is the root cause of tribal warfare. Leftists are driven by envy so they can’t handle envy being the problem so they blame the solution.

[AD from SpringBay]

When a Neanderthal moved next door the property values would decline and the other 'early humans' would often sell at below value. They tried desegregation in the 70s but even that didn't work.

Early humans? Is that like a morning person?

[stuartcr]

Does that mean that in wars, the side that wins has the superior religion? How does that work when the warring factors are of the same religion?

[Reeses]

Having a superior religion provides an edge increasing the probability of survival. Atheists are at a disadvantage and tend to get killed off. However it is just one factor. There is little evidence Neanderthals were religious while Cro-Magnons were.