"They demonstrate conclusively that there was never a Neanderthal stage in human evolution," F. Clark Howell, also from Berkeley and a co-author of the research papers, said in a statement.That sentence is so obviously unscientific that it is another exhibit in the case against the weird prejudice against Neandertal. There isn't anything that can be demonstrated conclusively on the topic of origins, even in the narrow little world of F. Clark Howell. Because of some skulls found in Ethiopia -- which the finders themselves say show some features found in living humans, but are not modern -- the complete ancestry of living humans obviously can't be determined. Berkeley is the place from which the mtDNA nonsense has bloomed -- the late Allan Wilson made many boneheaded claims, but the most flagrant may have been to attribute what he saw as the unique quality of speech and language to mtDNA.
This kind of talk is characteristic of the proponents of Replacement, which is steeped in bigotry and racism -- and always has been. Shreeve himself turns out to be an advocate of Replacement, which can be seen in semantic spin found throughout the book. Besides Replacement, the much-maligned "social Darwinism", like Darwinism itself, is likewise the product of an elitist society. Thomas Henry Huxley, "Darwin's Bulldog", while criticizing the idea that "Aryans" were a superior racial form, said:Neanderthals and Modern Humans in Western AsiaWestern Asia... has yielded some of the earliest remains of anatomically modern humans ever found -- as early, or maybe even earlier, than those found in sub-Saharan Africa. The puzzle over the relationship between Neanderthals and early modern humans in Western Asia begins with a skull from the Zuttiyeh site in Israel, from a period known as the Middle Paleolithic. The Zuttiyeh skull was associated with an early Middle Paleolithic industry, the Acheulo-Yabrudian. This industry at Zuttiyeh has been dated to as late as 148,000 years before the present, but other estimates place the Zuttiyeh skull as early as 200,000 to 250,000 B.P. The Acheulo-Yabrudian existed in the eastern Mediterranean, or Levant, before the appearance of the Mousterian -- another Middle Paleolithic industry associated with both early modern humans and a contemporaneous population with more archaic traits, whom most scholars identify as Neanderthals... These dates indicate that the Neanderthal and possibly modern remains from layer C, and also the Tabun C1 Neanderthal, are as old as, or perhaps even older than, early modern humans from other sites in Israel and from sub-Saharan Africa, dated to 80-120,000 B.P. If Neanderthal and modern types were both at Tabun before 100,000 B.P., this could back the idea that the Neanderthals and early modern humans of the Levant comprised a single indigenous population evolving toward a fully modern form.
by Scott J. BrownThe Neandertal Enigma"Allan Wilson had always been described to me in superlatives, such as 'one of the real geniuses in science,' or 'the most arrogant guy I know...' [H]e apologized for putting me off so long and bluntly explained that the reason he had done so was that he did not trust me... 'The anthropological perspective on evolution is no longer valid; it has been overthrown. And yet the science writers who insist on talking to me come drenched in an anthropological perspective, and there is really no point in talking to them... It is paralytic. It prevents you from asking certain questions, and it forces you to ask others. The whole discipline invites you not to investigate.'
by James Shreeve
...A few months before my visit, Wilson had announced at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science... that the Neandertals were replaced because they could not speak... suggesting that a particular gene for language might have been carried in the mitochondria themselves. Since invading males would have been more likely to mate with resident females than the other way around, the offspring of sexual contact between the two groups would be 'linguistically deaf-mute,' like their Neandertal mothers. Thus disadvantaged, these 'village idiots' would face the same fate as the mothers: extinction. Only the language-endowed African lineage would continue. The language gene idea, and especially the unfortunate term 'village idiots,' elicited hoots of derision from the anti-Eve camp, and gave no joy to Wilson's colleagues." [pp 119-121]
"Physical, mental, and moral peculiarities go with blood and not with language. In the United States the negroes have spoken English for generations; but no one on that ground would call them Englishmen, or expect them to differ physically, mentally, or morally from other negroes." [Erik Trinkaus, Pat Shipman, The Neandertals pp 46-47]The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
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