Posted on 04/03/2005 11:38:03 AM PDT by Founding Father
Free trade may have finished off Neanderthals
01 April 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Celeste Biever
Modern humans may have driven Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago because Homo sapiens unlocked the secrets of free trade, say a group of US and Dutch economists. The theory could shed new light on the mysterious and sudden demise of the Neanderthals after over 260,000 years of healthy survival.
Anthropologists have considered a wide range of factors which may explain Neanderthal extinction, including biological, environmental and cultural causes. For example, one major study concluded that Neanderthals were less able to deal with plunging temperatures during the last glacial period.
Another possibility is that they were less able hunters as a result of poorer mental abilities, says Eric Delson, an anthropologist at Lehman College, City University of New York, US. But he adds that most theories are reliant on guesswork. Exactly how humans ousted Neanderthals remains a puzzle. “They were successful for such a long time,” he points out.
Jason Shogren, an economist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, US, says part of the answer may lie in humans’ superior trading habits. Trading would have allowed the division of labour, freeing up skilled individuals, such as hunters, to focus on the tasks they are best at. Others, perhaps making tools or clothes or gathering food, would give the hunters resources in return for meat.
Largely unorganised
The idea that specialisation leads to greater success was first used in the 18th century to explain why some nations were wealthier than others. But this is the first time it has been applied to the Neanderthal extinction puzzle, says Shogren.
He cites archaeological evidence that suggests that humans, who joined Neanderthals in Europe about 40,000 years ago, specialised and traded both within and between regions. The evidence includes complex living quarters with different sections partitioned for different functions. Neanderthals, in contrast, lived in “largely unorganised” living spaces.
There is also evidence that the early humans, mainly one population called the Gravettians, imported materials. Ivory, stones, fossils, seashells and crafted tools were found dispersed through many regions. This greater pool of resources led to increased innovation, says Shogren.
Simulated circumstances
Shogren tested his theory with simulations of population growth. He even gave the Neanderthals, who were larger than Homo sapiens, a head start by assuming they were better hunters and individually brought home more meat - which may or may be true.
But because humans were allowed to trade, in two of three similar simulations, they overcame this initial handicap and ousted the Neanderthals within 7000 years. In the third simulation, the two ended up co-existing.
“It’s an intriguing and novel idea,” says Delson. “But it requires stronger support.” He points out that the Gravettians in particular only emerged 28,000 years ago, while the last of the Neanderthals died about 29,000 years ago.
So the Gravettians could not have had very much influence in the extinction of the Neanderthals, he argues. “He also assumes that all they ate was meat, which of course is not true,” he adds.
The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization, co-authored by Erwin Bulte of Tilburg University in the Netherlands and Richard Horan at Michigan State University in East Lansing, US.
This is why those people attend rallies against globalization. They are neanderthals, and know that globalization will make them extinct.
and that is awaiting liberals and their stooopid agenda! What, the group of the eco-no-mists have nothing better to do? Like they miss the Neandertalberals as customers? Go and dig some out.
and then they joined communist party and extincted themselves. Shheeeesh! They spoend money on this crap?
I have always believed that disease transmitted by modern man killed off the Neanderthals.
Wheeeere is da beef?
ECONOMICS KILLS!!!
What it requires is evidence. Sometimes, I get annoyed with people coming up with 'ideas' that cannot be tested, and then saying, "see, see, it all makes sense now."
Stonehenge, for example. It is generally assumed that it was a place of great worship, due to the alignment of the openings with the positions of the sun. By that analogy, everybody that lives in northern latitudes is a sun worshipper. Evidence? We build our houses with windows on the southern exposure.
Maybe I just woke up grumpy or something, but I cannot accept that an entire species of man was made extinct because they didn't know how to work the stock market.
The redheads are still here.
Maybe this is why Willie doesn't like free trade: maybe he sympathizes too much with the Neanderthals.
Is the red head link handy?
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--Pat Buchanan
Homo Sapiens Capitalistensis
Supervolcanoes, disease, pandemics, global climate changes etc etc etc? Economics? Doubt it, but an interesting read, anyway. Good post, FF.
And it will finish off our modern day neanderthals as well. Survival of the fittest!
Homo sapiens became the original free traders... the Neaderthals became the original Dead Heads.
They are geneologists.
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