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.
They may have considered a wide range of factors, but they are totally ignorant of the Bible.
It has a very interesting passage on what has to be a pre-Adamic man.
You wouldn't expect the modern anthropologist to know such things because his overriding agenda is to prove that God does not exist.
Neanderthal probably died out because he was adapted to a cold climate, as indicated by his physical morphology. When the glaciers receded he couldn't adapt to the rigors of the new environment and many of his accustomed game animals died out. That's the best I can do. But I doubt very seriously that it had anything to do with free trade.
probably unprotected clubbing, much like the gays of today; just a different type of clubbing
I would not be surprised if there is still a little Neanderthal in all of us.
LOL!
Despite the 3" of rain yesterday, we had almost 300 people at the garden center's open house. I was stunned that many folks - hard-core gardeners - came out. Usually, we get around 1,500 or so.
Hmmmmpf... So do I...
I think the decline of the Neanderthals began the day they first began to sue each other over disputed kills, then the loser expected welfare meat.
that was some damn good Agentine rabbit you had cooked up there.....LOL
Why have I never seen a picture of a Neanderthal Chinese?
Despite the 3" of rain yesterday, we had almost 300 people at the garden center's open house. I was stunned that many folks - hard-core gardeners - came out. Usually, we get around 1,500 or so.
seriously, I feel sorry for those who missed it because of rain,,I was there and stayed dry as bone and had some great Roast Pig, listen to a kickasp band...plus a pick of plants I might have missed if there had been 1500 people there
Because they predate the Chinese.
Excuse me, aren't most Orangutans red haired? I suspect the gene for red hair goes back a bit farther than the Neanderthals. In fact we once had a horse (pony actually) who was a nice shade of copper/red, we called him "Little Red" (he was also very small, barely legal in Shetland class) in contrast to the "Big Red" who play about a mile from the fairgrounds where we most often showed "Little Red".
Okay! Then here's my guess...They probably started to practise abortion and....They rest is history.
I can't vouch for "most Orangutans," but the few I've known very well sure looked good at closing time.
In fact I'd have sworn they weren't Orangutans.
They turned out, upon close examination of their evidence, to be not real redheads.
See post #2 on this thread I posted yesterday.
Ha ha, April fools!
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