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| Neanderthal on the Moon CC Jean Stimmell |
We have long made
Neanderthal the butt of our jokes, using the word as a term of scorn and
derision to describe anyone lacking in intelligence and creativity. That being
the case, why would any self-respecting Neanderthal be grinning back at me?
Reality, of course, is much
different from gossip and old wives tales.
The truth is that
Neanderthals had a lot going for them: they walked the Earth three times longer
than we have to date (up to 350,000 years longer). And they had larger brains
than we do, not smaller.
New
research suggests that Neanderthals and modern humans living at the same time
were culturally equivalent. João Zilhão, an archaeology research professor,
says that arguing that Neanderthals aren’t as culturally advanced as humans is
like saying “people in the Middle Ages were cognitively handicapped because
they could not use mobile phones’."[1]
My
thesis is that humans killed off the Neanderthals, not because we are smarter
but because we are more blood thirsty and aggressive. It stands to reason, if
the Neanderthals were more peaceful and Buddha-like, they didn’t stand a
chance.
But
what comes around goes around. I wonder
now if my Neanderthal is grinning back at me because he knows he is going to
get the last laugh.
Our
aggressiveness that killed him off, now intensified by capitalism and
high technology, has not resulted in a more intelligent way of life but just
the opposite: moral decay, catastrophic weapons of mass destruction and irreversible
damage to mother earth and her sacred inhabitants.
Just
as we did to the Neanderthals, so now we do to ourselves.
6 comments:
Jung would like this, reminding him of his client who thought she lived on the moon
Neanderthals interest me also. I've read quite a bit about them over time in fact. Yes, growing up the scientific reasoning was they were lumbering oafs with little in the way of brains or smarts. There was a third group of prehistoric figures also around the same time, but little is known about them and I don't recall their name.
Given our propensity for violence and control, I believe it is reasonable to assume we may have had a part in their extinction, but I think there's other factors also. What concerns me most is twofold.
They were very intelligent from what I've read, and their art shows this, their use of tools and weapons. They may very well have been a more peaceful people, and we, homo sapiens may have used that fact to annihilate them. However I'm not sure how much of a role prejudice and racial hatred played out back then. I think people may have been too busy simply existing to allow that "luxury".
However, if species competition for food was an issue, no doubt that is a possibility that put them at a disadvantage. In a sense it's akin to cannabis users who tend to me less hostile and more like "flower-children". Police will tell you, it's simple usually busting someone for pot, but not alcohol. So in a sense, cannabis prohibition is annihilation or at least control of a peace loving human.
Had Neanderthals survived, part two of my twofold concern is so-called modern man would have, based on your thesis, definitely wiped them out. We are raised to be discriminatory, racist, and prejudiced. This was especially true during the Middle-Ages, strict adherence to religious doctrines and laws.
It's almost like we abhor peace. We desire it sure, but only within terms of groups. We have a difficult time accepting those different from ourselves or our group.
Still, modern humans are showing they are more flexible and open than we may think in general terms. Cannabis is now legal in CO and WA, and the flower-children are free at last. Doesn't mean the federal government won't send troops to those states believing they promote their own twisted sense of peace.
What it does mean is we are obviously an intelligent, overall open-minded people, willing to reason and accept. To accept others of different groups with different ideals.
So I think your Neanderthal is actually smiling.
BobCat, you make some good points
Maybe Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon met one day, fell in love, and begat a bunch of children??????
Just because it didn't work out between Ayla and Broud, doesn’t mean it didn't happen for others….
Sadly, everything I know about Neanderthals I learned from Jean M. Auel
You are one up on me, Kelly: everything I know about Neanderthals I got from my dream
Reality sometimes begins with a dream, Jean, as our sub-conscious sees things our conscious mind may not. The history of Neanderthal's is exploding of late... and although what your commenter Kelly Roberts wrote about "Ayla and Broud" escapes me too, what doesn't escape me is that Neanderthals weren't dim-witted.
That what you wrote comes from a dream is profound... but you have to admit you didn't dream about the 350,000 years of fact that you wrote about. You have knowledge about them.
Essential to this knowledge, or the dream is are we alone as a species? Are homo sapiens pure?
Our whole culture promotes the idea that we are... religion teaches us we are divinely unique and superior to all other life.
The day of the dolphins is coming, and the facts are, or if not currently widespread, the truth is, we homo sapiens are not unique. We are not "pure". We are not "special" above all other life!
I believe you know that now based on your dream. Myself, I need to read up on Kelly's suggestion about Jean M. Auel.
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