Re: Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon

Ken Shackleton wrote:


One thing that I seem to think about when the discussion goes to the
subject of the Cro-mags spreading across Europe into the domain of the
Neandertal is the possible make-up of the group of Cro-mags. Now....we
can only speculate about the temperment of the Neandertal, but I would
guess that the Cro-mag would be very similar to us.

As a group of Cro-mags is roaming into new territory, who would be
leading the way? What I mean is, who would be on point, so to speak? I
would think that it would be the teenaged males of the group....they
have the energy and the drive to run ahead of the main group of adults
and small children.

I also imagine that the teenagers of the day were pretty much as they
are today....except they would have had spears and probably a pretty
strong cautionary reaction to anyone that they did not know.

Neandertals would look freakish to us...so I find it hard to believe
that our ancestors would not have routinely run them through on
sight...just for fun if not out of fear.

Anyway...perhaps it didn't happen that way...we may never know for
sure. But it is pretty conclusive that modern humans have a long track
record of being associated with massive extinction events whenever we
first appear in any new locale.

There is another school of thought, that of Milford Wolpert who argues that Hn merged genetically with Hss and still lives on as part of the genome of modern man. If you have ever seen line backers in American professional football one must give this hypothesis a little credance.

============================================================================
PROGRAMME TWO: THE NEANDERTHAL ENIGMA
It has long been one of the great unsolved mysteries of human evolution; what happened to Neanderthal Man. The Neanderthals occupied a huge area of Western and Central Europe for some 200,000 years. Roaming in small bands, living largely in caves, they were big, powerful people with heavy bones and broad frames. For many, many years the term “neanderthal” was almost a term of abuse, used as being synonymous with low intelligence and slowness of thought. In fact, these people had brains if anything slightly larger than modern man. And they were undoubtedly physically very tough. They hunted mammoth and bison; they survived several ice ages. Remains of their encampments have been found all over Western and Central Europe, from Northern Germany to Southern Spain, from England to Yugoslavia, dating back to around 30,000 years ago. Then mysteriously, they dwindle away to nothing.
So what happened to this strong, big brained, resourceful species? The many theories as to their fate have been steadily refined into two main schools of thought.
One argued most powerfully by a group of American evolutionary biologists, led by Milford Wolpert, is that Neanderthal Man is still with us, having intermingled with and been absorbed by the tribes of Cro-Magnon man, who of course has become modern man.
+=======================================================================

See
http://www.beckmanngroup.co.uk/pages/BroadcastCatalogue/Documentary_Series/
Wonders_of_Science/wonders_of_science.html

Of course, one must be aware of Milford Wolpert's biases. Have you ever seen him on T.V.? Behold his prominent brow, large nose, large skull and his gigantic forearms (like PopEye the Sailor Man). He gets very annoyed with people who portray Hn as a savage brute. I completely understand his opinion on the matter.

w.f.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon
    ... Neandertal is the possible make-up of the group of Cro-mags. ... I don't think their movement into Europe was a movement of people into ... Let's say that what might be considered the front wave of Hss expansion ... Neandertals show a bone breakage pattern most closely resembling rodeo ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon
    ... Neandertal is the possible make-up of the group of Cro-mags. ... I don't think their movement into Europe was a movement of people into ... Let's say that what might be considered the front wave of Hss expansion ... Neandertals show a bone breakage pattern most closely resembling rodeo ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Scientific American: The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals
    ... The Mysterious Downfall of the Neandertals ... humans an advantage over the Neandertals. ... Elsewhere in Europe and western Asia, ... assimilated by the anatomically modern European population. ...
    (sci.anthropology.paleo)
  • Re: Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon
    ... Running Away would seem the ideal strategy ... The cro-mags were better runners. ... A third, and perhaps critical, thing it means is that sapiens was much ... Neandertals may have been doomed because they were not as well adapted ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Neanderthal vs Cro-Magnon
    ... The cro-mags were better runners. ... A third, and perhaps critical, thing it means is that sapiens was much ... why Hss should have been superior to Hsn in surviving in ... Neandertals would look freakish to us...so I find it hard to believe ...
    (talk.origins)