Re: Archaic H. sapiens???
Bjorn Pedersen (NotPublic@nowhere.net)
Thu, 09 Jan 1997 00:36:07 GMT
On Tue, 07 Jan 1997 14:17:04 -0800, Michael McBroom
<bodhi@earthlink.net> wrote:
>It depends on who you talk to. Some people believe it is a subspecies
>of Homo sapiens, hence the Homo sapiens neanderthalensis
>classification. Others believe it is too morphologically different, and
>class it as Homo Neanderthalensis. I prefer the second classification.
I have heard and I don't know if there is any basis in the theory that
the Neanderthal from an appearance point of view is not fundamentally
different from many homo sapiens tribes of today. In relation to how
we in Europe look he would be stockier and have a more "brutish"
appearance.
I have off course seen the school book image, which ties into the
popular image, of a neanderthal as a sort of hunchbacked creature with
bushy eyebrows and a dull wit. But I have rarely seen a truly
substantive explanation of what he was like. It appears after all that
the neanderthal man coexisted with us far longer than the than we have
been the only human species. When Homo Sapiens Sapiens and the
neanderthal genus cohabitated for so long it surely must be a very
important genus in our species family tree and would merit particular
and meticulous study.
>The evidence regarding Neanderthal burial rituals is still
>controversial, thus, it is difficult to say just what it all means. Ian
>Tattersall, in his book, _The Last Neanderthal_ (1995), discusses
>Neanderthal burials somewhat. He states that there is really no clear
>evidence of Neanderthal burial rituals. Even the famous Shanidar
>"flower burial" is not free from dispute. There is a marked contrast,
Are there many examples of neanderthal burials? What would be in them,
or is that too difficult to see? If they buried ceremonially I would
imagine they would also bury tools and weapons which were such
integral parts of their lives.
Did they do this?
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