There is literally only one good point in those pictures, and it is that neanderthals get a bad rap. Not that neanderthals were all muscular and long-lived (they weren't), just that they get a bad rap. Neanderthals are cool.
I have the impression that the pro-neanderthal sentiment can be a thin end of a racist wedge.
Here is a map from wikipedia captioned "Known Neanderthal range in Europe (blue), Southwest Asia (orange), Uzbekistan (green), and the Altai Mountains (violet) ":
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So look at that and think, "what would a racist see". Don't be to cute about it.
With neanderthals being actually pretty smart and cool, they can be seen to contribute that certain je ne sais quoi to white people that makes them actually biologically distinct from other humans. Which is of course a closed question (FAKE) generally speaking.
I'm not saying that's true and I'm not saying anyone here is saying it. I'm just saying that there could be some motivated reasoning.
I was going to tell you that most Neanderthal remains are found with signs of injury which would be evidence against that, but it looks like that is just a myth. That said, it seems the frequency of injuries among Neanderthal and their contemporaneous Homo Sapiens peers was about even, which does work as evidence against the idea they were super peaceful unless they were significantly more clumsy hunters.
There is literally only one good point in those pictures, and it is that neanderthals get a bad rap. Not that neanderthals were all muscular and long-lived (they weren't), just that they get a bad rap. Neanderthals are cool.
I have the impression that the pro-neanderthal sentiment can be a thin end of a racist wedge.
Here is a map from wikipedia captioned "Known Neanderthal range in Europe (blue), Southwest Asia (orange), Uzbekistan (green), and the Altai Mountains (violet) ":
So look at that and think, "what would a racist see". Don't be to cute about it.
With neanderthals being actually pretty smart and cool, they can be seen to contribute that certain je ne sais quoi to white people that makes them actually biologically distinct from other humans. Which is of course a closed question (FAKE) generally speaking.
I'm not saying that's true and I'm not saying anyone here is saying it. I'm just saying that there could be some motivated reasoning.
Do you have any cool neanderthal facts you're willing to share?
One theory I've heard is that they were super peaceful compared to homosapiens. Not sure when or where I read that
I was going to tell you that most Neanderthal remains are found with signs of injury which would be evidence against that, but it looks like that is just a myth. That said, it seems the frequency of injuries among Neanderthal and their contemporaneous Homo Sapiens peers was about even, which does work as evidence against the idea they were super peaceful unless they were significantly more clumsy hunters.
Wait, a stereotype of Neanderthals was they were long lived?