{"id":780155,"date":"2025-12-01T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=780155"},"modified":"2025-12-01T10:53:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T07:53:00","slug":"what-can-extinct-40000-year-old-neanderthals-teach-us-about-being-human","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=780155","title":{"rendered":"What can extinct, 40,000-year-old Neanderthals teach us about being human?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about Neanderthals a lot,\u201d said the musician <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/grimes\">Grimes<\/a> in a recent podcast <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=TM2BXE9T2mg\"><span>interview<\/span><\/a><span>. The statement echoed imagery in her new music video, \u201cArtificial Angels\u201d, as well as an X <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Grimezsz\/status\/1896866165819080769\"><span>post<\/span><\/a><span> she made earlier this year: \u201cI want to know the Neanderthals so badly, with every fiber of my soul. God, I think about it all day, it\u2019s bizarrely clouding my thoughts \u2013 how much was lost? And how familiar or alien would their culture feel?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It might seem surprising, but she\u2019s not the only one with prehistoric humanoids on the brain as of late. They\u2019ve played a central role in the A24 film <\/span><em><span>Sasquatch Sunset <\/span><\/em><span>and novels like <\/span><em><span>Creation Lake<\/span><\/em><span>. They\u2019re cropped up in video games, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/gracelingofficial.com\/pages\/collection-05-neanderthal\"><span>fashion collections<\/span><\/a><span>, and ill-advised <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marieclaire.co.uk\/beauty\/skincare\/what-is-caveman-skincare\"><span>beauty trends<\/span><\/a><span>. People share Retvrn to Monke memes and watch shirtless men <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SLoukoBs8TE\"><span>build<\/span><\/a><span> primitive shelters on YouTube. Azealia Banks has been \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AJTWEETS\/status\/1906613576397418926\"><span>haunted<\/span><\/a><span>\u201d by \u201cwandering Neanderthal souls\u201d in Prague.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s not entirely clear why Neanderthals are such a fixture in today\u2019s cultural imagination. Is it because of climate change, which is causing their prehistoric living sites to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/history\/article\/110513-neanderthals-last-stand-science-tool-kit-russia-slimak-tools\"><span>thaw out<\/span><\/a><span>, and revealing perfectly-preserved artefacts about the way they lived and interacted? Is it because of new technological developments that allow us to date their remains and artefacts, and decode their genes? Is it because these genes point to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhm.ac.uk\/discover\/news\/2024\/december\/neanderthals-homo-sapiens-interbred-within-past-50000-years.html\"><span>interbreeding<\/span><\/a><span> with <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens <\/span><\/em><span>\u2013\u00a0AKA us \u2013 as \u2018recently\u2019 as 50,000 years ago? Or because we, too, feel on the verge of going extinct as we encounter a new alien intelligence in the form of AI?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"tvGnYM14-1A\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tvGnYM14-1A\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>For Grimes, it has a lot to do with that final point: the idea that the cultures and habits of other human races, like Neanderthals, Denisovans, or the hobbit-like <\/span><em><span>Homo floresiensis<\/span><\/em><span> (broadly known as \u2018hominins\u2019), are largely lost to time, and this is a sad thing that we\u2019d rather not repeat by wiping ourselves out with super-powerful technologies. But of course <\/span><em><span>any <\/span><\/em><span>interest in Neanderthal life ultimately trickles down from the painstaking research \u2013\u00a0and fiery debates \u2013\u00a0of archaeologists and anthropologists who have dedicated their lives to uncovering their ancient past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>So, in case the recent buzz about Neanderthals has sparked your curiosity \u2013\u00a0or dread, if you\u2019re inclined toward Azealia Banks \u2013\u00a0we\u2019ve enlisted two researchers at the cutting-edge of the field, to answer some of its most intriguing questions. Like: what set this species of prehistoric humans apart from <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens <\/span><\/em><span>like you and I? What did their culture look like, and what was going on inside their heads? Did they love, hope, dream? Speaking to Dazed earlier this year, these scientists have scrabbled through the dirt, and pored over samples in the lab, so you don\u2019t have to.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>A POTTED (PRE)HISTORY<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span>Around 40,000 years ago, the Neanderthals \u2013 often described as our closest ancient relatives \u2013 mysteriously disappeared from the face of the Earth. In 1856, we rediscovered remains in Germany\u2019s Neander valley, the place that gives them their name. Subsequent discoveries showed that they looked similar to modern humans, with some notable differences: heavy brows, a long and low skull, strong teeth, a wide chest, and short limbs. You\u2019ll probably recognise this appearance from films and cartoons about cavemen, which overwhelmingly cast Neanderthals as the coarse and brutish cousin of the modern human.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"342e5d14-0680-4b69-b854-b3a301106335\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/960\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/1\/1431962.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"squarish\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.06\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"squarish\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Homo neanderthalensis\" class=\"img\" height=\"909\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1431962.jpg\" width=\"960\" title=\"1431962\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Neanderthal Museum, <span class=\"nowrap\">Mettmann, Germany<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Neanderthal Museum, <span class=\"nowrap\">Mettmann, Germany<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In reality, expert opinions on the lives of Neanderthals are much more complex. At times in the history of paleoarchaeology they <\/span><em><span>have <\/span><\/em><span>reinforced the idea that Neanderthals were a \u201cfailed experiment\u201d genetically-speaking, says Jo\u00e3o Zilh\u00e3o, an archeologist and research professor at the University of Lisbon. This falls in line with the 19th-century (or Christian) idea that modern humans are at the top of the \u201cevolutionary ladder\u201d. However, many researchers dating back to the 1980s took the opposite \u2013\u00a0but similarly simplistic approach \u2013 of positioning Neanderthals as little more than the \u2018European\u2019 equivalent of <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>, who were just getting started on the African continent a few hundred thousand years ago. Inspired by Neanderthal burial sites like Shanidar cave in Iraqi Kurdistan (which recent studies have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2023\/aug\/28\/study-casts-doubt-on-neanderthal-flower-burial-theory\"><span>cast doubt upon<\/span><\/a><span>) they were desperate to reconcile the two forms of early human. \u201cThey said, \u2018The technology was the same. They buried their dead. They looked after their sick and infirm. Their way of lives were similar. They were hunters and gatherers,\u2019\u201d adds Zilh\u00e3o. \u201cThe field at the time was mostly concerned with very early steps of human evolution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Ultimately, much about the lives of Neanderthals still remains unanswered, and the hot debate about their true nature spans archaeology, genetic science, art history, and more. Adding fuel to the flames is the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mpg.de\/617258\/humans-and-neanderthals-interbred\"><span>2010 discovery<\/span><\/a><span> of Neanderthal DNA in modern humans from Europe \u2013\u00a0funnily enough, this left us reluctant to write them off as dumb brutes with a love for clubbing each other over the head.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"10f06594-7291-491e-b0b4-b3a3010d55fe\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1024\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/1\/1431959.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ludovic Slimak works at his home (2022)\" class=\"img\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1431959.jpg\" width=\"1024\" title=\"1431959\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Ludovic Slimak works at his home in <span class=\"nowrap\">Saint-Laurent-sur-Save (2022)<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo by Matthieu Rondel\/AFP via <span class=\"nowrap\">Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>THE \u2018NEANDERTHAL HUNTER\u2019<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span>In his book <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/454664\/the-naked-neanderthal-by-slimak-ludovic\/9781802061819\"><em><span>The Naked Neanderthal<\/span><\/em><\/a><span>, the \u2018Neanderthal hunter\u2019 and paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak breaks down this push and pull between our past characterisations of the Neanderthal \u2013 from primitive ape-men, to direct equals of <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens <\/span><\/em><span>\u2013 and argues that both represent a fundamental misunderstanding. On this subject, Slimak is as good an authority as you\u2019re going to get. For the last 30 years, he\u2019s spent his life digging in caves and prehistoric sites across Turkey, the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Mongolia, the Arctic Circle, and France, where he now spends his summers excavating alongside his young kids and wife (the archaeologist Laure Metz).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Slimak looks the part too. His hair and beard are untamed, and he wears a waistcoat with an open white shirt, like an eccentric archaeologist out of a Hollywood film. When we speak \u2013\u00a0over video call, with a delay of a few seconds due to poor WiFi \u2013 he\u2019s hunkered down in south-west France, where he spends the winter among stacks of books and ancient flint arrowheads, avoiding the administrative obligations that come with a position at the University of Toulouse, and \u201csynthesising\u201d the summer\u2019s findings into his own books and papers.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>If we try to define the Neanderthals&#8230; then, you begin to have a huge problem. You open Pandora\u2019s box<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Describing the traits and territories of Neanderthals is \u201cvery easy\u201d according to Slimak, because it simply involves reciting the facts gleaned from various archeological digs over the last 150 years or so. \u201cIn that way, we know a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if we try to define the Neanderthals&#8230; then, you begin to have a huge problem. You open Pandora\u2019s box.\u201d This is largely because we bring a lot of our own preconceptions to the task, and our brains struggle to comprehend the idea that you can be human without being <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>. \u201cIt\u2019s not only a limitation for the [general] audience with fantasies about prehistory and cavemen,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s a problem for us for researchers too. Even scholars, people working in universities&#8230; we are not ready to really make this step, to redefine how to be human.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"36c19937-1745-4c3c-b437-b3a3010e1c92\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/960\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/1\/1431960.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"0.75\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"portrait\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Neanderthal, Gallo-Roman Museum, Tongeren\" class=\"img\" height=\"1276\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1431960.jpg\" width=\"960\" title=\"1431960\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Neanderthal, Gallo-Roman <span class=\"nowrap\">Museum, Tongeren<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo Paul Hermans, via <span class=\"nowrap\">Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>THE DEFINITION OF RACISM: \u2018TO BE HUMAN, YOU HAVE TO BE LIKE ME\u2019<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><em><span>The Naked Neanderthal<\/span><\/em><span>\u2019s core argument<\/span><span>is that the \u201crehabilitation\u201d of the Neanderthal\u2019s image is \u201cdistorted\u201d by modern human beliefs, just as much as the brutish image that began with the first discoveries of remains in the 1800s. That is, we <\/span><em><span>have <\/span><\/em><span>been prejudiced toward Neanderthals in the past, thanks to their \u201carchaic face\u201d and alien way of life. However, by embarking on a well-meaning \u201canti-racist\u201d campaign to rewrite their history, we\u2019ve fallen into an archaeological \u201ctrap\u201d and lost sight of some key differences between today\u2019s humans and our very distant relatives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe <\/span><em><span>definition <\/span><\/em><span>of racism is to say, \u2018To be human, you have to be like me,\u2019\u201d Slimak suggests, adding that the popularisation of this belief among researchers is \u201cvery dangerous\u201d and \u201ccompletely distorts\u201d the facts unearthed in caves across Europe. Instead, he suggests, we should attempt to expand our understanding of what it means to be thoughtful, intelligent, creative, or any of the other traits we associate with being human.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>There is something extraordinarily powerful about a discipline that lets you tell the truth based on small amounts of white powder in vials, processed in high-tech labs that look like a space station, by people in white suits. It\u2019s magic \u2013 Jo\u00e3o Zilh\u00e3o<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>MODERN ARCHAEOLOGY IS \u2018LIKE ALCHEMY\u2019<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span>A significant turn in Neanderthal research came along with advancements in molecular biology and high-tech dating methods. These made much of the actual work less romantic \u2013\u00a0less scrambling around in caves, more scrolling through data in a lab \u2013 but the geneticists ultimately won out, says Zilh\u00e3o. \u201cIt\u2019s like alchemy,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is something extraordinarily powerful about a discipline that lets you tell the truth based on small amounts of white powder in vials, processed in high-tech labs that look like a space station, by people in white suits. It\u2019s magic.\u201d By comparison, he jokes: \u201cArchaeologists are just educated peasants, who work with their hands and get dirty all the time. At best, we\u2019re fossil hunters. We come up with the stuff that the proper scientists analyse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As a result of the empirical discoveries made by this new generation of scientists, the last 20 to 25 years have seen the idea that Neanderthals should be regarded as a highly developed human species grow stronger, Zilh\u00e3o adds. \u201cThis notion of Neanderthals being dimwitted relatives that went extinct because they lacked in competition with a more evolved species of human became untenable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>WHAT SCIENCE <\/span><em><span>CAN\u2019T <\/span><\/em><span>TELL US<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span>Werner Herzog famously explores the Chauvet Cave, which holds the earliest-known figurative art by <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>, in his 2010 documentary <\/span><em><span>The Cave of Forgotten Dreams<\/span><\/em><span>. On seeing a digital replica of the cave in that film, he remarks: \u201cIt is like you are creating the phone directory of Manhattan. Four million precise entries, but do they dream? Do they cry at night?\u201d In typical Herzog fashion, this gets to the heart of the problem with science and statistical data: it rarely, if ever, gets to the heart or \u2018soul\u2019 of what it means to be human.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Slimak tells a similar story, related to his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2024\/09\/12\/science\/neanderthal-fossil-extinction-grotte-mandrin-france\"><span>discovery<\/span><\/a><span> of Neanderthal remains at Grotte Mandrin in 2015 (the first French discovery of its kind since 1979 \u2013\u00a0he named the body Thorin, after the character in <\/span><em><span>The Hobbit<\/span><\/em><span>). \u201cIf you find a skull, you have an empty shell,\u201d he says. \u201cThe question is, what was inside the shell? How does the brain work? But you won\u2019t understand the brain by developing a very high-resolution, microscopic scan of a skull. What you will have is an empty box.\u201d As such, the Neanderthal skull, or its skin, or its hair can only take us so far.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>You won\u2019t understand the brain by developing a very high-resolution, microscopic scan of a skull. What you will have is an empty box\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>WHAT <\/span><em><span>CAN <\/span><\/em><span>WE KNOW ABOUT NEANDERTHAL LIVES?<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span>There are some clues about how a Neanderthal thought and experienced the world, which remain long after their brains have rotted away. Slimak is particularly fascinated by Neanderthal tools. Across groups of <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens <\/span><\/em><span>spanning Africa, Siberia, and Europe, he suggests, there\u2019s a remarkable degree of standardisation when it comes to the production of tools; one arrowhead, for example, will look almost identical to the next. On the other hand, every Neanderthal tool is \u201cunique\u201d. Firstly, they are created in \u201cdiscussion\u201d with the natural materials they\u2019re made of, he explains (craftsmen take cues from a crack in a rock, for example, or the natural grain of a piece of flint). But they also seem to contain some distinct signature of their creator \u2013 almost like a work of art can be said to express the inner life of the artist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>What do these features of Neanderthal craftsmanship reveal? \u201cYou realise that their way to understand the world was deeply divergent, and we are not dealing at all with the same humanity [as that of <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>],\u201d Slimak concludes. \u201cIf the definition of human is to be creative, and to have freedom of mind&#8230; then maybe humans disappeared 40,000 years ago!\u201d You can see why some find his ideas controversial.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>If the definition of human is to be creative, and to have freedom of mind&#8230; then maybe humans disappeared 40,000 years ago!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>There are also some more explicit examples of Neanderthal creativity that might shed light upon their inner lives, including paintings <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/english.elpais.com\/elpais\/2018\/02\/23\/inenglish\/1519391445_279243.html\"><span>uncovered<\/span><\/a><span> by Zilh\u00e3o and his research team in three caves across Spain. Using scientific methods like uranium-thorium dating, they were able to prove that these artworks dated back at least 65,000 years \u2013\u00a0a big surprise for anyone who believed art is exclusive to <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>. But the facts were there. \u201cNobody will deny that 65,000 years ago the only people living in Europe were the Neanderthals,\u201d says Zilh\u00e3o. And what about those who claim figurative art, like the paintings of gazelles and cave lions found in Chauvet Cave,\u00a0is more sophisticated than the abstract designs of the Neanderthals? \u201cHow can you compare Kandinsky to Rubens?\u201d he adds. \u201cThis is the classic, moving-the-target type of reasoning of people who want to cling to the old-fashioned distinction between so-called modern humans and Neanderthals.\u201d Next, he says, we\u2019ll be saying that Neanderthals weren\u2019t human because they never landed on the moon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Even if we accept that Neanderthals made art and were \u201cmasters\u201d of toolmaking, though, it doesn\u2019t get us <\/span><em><span>that<\/span><\/em><span> much closer to understanding what was going on inside their heads. Did they worry about the future like we do today? Did they feel a romantic thrill when they kissed each other, or even <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2025\/nov\/19\/neanderthals-early-humans-kissed-research-evolution\"><span>locked lips<\/span><\/a><span> with a modern human in the final decades of their existence?\u00a0 Zilh\u00e3o is a good scientist, so he refuses to even indulge these questions, much less try to answer them. \u201cThis is the kind of thing that anyone who claims to do science should not even attempt answering,\u201d he says. \u201cUsing the scientific method you can ask some questions, because it is possible to find answers. Others are just beyond the reach of inquiry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"inline-img expandable dev-view-hide\" data-img=\"9bf03039-39ef-455d-a2de-b3a3010f3985\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1024\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/1\/1431961.jpg\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Neanderthal cave-paintings, Ardales (2018)\" class=\"img\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1431961.jpg\" width=\"1024\" title=\"1431961\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Neanderthal cave-paintings inside the Andalusian cave of Ardales, on March <span class=\"nowrap\">1, 2018<\/span><\/span><span class=\"credit\">Photo Jorge Guerrero\/AFP via <span class=\"nowrap\">Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<h1><span>A LESSON FOR THE MODERN HUMAN<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span>Surely, part of Neanderthals\u2019 allure is their label as our closest ancient relatives. As Slimak point out, that\u2019s also why we can stand to learn the most from them, when it comes to how <\/span><em><span>we <\/span><\/em><span>live and interact with the world around us. \u201cYou can understand something only by comparing it to something else,\u201d he suggests. Before we discovered other ancient hominins, the most obvious comparison for the modern human might have been a chimpanzee. According to the current science, though, our last common ancestor with chimps is expected to have existed some 7 million years ago. It\u2019s fair to say that we\u2019ve changed quite a bit since then. In this sense, Neanderthals are revolutionary. \u201cSuddenly, we have a mirror [to see] another way to be human,\u201d Slimak says. When we look at their tools, or art, and compare it to ours, we aren\u2019t just doing it because we\u2019re interested in how people like us lived 40,000 years ago or more. \u201cWe are talking about the deep nature of sapience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>What has Slimak learned from looking in that mirror for the last three decades? For him, it comes back to the freedom and individuality that was allowed to thrive in Neanderthal culture, versus the love of uniformity that turned <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens <\/span><\/em><span>into what we are today. Taken to its logical conclusion, he says, this uniformity has some very dark implications, from the authoritarian regimes of the twentieth century to the ongoing presence of war and genocide today. \u201c<\/span><span>We\u2019re able to kill millions of people because they are just slightly different,\u201d he says, citing the widespread complicity during the Holocaust as just one example. \u201c90 per cent of <\/span><em><span>sapiens <\/span><\/em><span>will do the worst thing in the world, given the right conditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Neanderthals must be fascinating for everybody, because they offer us the possibility to have a mirror, to see what we are on Earth<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>By contrast, he says, studying Neanderthals might teach us that it\u2019s possible to tolerate radical difference and still thrive as a human species (after all, Neanderthals civilisations are estimated to have survived for more than 300,000 years). \u201cI don\u2019t want to paint a super dark picture of <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI don\u2018t want to say Neanderthals are smart and nice, and <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span> are stupid and dangerous. I have children, so I can\u2019t say that! What I want to express is that&#8230; we can be better humans on earth.\u201d In the case of <\/span><em><span>Homo sapiens<\/span><\/em><span>, this might require going against our biological nature and trying to love more like a Neanderthal, he suggests, but this requires us to see ourselves clearly and state our differences out loud. <\/span><span>For this reason, humanity\u2019s obsession with the Neanderthal needs to go beyond the narrow realm of paleolithic archaeology, and continue to spread throughout our culture. \u201cThey must be fascinating for everybody, because they offer us the possibility to have a mirror, to see what we are on Earth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> Source URL: https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/69180\/1\/extinct-40-000-year-old-neanderthals-teach-being-human-grimes-ludovic-slimak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking about Neanderthals a lot,\u201d said the musician Grimes in a recent podcast interview. The statement echoed imagery in her new music video, \u201cArtificial Angels\u201d, as well as an X post she made earlier this year: \u201cI want to know the Neanderthals so badly, with every fiber of my soul. God, I think [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":780156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76],"class_list":["post-780155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=780155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/780156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=780155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=780155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=780155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}