And the winner was…

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

All,

For your information, from EurekAlert:

Ahead of the game

Contact: Suzanne Wu
swu@press.uchicago.edu
773-834-0386
University of Chicago Press Journals
EurekAlert -- Public release date: 18-Jan-2006

New study reveals Neanderthals were as good at hunting as early modern humans

The disappearance of Neanderthals is frequently attributed to competition from modern humans, whose greater intelligence has been widely supposed to make them more efficient as hunters. However, a new study forthcoming in the February issue of Current Anthropology argues that the hunting practices of Neanderthals and early modern humans were largely indistinguishable, a conclusion leading to a different explanation, also based on archaeological data, to explain the disappearance of the Neanderthals. This study has important implications for debates surrounding behavioral evolution and the practices that eventually allowed modern humans like ourselves to displace other closely-related species.

"Each population was equally and independently capable of acquiring and exploiting critical information pertaining to animal availability and behavior," write the anthropologists, from the University of Connecticut, University of Haifa, Hebrew University, and Harvard University.

The researchers use new archaeological data from a Middle- and Upper-Paleolithic rock shelter in the Georgian Republic dated to 60,000–20,000 years ago to contest some prior models of the perceived behavioral and cognitive differences between Neanderthals and modern humans. Instead, the researchers suggest that developments in the social realm of modern human life, allowing routine use of distant resources and more extensive division of labor, may be better indicators of why Neanderthals disappeared than hunting practices.

"The establishment of larger social networks allowed the replacement of Neanderthals in the Caucasus," write the authors. "Our study also indicates that this process of replacement by modern humans spread beyond the traditional biogeographical barrier [of] Neanderthal mobility represented by the Caucasus Mountains."

Adler, Daniel S., Guy Bar-Oz, Anna Belfer-Cohen, and Ofer Bar-Yosef. "Ahead of the Game: Middle and Upper Paleolithic Hunting Behaviors in the Southern Caucasus." Current Anthropology 47:1.

Well, all I can say is that I am looking forward to reading the actual article. Given the model that is being suggested (actually, promised), I am curious to see how the authors will justify holding on to a taxonomy that excludes the Neanderthals from the human species.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[lagarvelho]

Jacques:

I'm not sure that they do, though the news source through which it was filtered certainly gives that impression.
Anne G

[trehinp]

Ahead of the game
 However, a new study forthcoming in the February issue of Current Anthropology argues that the hunting practices of Neanderthals and early modern humans were largely indistinguishable,
(snip)
"Each population was equally and independently capable of acquiring and exploiting critical information pertaining to animal availability and behavior,"

Strange coincidence, I just finished reading the first in a series of three science fiction books based upon this equivalent potential for development of Neanderthals and early modern humans : "Hominids", "Hybrids" and "Humans", written by Robert J. Sawyer.

The idea, in the vein of many science fiction books, uses the hypothesis of "parallel worlds". In one of those "parallel worlds", it would have been Neanderthals who survived and modern humans who became extinct.

The author did a lot of research on palaeoanthropology and got advice from several top specialists of the field.

I had great fun finding in a single reading two of my best interests covered: prehistory and science fiction. As is often the case with good science fiction, the book is a pretext to reflect on human nature.

I wander if any other Palanth member have read it.

Yours sincerely.

Paul

[lagarvelho]

Paul:

I've read the entire series.  It's good in many ways, but Sawyer relies much too heavily on the OoA "replacement" guys.  And --- I know this is OT --- he has a "thing" about religious beliefs, so he makes his Neandertals "deficient" in a "religion" part of the brain, or something like that.  But this doesn't really square with what is known about Neandertals, which at least suggests they had rituals of some kind.  Nevertheless, all of those books are a good read, and it's my understanding that he's going to explore this issue further in a second series of books related to t"Hominids, Humans, Hybrids" series. 

BTW, if you're interested in science fiction, I am working on three related S-F books(all related, but not a series, exactly), that all feature Neandertals as central characters.  Currently I'm stumped on a chapter, so  my work at present is going slowly.
Anne G

[Robert Henvell]

When the DNA of the nine Neanderthals was retrieved,were the blood types of the individuals identified,[ie, a relatively high incidence of  rh- would have an adverse impact on the survival of any child born after the oldest]??

[Daryl Habel]

When the DNA of the nine Neanderthals was retrieved,were the blood types of the individuals identified,[ie, a relatively high incidence of  rh- would have an adverse impact on the survival of any child born after the oldest]??

I give up, Bob.

Because I felt it off-topic for this thread, I moved your original question to Human Evolutionary Biology here , where it seemed more appropriate.
But obviously you want the question answered here.  I haven't moved individual posts often, and next time I'll look for a change of location notice to let you know.  For now, you've got the question posted in two places.

Happy now?
Dar
(moderator)

[trehinp]

Sawyer relies much too heavily on the OoA "replacement" guys.  And --- I know this is OT --- he has a "thing" about religious beliefs, so he makes his Neandertals "deficient" in a "religion" part of the brain, or something like that.  But this doesn't really square with what is known about Neandertals, which at least suggests they had rituals of some kind. 

Indeed Anne,
I had noticed that prejudice, even though this lack of religious endeavour attributed to Neanderthals didn't stop them to become highly developed from a cultural and scientific point of view, that is in the fiction imagined by Sawyer. Denis Lewis Williams, at least in his "The mind in the Cave" also denies religious behaviours to Neanderthals.  

More generally and more in line of the discussion, it seems that Sawyers relied a lot upon not only on the "Out of Africa" hypothesis but also on the "cultural big bang" dear to Klein, Mithen Tattersal and other authors convinced that there was a genetic evolution, circa 50 to 40K years BP, allowing modern men to make a cultural quantum leap. They take as proof of that sudden evolution the emergence of extremely advanced art forms during the Aurignacian such as found in Chauvet Cave paintings or Vogelherd statuettes.

Several authors contest that position and have provided lots of evidence of the high level of development of Neanderthals culture (Baffier 1999, J. Jaubert 1999, J. L. Arsuaga 2001, F. d’Errico et Al 2003). I tend to agree with this second school of thoughts.

I have developed an argumentation that disconnects the apparition of highly representative art from a more in depth long term cultural evolution that started most likely during the Middle Palaeolithic and continued through to the Neolithic, as far as prehistory is concerned and probably later on but that is no longer in the scope of this discussion. I won't develop this hypothesis anymore here interested readers will find it by Clicking here.

BTW, if you're interested in science fiction, I am working on three related S-F books(all related, but not a series, exactly), that all feature Neandertals as central characters.  Currently I'm stumped on a chapter, so  my work at present is going slowly.
Anne G

That's great I am impatient to read them.
Perhaps a discussion could be opened on the role of fiction books in the development of the public interest for palaeoanthropology... I don't know which board would be the best place though.

Yours very friendly.

Paul

[Robert Henvell]

Sorry,Dar.Did not realise that you had moved it.Assumed that the scribe had made another of its computer errors.

[lagarvelho]

Paul:

I certainly agree with you (and not with Stringer, Tattersall, etc), that cultural evolution was not a "big bang" kind of event.  And I read your thesis about this.  I don't necessarily agree with all of it, but it is a very interesting POV.
Anne G

[Daryl Habel]

Sorry,Dar.Did not realise that you had moved it.Assumed that the scribe had made another of its computer errors.

Well, I can't put all the blame on you, since there wasn't any notice of location change. I'll try to do something about that when the occasion next arises.  I've left the second post here since you've added the qualification that blood types might affect who "....the winner was...".  I still think there's no way to type blood from the  mtDNA of Neanderthal fossils.  But I could be wrong.
Dar

[Daryl Habel]

Perhaps a discussion could be opened on the role of fiction books in the development of the public interest for palaeoanthropology... I don't know which board would be the best place though.

Yours very friendly.

Paul

You can't go wrong with the "Miscellaneous" board. 
Dar