I love when we get in a new exhibit like this, because it gives me the opportunity to research the topic. To begin my studies, I read Clive Finlayson's The Humans Who Went Extict: Why Neanderthals died out and we survived.First off, though this book is relatively short (220 pages) it is not a simple read. The author doesn't seem to be writing for a general population. The reader should probably have some understanding of evolution, ecology, and geology. His book is an overview of his opinions on human and proto-human populations during the last several million years, with a tighter focus on the last 780,000 years, a period characterized by cycles of ice ages. If this sounds as interesting to you as it does to me, than you should enjoy the book.
Finlayson's perspective in The Humans Who Went Extict is very much in line with the thinking of Jared Diamond, found in his influential works Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. The assumption of both authors is that the success of different groups of people come not from any inherent superiority of intelligence, but from being in the right place at the right time. Jared Diamond does a good job of showing that human history over the last 40,000 years is powerfully shaped by geography and natural resources. Finlayson's book takes this same view, only he sees Neanderthals, Homo Erectus, Ice Age Homo Sapiens, and possibly even other groups of pre-historic humans as being similar in intellect.
Finlayson sees the story of humans (including Neanderthals) during the ice ages as one controlled by changes in habitat and ecology brought about by extremes in climate change. Let's take a look at some of the points he makes during the book.
Modern humans weren't always the only humans: During the last 780,000 years there have been a variety of human species that have lived at the same time. For example, around 50,000 years ago Homo sapiens shared the planet with Neanderthals, Homo erectus, Homo floresiensis, and possibly others. These different humans didn't necessarily interact or live near each other, but they were all here.
Neanderthals weren't dumb: Neanderthals may not have made art or worn jewelry, but Finlayson says that this doesn't matter and should not be a prerequisite when looking for intellect. He also makes the point to say that some of them may have done these things anyway. Many of the sites where tools and human ornaments are found don't have any human skeletons with them. Scientists assume that the more modern artifacts come from our ancestors, but we don't really know. We do know that Neanderthals, like all humans, adapted to their environments. Their diet and culture depended on where they lived.
Neanderthals weren't made for the cold or the plains: One popular view of Neanderthals is that they were adapted to the ice age cold and hunted woolly mammoths. Finlayson believes this is wrong. Neanderthal bodies were wide and strong, but this was an adaptation for hunting and not for the cold. And while some may have hunted woolly mammoths, Neanderthals were probably not very good at it. Neanderthals evolved their body types hunting in forests and woody savannahs, where they could ambush there prey and fight them head on. Neanderthals did live as far north as the British Isles, but these were only during interglacial times, when the climate warmed up. As soon as the next ice age came, the Neanderthal range would contract again. Because of their stocky bodies built for ambushing, Neanderthals were not well suited for the long distances required for hunting animal herds on the plains.
Modern human's didn't cause Neanderthals to go extinct: The popular conception about the demise of Neanderthals is that modern humans did it. We think this because we can see Neanderthal populations and their ancestors in Europe for 500,000 years or more, but they disappear when humans enter the region around 30,000. This evidence, and the fact that we always assumed they were stupid, is taken to mean that we either outcompete them or murdered them. Finlayson says that there is no evidence for any of this. In fact, he points out that when our ancestors reached into Europe and other places where Neanderthals had lived, they were mostly already gone. Certainly there were probably moments of contact, which could include interbreeding and cultural diffusion, but there is no reason to suspect genocide. He even finds cases in which different human species did live near each other for thousands of years.
Modern humans survived because they were better adapted to the plains: The ice ages brought with them the mammoth-steppe, a type of treeless plains. Homo sapiens were better adapted to this habitat because they were built to walk long distances and lived in larger social groups than Neanderthals. It is because of these features Finlayson claims that wolves and Homo sapiens were the best predators for the plains. Finlayson beleives that as these plains spread the range of the Neanderthals shrunk until the species was isolated into such small groups that it went extinct.
There is a lot that we don't know and scientists have very contradictory perspectives because of that: I want to end the book review with this final point. Finlayson makes it clear right from the beginning that there are a lot of differences of opinions on the topic of the book, and much of this is because of a lack of evidence. When the author comes to contested issues, he makes a point to let the reader know a little about the history of the arguments surrounding it. He, of course, has his own opinion about each of these issues, and his always seem to make the most sense. After finishing the book I do think that Finlayson is a credible source. He seems to have a strong grip on all of the developments in the field, and his endnotes are almost as long as the book itself. I am now eager to start another book by another author and see what they have to say.
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