What’s the first thing you think to call someone who’s acting completely uncivilized and stupid (Other than a “dick,” of course)? Usually the go-to is “neanderthal,” but that’s actually pretty insulting — both to the people you’re trying to insult, and the neanderthals themselves, because they weren’t as dumb and uncultured as we assume they were.
In a study published in Plos One, researchers from Leiden University in the Netherlands and University of Colorado Museum in Boulder state that there is no evidence to suggest that the neanderthals eventual extinction has anything to do with their intelligence compared to humans of the same time period.
“The evidence for cognitive inferiority is simply not there,” said Dr. Paola Villa. “What we are saying is that the conventional view of Neanderthals is not true.”
Part of the misunderstanding, Villa believes, has to do with past researchers comparing neanderthals to the modern humans of the Upper Paleolithic era rather than the humans who lived concurrently with neanderthals. To make such a comparison is like comparing the tools of the 19th century with the tools of the 21th century and using them to claim that humans from 300 years ago were more stupid than we are now — which is obviously untrue, if you’ve ever been on a Youtube comments section.
So what did kill the neanderthals off? Wil Roebroeks from Leiden University suggests that they might not have “went extinct” at all, but instead mated with and were assimilated into the human race after years of tribal inbreeding left many of their offspring infertile. Well, at least our ancestors’ standards weren’t as low as we thought they were after all. Maybe all those neanderthals were very charismatic conversationalists with nice personalities. Maybe.
(via The Guardian, image via Saturday Night Live)
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