ANTHROPOLOGY NOW: Extinction of the Neanderthals!

FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018

Part 4—The skills which let our species triumph:
In a column in today's New York Times, Emily Yoffe refers to what Donald J. Trump has done at the southern border.

She refers to the "national revulsion" occasioned by those truly remarkable acts, which seem almost medieval:

"There is nothing like audio of terrified children, accounts of their deplorable detention conditions and the realization some families may never be reunited to cause national revulsion at this iteration of the Trump administration’s touted zero-tolerance stance."

So says Yoffe, in a column discussing the general inutility of the concept of "zero tolerance."

Reports this week have further described the administration's astounding behavior. But has this occasioned "national revulsion?"

Not on the channels we watch.

On the channels we watch, this astonishing conduct has received short shrift all week. Actual news about this astonishing conduct has been pushed aside, again and again, in favor of endless speculation about "breaking news"—"breaking news" involving The Chase.

Last night, Rachel Maddow raised the topic at 9:55 PM, having burned the previous hour in the pursuit of the night's "breaking news." These nightly pursuits, on all such programs, are generally composed of pointless, uninformed speculation and highly selective analysis.

How uninformed are these gossip sessions? Last night, CNN instantly reported, at 9 PM, that Michael Cohen doesn't have audiotape of the alleged meeting at which he says he heard the latest Big Thing occur. Ninety minutes later, pundits were speculating, on Lawrence's show, about the exciting possibility that Cohen maybe does hold such a tape.

That's the way these instant, largely uninformed discussions tend to work. Indeed, we just saw Barbara McQuade raise the same exciting possibility. It was 10:30 AM, more than thirteen hours later.

This is the way these sessions tend to go. As we noted yesterday, one week's excitement is quickly cast aside, and forgotten, in pursuit of the next "breaking news."

Our tribal leaders love The Chase; in their deference to that topic, they've largely abandoned the children who were taken from their parents at the southern border. As we watch this rather obvious lack of revulsion unfold, we think of what Yuval Noah Harari says in his acclaimed best-seller, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

Yesterday, as we left Harari's story, a major mystery loomed. How did our ancestors, Homo sapiens all, manage to drive all other human populations to extinction, starting roughly 70,000 years ago?

We were human, but they were too. The Neanderthals had bigger muscles—and they even had bigger brains!

Still, we drove them all to extinction. How did we manage to do that? And how does this history relate to the corporate-sponsored manifest bullshit now seen on TV every night?

Somewhat counterintuitively, Harari attributes our species' success to its ability 1) to engage in "gossip" and 2) to adopt group "fictions." Harari says the whole thing began with a chance mutation:
HARARI (page 21): [B]eginning about 70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens started doing very special things. Around that date Sapiens bands left Africa for a second time. This time they drove the Neanderthals and all other human species not only from the Middle East, but from the face of the earth...

Most researchers believe that these unprecedented accomplishments were the product of a revolution in Sapiens’ cognitive abilities. They maintain that the people who drove the Neanderthals to extinction, settled Australia, and carved the Stadel lion-man were as intelligent, creative and sensitive as we are. If we were to come across the artists of the Stadel Cave, we could learn their language and they ours. We’d be able to explain to them everything we know—from the adventures of Alice in Wonderland to the paradoxes of quantum physics—and they could teach us how their people view the world.

The appearance of new ways of thinking and communicating, between 70,000 and 30,000 years ago, constitutes the Cognitive Revolution. What caused it? We’re not sure. The most commonly believed theory argues that accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring of the brains of Sapiens, enabling them to think in unprecedented ways and to communicate using an altogether new type of language. We might call it the Tree of Knowledge mutation. Why did it occur in Sapiens DNA rather than in that of Neanderthals? It was a matter of pure chance, as far as we can tell.
The people who drove the Neanderthals to extinction "were as intelligent and sensitive as we are?" That may be our favorite line! Meanwhile, could we explain "the paradoxes of quantum physics" to these earliest artists? Presumably no, since we still can't explain them today.

We'll give Harari a pass on that second point. But if he's right in his basic claim, the ascendance of Homo sapiens, among all other human species, was "a matter of pure chance."

Our ancestors were able to drive all other humans into the sea because "accidental genetic mutations changed the inner wiring" of their brains. According to Harari, these accidental mutations produced the sleek analytical giants found on cable today.

That last assessment becomes less ironic if you understand what those chance mutations allowed our ancestors to do. For starters, they allowed our ancestors to engage in gossip! Indeed, "our language evolved as a way of gossiping," Harari says in a part of his analysis which is rather poorly explained.

What's so good about being able to gossip? It let us work together in larger bands, Harari says:
HARARI (page 23): The amount of information that one must obtain and store in order to track the ever-changing relationships of a few dozen individuals is staggering...All apes show a keen interest in such social information, but they have trouble gossiping effectively. Neanderthals and archaic Homo sapiens probably also had a hard time talking behind each other’s backs—a much maligned ability which is in fact essential for cooperation in large numbers. The new linguistic skills that modern Sapiens acquired about seventy millennia ago enabled them to gossip for hours on end. Reliable information about who could be trusted meant that small bands could expand into larger bands, and Sapiens could develop tighter and more sophisticated types of cooperation.
Why couldn't our ancestors gossip effectively before these chance mutations occurred? Harari doesn't seem to explain that.

Still, he says that the ability to gossip allowed post-mutation Homo sapiens to work in much larger groups. This gave them the advantage over the Neanderthals, whose bigger brains still didn't permit them to work in such large bands.

"The gossip theory might sound like a joke, but numerous studies support it," Harari claims. "Even today the vast majority of human communication—whether in the form of emails, phone calls or newspaper columns—is gossip."

Say what? Is the vast majority of newspaper columns simply a matter of gossip? That too might sound like a joke. But that's certainly true of the vast amount of pseudo-discussion on our "cable news" speculationfests, which resemble gossip much more closely than information-gathering or analysis.

That said, the second result of those chance mutations will be familiar too. Purely by chance, Homo sapiens developed the ability to invent and share group "fictions," Harari says. We've been writing about this trait for the past twenty years:
HARARI (page 24): [T]he truly unique feature of our language is not its ability to transmit information about men and lions. Rather, it’s the ability to transmit information about things that do not exist at all. As far as we know, only Sapiens can talk about entire kinds of entities that they have never seen, touched or smelled.

Legends, myths, gods and religions appeared for the first time with the Cognitive Revolution. Many animals and human species could previously say, "Careful! A lion!" Thanks to the Cognitive Revolution, Homo sapiens acquired the ability to say, "The lion is the guardian spirit of our tribe." This ability to speak about fictions is the most unique feature of Sapiens language.
What's the advantage in being to invent, and believe, group fictions? According to Harari, the ability to weave common myths—common myths such as "the biblical creation story, the Dreamtime myths of Aboriginal Australians, and the nationalist myths of modern states"—allowed Homo sapiens to cooperate in much larger groups.

Instead of trusting only the people you knew, you could now trust much large numbers of people. If you yourself had put your faith in some national or tribal myth / narrative / pleasing story, you'd be willing to work with total strangers who displayed a similar belief. Onward and forward our large bands marched, with bracing results such as these:
HARARI (page 17): [I]f the Neanderthals, Denisovans and other human species didn’t merge with Sapiens, why did they vanish? One possibility is that Homo sapiens drove them to extinction. Imagine a Sapiens band reaching a Balkan valley where Neanderthals had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. The newcomers began to hunt the deer and gather the nuts and berries that were the Neanderthals’ traditional staples. Sapiens were more proficient hunters and gatherers—thanks to better technology and superior social skills—so they multiplied and spread. The less resourceful Neanderthals found it increasingly difficult to feed themselves. Their population dwindled and they slowly died out, except perhaps for one or two members who joined their Sapiens neighbours.

Another possibility is that competition for resources flared up into violence and genocide. Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark. In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect or religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group. Would ancient Sapiens have been more tolerant towards an entirely different human species? It may well be that when Sapiens encountered Neanderthals, the result was the first and most significant ethnic-cleansing campaign in history.
Oof. You can set aside the lofty idea that our species, by pure chance, developed some powerful analytical skills which let our ancestors prosper.

Harari explains it differently. Given our "superior social skills"—our ability to work in much larger groups—we may have starved The Others out, or engaged in "ethnic cleansing."

"Tolerance is not a Sapiens trademark," Harari mordantly says. Presumably, you already understood that fact if you watch much cable.

We don't know what kinds of "studies" support the gossip theory. Beyond that, we can't judge Harari as a prehistorian—though his book is blurbed by Bill Gates on the front, by Obama on the back.

We do know this: Harari's emphasis on gossip and the adoption of vast group fictions describes the functioning of modern journalistic elites to a T.

Right here at this award-winning site, we've spent the past twenty years describing the upper-end press corps' penchant for low-IQ, brain-dead gossip. Also, its endless desire to memorize and recite standard official group "scripts." Remember when everyone agreed to say that Comey the God was the world's most upright person?

The children have spent the past thirty years marching to war in these ways. And alas! In November 2016, thirty years of this standard group bullshit sent Donald J. Trump to the White House.

According to Harari, our ancestors developed the ability to gossip. They also developed the ability to subscribe to group "fictions"—to vast social myths which can't be supported by facts.

Thanks to these less than impressive skills, they were able to work in very large bands. "Rabbi, this is where we cam in," one of the analysts grumbled.

24 comments:

  1. "There is nothing like audio of terrified children"

    Yeah, I know, lib-zombies love it.

    Nassim Taleb calls it "pedophrasty". Which makes Emily Yoffe a pedophrast. And another psycho-witch.

    Here, dembots, for your reading pleasure:
    https://medium.com/incerto/pedophrasty-bigoteering-and-other-modern-scams-c84bd70a29e8

    ReplyDelete
    Replies


    1. I AM HERE TO TESTIFY ON HOW MY HERPES VIRUS WAS CURED BY DR LEWIS.

      I'm Liubov Nikonets, from Texas USA. I had been in a relationship with a guy and we had unprotected sex for the first time and within a day i got a big bump on the crease of my thigh and vagina. after a few days it began to hurt more and more. I told him to take a picture of it for me, and it looked like open sores, like bugs were biting off my skin or something. So i went to the ER and they said genital herpes. I was soooo depressed. my boyfriend and i cried. he cried for me, but he had no idea he had it too. next day, same thing happens to him. at this point, we think i gave it to him because I was the first one to show the symptoms. The next phase I went through was depression. At this point, all I did was sleep and cry. I felt like my life was over. I knew I could never get married, I felt dirty, and worthless. I was depressed for about two months. I fought thoughts of suicide and it was a hassle to even carry out my daily tasks. So I started to wonder if there would be a remedy to this disease, which led me to going to visiting many hospitals, and nothing good came out from it, until I read a person’s testimony online that said that they were cured with the help of Dr LEWIS Spell, of this disease that the world deems incurable and tears rolled down my face. That persons testimony sparked a hope in me that led me to contact Dr LEWIS. So he assured us that we are going to be alright, after meeting up with the necessary requirements, he sent us a parcel and gave us instruction guide on how to use it, which we did, after 7 days of using the medication, the herpes was totally cured. So I and my boyfriend went and got tested for every STD in the book and every single test came back NEGATIVE, we also went back to the hospital, and it was confirmed NEGATIVE. I am posting my testimony to help someone out there suffering from this disease. Do not hesitate to contact Dr LEWIS via e-mail: Lewis7temple@gmail.com or WhatsApp him on +393511568477
      HE ALSO HAS CURE TO THE FOLLOWING DISEASE:
      HPV
      GENITAL HERPES
      TRICHOMONIASIS
      CHLAMYDIA
      HIV
      GONORRHEA
      HBV
      SYPHILIS
      CANCER
      PENIS ENLARGEMENT
      BOOBS ENLARGEMENT.

      Delete
    2. ★★HIRE A LEGIT HACKER★

      Are you Seeking for the Best Legit Professional Hackers online?
      Congratulations Your search ends right here with us.

      ★COMPOSITE HACKS is a vibrant squad of dedicated online hackers maintaining the highest standards and unparalleled professionalism in every aspect.
      We Are One Of The Leading Hack Teams in The United States With So many Accolades From The IT Companies. In this online world there is no Electronic Device we cannot hack. Having years of experience in serving Clients with Professional Hacking services, we have mastered them all. You might get scammed for wrong hacking services or by fake hackers on the Internet. Don't get fooled by scammers that are advertising false hacking services via False Testimonies, and sort of Fake Write Ups.
      COMPOSITE HACKS is the Answers To your prayers.

      ★ OUR HACKING CAPABILITIES:
      We Offer Varieties Of LEGIT Hacking Services With the Help Of Our Root HackTools, Special HackTools and Our Technical Hacking Strategies Which Surpasses All Other Hackers.

      ★We Can help you Hack Or recover the password of any email, Facebook or any other Social Media accounts,
      ★Phone Hack (Which enables you to monitor your kids/wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend, by gaining access to everything they are doing on their phone without their notice),
      ★You Wanna Hack A Website or Database? ★You wanna Clear your Criminal Records?? ★You wanna Track Someone’s Location?

      Our Team accepts all types of hacking orders and delivers assured results to alleviate your agonies and anxieties.

      * SOME OTHER SPECIAL SERVICES WE OFFER INCLUDES:
      ★ Bank Accounts Loading ( Only USA & UK Banks)
      ★ Credit Cards Loading (Only USA & UK CC's)
      ★ Bitcoin Mining ⛏

      ★ You can also contact us for other Cyber Attacks And Hijackings, we do almost All★

      ★We have a trained team of seasoned professionals under various skillsets when it comes to online hacking services. Our company in fact houses a separate group of specialists who are productively focussed and established authorities in different platforms. They hail from a proven track record Called “HackerOne” and have cracked even the toughest of barriers to intrude and capture or recapture all relevant data needed by our Clients. Some Of These Specialist Includes PETER YAWORSKI, FRANS ROSEN, JACK CABLE, JOBERT ABMA, ARNE SWINNEN And More

      ★COMPOSITE HACKS understands your requirements to hire a professional hacker and can perceive what actually threatens you and risk your business, relationships or even life. We are 100% trusted professional hacking Organization and keep your deal entirely confidential. We are aware of the hazards involved. Our team under no circumstances disclose information to any third party. The core values adhered by our firm is based on trust and faith. Our expert hacking online Organization supports you on time and reply to any query related to the unique services we offer
      Time also depends on what exactly you want to hack and how serious you are. Enough time with social engineering is required for hacking. So if you want to bind us in a short time, then just DONT contact us because we can't hack within 10-15minutes, *sorry*.
      I have seen FAKE HACKERS claiming they can hack in 10min , but there is no REAL HACKER who can say this (AVOID THEM)

      ★COMPOSITE HACKS is available for customer care 24/7, all day and night. We understand that your request might be urgent, so we have a separate team of allocated hackers who interact with our Clients round the clock. You are with the right people so just get started.

      ★CONTACT:
      E-mail: compositehacks@gmail.com
      Hire a Hacker!
      Want faster service? Contact us!
      HackerOne©️LLC 2018.
      All Rights Reserved ®️

      ★We Treat Every Request With Utmost Confidentiality★ πŸ™ŒπŸ½

      Delete
  2. Oh, and incidentally: what did psycho-witch Emily Yoffe had to say about today's GDP numbers?

    What - nothing at all? Tsk.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mao,
      Trump is a liar and a thief.
      And Putin's bitch.

      There, I said it.
      Feel better now, bunky?

      Delete
    2. Mao, Do you know you’re either jacked up on marijuana or pot? And I just called the police on you you son of a bitch.

      Delete


    3. I AM HERE TO TESTIFY ON HOW MY HERPES VIRUS WAS CURED BY DR LEWIS.

      I'm Liubov Nikonets, from Texas USA. I had been in a relationship with a guy and we had unprotected sex for the first time and within a day i got a big bump on the crease of my thigh and vagina. after a few days it began to hurt more and more. I told him to take a picture of it for me, and it looked like open sores, like bugs were biting off my skin or something. So i went to the ER and they said genital herpes. I was soooo depressed. my boyfriend and i cried. he cried for me, but he had no idea he had it too. next day, same thing happens to him. at this point, we think i gave it to him because I was the first one to show the symptoms. The next phase I went through was depression. At this point, all I did was sleep and cry. I felt like my life was over. I knew I could never get married, I felt dirty, and worthless. I was depressed for about two months. I fought thoughts of suicide and it was a hassle to even carry out my daily tasks. So I started to wonder if there would be a remedy to this disease, which led me to going to visiting many hospitals, and nothing good came out from it, until I read a person’s testimony online that said that they were cured with the help of Dr LEWIS Spell, of this disease that the world deems incurable and tears rolled down my face. That persons testimony sparked a hope in me that led me to contact Dr LEWIS. So he assured us that we are going to be alright, after meeting up with the necessary requirements, he sent us a parcel and gave us instruction guide on how to use it, which we did, after 7 days of using the medication, the herpes was totally cured. So I and my boyfriend went and got tested for every STD in the book and every single test came back NEGATIVE, we also went back to the hospital, and it was confirmed NEGATIVE. I am posting my testimony to help someone out there suffering from this disease. Do not hesitate to contact Dr LEWIS via e-mail: Lewis7temple@gmail.com or WhatsApp him on +393511568477
      HE ALSO HAS CURE TO THE FOLLOWING DISEASE:
      HPV
      GENITAL HERPES
      TRICHOMONIASIS
      CHLAMYDIA
      HIV
      GONORRHEA
      HBV
      SYPHILIS
      CANCER
      PENIS ENLARGEMENT
      BOOBS ENLARGEMENT.

      Delete
  3. If the homo sapiens had engaged in either genocide or starved out the Neanderthals, there would be some evidence of it. It might consists of tools or cave drawings or bones with certain marks on them. Instead, we have evidence that Neanderthals and homo sapiens interbred.

    Hunter gatherer tribal groups consisted of about 30 people. We aren't talking about vast armies sweeping the territory. They might walk for days without encountering anyone else. It is possible they depleted game and other food but hardly likely they did it as a motivated, concerted effort to wipe out competitors.

    Harari can speculate whatever he wants, but he is nevertheless engaging in speculation. Wars do occur and they occur over competition for resources necessary for survival, but not without leaving some evidence, even evidence of starvation would show up in bones. A species dies by producing fewer offspring over a period of time. That isn't the kind of death Harari speculates as a genocide.

    Somerby doesn't understand the importance of mental representation to thinking about things that don't exist, because he has never taken a psychology course. If we were not able to mentally represent things that are not present, we wouldn't be able to think about the past or the future. It would be out-of-sight, out-of-mind. That we can imagine things that never existed (pink and green striped apples) enables us to create fictional stories but also to generate plans of action and to see our lives in continuity from birth to a projected death, and to think about reasons for events and invent gods, demons and supernatural forces, or to invent cosmology and do higher dimensional math. All of this springs from changes in the brain that permit imagination, which occurs in the frontal lobes because that area of the brain was better developed in humans than Neanderthals. Reasoning, problem solving, analytical thinking, relational thinking, empathy, all that good stuff.

    Harari is being cute when he refers to social thinking as gossip. Somerby perhaps interprets this too literally as the kind of talking about others that is warned against as bad, gossip about people and their lives, speculation about them. That isn't strictly what Harari means. He means spreading news about dispersed hunter gatherer tribe members when you encounter them, to share knowledge and coordinate activities (e.g., "Good berries to the North, avoid the Neanderthal camp by the river, congrats on the new baby"). That isn't gossip -- it is news.

    Somerby complains because breaking news is poorly detailed and changes from day to day. I don't know what he thinks news should be, but current events need to change in order to stay current. Somerby never cared about those kids until Rachel stopped talking about them. Somerby is being an ass.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “Instead, we have evidence that Neanderthals and homo sapiens interbred.”

      Yup. Apparently, rape may have played a part. Or perhaps there were loving relationships, who knows? After all, Sapiens are known for their tenderness towards “the others.”

      “That isn't strictly what Harari means…” Oh, so you’ve read the book? Perhaps you could tell us, strictly, what Harari means.

      “…current events need to change in order to stay current...”

      And you call Somerby an ass?

      Delete
  4. "Why couldn't our ancestors gossip effectively before these chance mutations occurred? Harari doesn't seem to explain that. "

    How exactly would you gossip without language? Gossip involves talking about people who aren't present, not there. That means you have to mentally represent them and use a symbol to designate who you are talking about (language consists of symbols used to mentally represent things independent of their physical presence). And then you need words to designate action, what has happened to them, or to describe what they are like. In other words, you need verbs and adjectives to relate the representational nouns to each other and convey the substance of your gossip.

    I think everyone should be required to take a course on how their brains work. Everyone has a brain, why shouldn't they know how to use it, how it functions? This strikes me as important as sex ed. Somerby cannot read and understand Harari because he doesn't have basic understanding of mind and behavior, such as would be part of an intro psych class at Harvard. But he feels confident reading about Einstein. There is an irony there.

    There are any number of good books about brain and mind. What he needs to understand Harari is anything on cognitive psychology. It isn't Harari's job to provide a basic education to those lacking it, just as it isn't the job of someone writing about Einstein to introduce readers to basic math. It isn't the job of someone writing about WWII to educate readers about the geography of Europe. But it is annoying that Harari, in his effort to be entertaining and poetic, is glossing some things that undereducated people like Somerby might be misled by. He really shouldn't do that, in my opinion. But if he wrote it like a textbook, it wouldn't become a bestseller (even if it should).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "In other words, you need verbs and adjectives ... ."

      I like that.

      Delete
  5. Somerby -- that vast social myth unsupported by fact is a reference to religion, not to fake news.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Somerby knows that the family separation policy was huge news on MSNBC a while back. They focused on it intensely night after night, and played a role in getting this story the exposure it now has. They were among the news outlets that repeatedly played that "audio of terrified children." Again, Somerby is well aware of this.

    Last night, Chris Hayes had a 6 and a half minute segment on this issue.

    Somerby barely mentioned the coverage in real time last month, and he did not mention the Hayes report last night. He is thus doing a disservice to TDH readers who may not watch MSNBC.

    But that is only one aspect of Somerby's criticism. He quotes an op-ed piece that talks about "revulsion" at the separation policy, then acts as if Maddow only giving 5 minutes to this *last night* is blameworthy. Somerby holds Maddow somehow obligated to exhibit the truth of the op-ed that he has singled out, and deserving of condemnation when she doesn't...every night, apparently.

    And we do not know how Somerby feels about the separation policy. One is tempted to imagine that he condemns it when he accuses Maddow of "abandoning" the children. But that is not at all what he means. He accuses her of abandoning the children because she did a lot of reporting on it initially and this week, not as much.

    One wonders if the policy would have been changed had there not been such a focus on it initially. The issue is now in the courts and subject to public opinion, thanks partly to people like Maddow.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Seems to me that Harari advances a myth of his own, or promotes a commonly believed myth. "In modern times, a small difference in skin colour, dialect or religion has been enough to prompt one group of Sapiens to set about exterminating another group."

    Seems to me those events, even if he could give examples, (which I notice he does not bother to), are more of an exception than a rule. Further, I would say that the genocide is NOT about differences in dialect or religion.

    Consider this example "A huge Sac and Fox force led by Chief Pashepaho and seconded by Black Hawk crossed the great river and fell upon the Iowas, virtually annihilating them and confiscating their lands. What few Iowas survived were assimilated into the Sac tribe."

    Was it a difference in dialect or religion that caused those two tribes to annihilate the other tribe which they had been neighbors with for over 100 years and had been at peace with for about 20 years?

    (Black Hawk, in his autobiography (which may or may not be genuine) tells a rather Christ-like story about this peace. The Iowans demanded the life of a certain Sac who had killed some Iowans. That person, however, was too sick to travel, and so his brother went in his place. (An innocent offering his life for the sins of another). The Iowans, however, were so impressed by the brave sacrifice of this brother that they declined to kill him, and instead gave him a horse. The Sacs, in their turn, were so impressed by the magnanimity of the Iowans, that they made a permanent peace with them. (Well it was permanent until they decided to wipe them out, something Black Hawk does not mention in his book, although he does mention a desire to wipe out the Cherokees. (Because they killed his father, so prepare to die.)))

    The genocide of the Iowa tribe was not motivated by dialect or religion, it was motivated by the Sac need (or desire) for lebensraum. Their Illinois and Wisconsin hunting territory was increasingly being encroached by white settlers. Lacking the strength to stop it, they looked to the west for what they 'needed'.

    I put need in quotes, because their need was based on their mostly hunting way of life. Had they been willing to adopt western agriculture, they could have readily shared Iowa with the Iowans, or likely too, Illinois with the whites.

    But it was a fight over scarce resources that motivated the slaughter not a dislike of their dialect or religion or skin color, which in this particular example, was the same.

    Also, I thought it was well established that we still have Neaderthal DNA. If that is the case and modern man (perhaps particularly Europeans) are part-Neaderthal, then in what sense were they "wiped out"? Seems to me they are not dead yet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously? The Iowans, Sac, and Fox all had the same dialect and religion?

      The Neanderthals were wiped out in the sense that there are now no Neanderthals, just modern humans with some Neanderthal genes. That gene transfer probably occurred by natural means, but think about this:

      Suppose some chimpanzee genes were transferred, by modern technology, into a human zygote. The zygote grows up to be a human, marries, has kids. Then chimps go extinct. Would we then say, oh no, chimps are not extinct. There are humans with a few chimp genes!

      Delete
    2. I never said that they did. My point is that it is pretty clear that it was NOT differences in dialect or religion which "prompted" the Sacs and Foxes to wipe out the Iowas. There was a pretty clear need for territory.

      In the other analogy if there were, say 400 million of the chimp human hybrids, rather than just one family, then no, I would not say that chimps were extinct.

      Consider two of my ancestors Joseph Loomis and Mary White. They had 8 children, 88 grandchildren, 424 great grandchildren and then 1575-4314-9916-17,398 descendants through the generations and continuing to grow (except I don't have information about many of them)

      Suppose Mary White was the "last" of the Neanderthals. If you wouldn't say that her family had been wiped out, why would you say that about her species?

      Delete
  8. Gossip is only a small part of what we use language for. In fact, most language use is completely internal. Your language system is running every waking minute, even when you're not talking or listening. It's a subsystem of the human mind. It seems to help with abstract and conjectural thought, with planning and analysis.

    Neanderthals may not have had this subsystem, and the first anatomically modern humans may not have had it, either. It was the later humans, with language, who out-competed Neanderthals on their own turf.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting. I've heard that it's impossible to read when you're in a dream state. And in fact, my dreams bear that out, though I'm just one person. I can almost read what I'm seeing in the dream, but don’t really get there. Just my brain trying to figure itself out, I suppose.

      To your point about internal dialouge, that was surely the precursor to proto-language, and on until the revolution of the printed word. But the wet nature of our brains is predominant. And here we are, having to bear the burden of various sad communications.

      Evolution, after all, isn’t about “being the fittest.” It’s about continuously dying to make way for the fittest.

      Leroy

      Delete
    2. For a while there was a contention that all conscious thought takes place using language. Now the consensus is that there are two modes of thought, one involving images and the other language.

      Delete
    3. But we also have instinct, which drills right down to our DNA. E.O. Wilson talked about this when formulating his theory of sociobiology. He examined the seemingly universal fear of snakes, which through education can be ameliorated, but it’s likely an innate form of fear and loathing in humans, and passed on genetically as a survival mechanism. This has enormous implications for the concept of free will, but that’s another subject.

      Strangely, snakes became symbols of power in mythology, just as Harari’s imagined lion as a guardian spirit. It goes without saying that Christianity is heavily invested in snake symbology. And if I saw a lion, I would run away as fast as I could.

      But, to get back on track, tribalism is also a necessarily innate trait of our species, and Bob speaks to that in terms of our corporate, capitalist-dominated media.

      To clarify what I wrote, evolution isn’t about reaching ultimate perfection, but a means for genes to propagate themselves effectively. According to the Doomsday Clock, cockroaches may end up being our superiors if we can’t get our shit together. If the mainstream media is any guide, that may actually happen.

      Leroy

      Delete

  9. POWERFUL SPELL
    Hello everyone you came across this post not by mistake but by chance there is a God sent whom i know that helped me get my lover back and restored my home his name is Dr Noble of templeofjoyandprosperity1@gmail.com he is specialezes in the following

    1:Love Spell
    2:Protection Spell
    3:Pregnancy Spell
    4:Invisibility Spell
    5:Financial Prosperity Spell
    This Man has been of immense blessing to me and my friends and i am putting his email here to help the world at large know about his abilities and power to solve various types of problems contact him today via

    Email; templeofjoyandprosperity1@gmail.com Whats_App number Or Call +2348145643630

    ReplyDelete


  10. I AM HERE TO TESTIFY ON HOW MY HERPES VIRUS WAS CURED BY DR LEWIS.

    I'm Liubov Nikonets, from Texas USA. I had been in a relationship with a guy and we had unprotected sex for the first time and within a day i got a big bump on the crease of my thigh and vagina. after a few days it began to hurt more and more. I told him to take a picture of it for me, and it looked like open sores, like bugs were biting off my skin or something. So i went to the ER and they said genital herpes. I was soooo depressed. my boyfriend and i cried. he cried for me, but he had no idea he had it too. next day, same thing happens to him. at this point, we think i gave it to him because I was the first one to show the symptoms. The next phase I went through was depression. At this point, all I did was sleep and cry. I felt like my life was over. I knew I could never get married, I felt dirty, and worthless. I was depressed for about two months. I fought thoughts of suicide and it was a hassle to even carry out my daily tasks. So I started to wonder if there would be a remedy to this disease, which led me to going to visiting many hospitals, and nothing good came out from it, until I read a person’s testimony online that said that they were cured with the help of Dr LEWIS Spell, of this disease that the world deems incurable and tears rolled down my face. That persons testimony sparked a hope in me that led me to contact Dr LEWIS. So he assured us that we are going to be alright, after meeting up with the necessary requirements, he sent us a parcel and gave us instruction guide on how to use it, which we did, after 7 days of using the medication, the herpes was totally cured. So I and my boyfriend went and got tested for every STD in the book and every single test came back NEGATIVE, we also went back to the hospital, and it was confirmed NEGATIVE. I am posting my testimony to help someone out there suffering from this disease. Do not hesitate to contact Dr LEWIS via e-mail: Lewis7temple@gmail.com or WhatsApp him on +393511568477
    HE ALSO HAS CURE TO THE FOLLOWING DISEASE:
    HPV
    GENITAL HERPES
    TRICHOMONIASIS
    CHLAMYDIA
    HIV
    GONORRHEA
    HBV
    SYPHILIS
    CANCER
    PENIS ENLARGEMENT
    BOOBS ENLARGEMENT.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Friends i am so glad writing this article today to tell the world how Dr Ajagbo cured my HSV VIRUS,i have been detected with HSV-1 AND HSV-2 since five years ago, ever since then my life has been in complete bizarre and agony,i have used so many drugs that was prescribed to me by several doctors,but it didn't cure [my HSV VIRUS either did it reduce the pain,until one faithful day i was checking for solution in the internet,then miraculously came across Dr Ajagbo the powerful herbalist that cure numerous individuals HSV-1 AND HSV-2 INFECTION,then i contacted his email:drajagboherbahome201@gmail.com i explained everything to him and prepared a cure that cure my HSV-1 AND HSV-2 disease totally after receiving his herbal medicine,i really found out the real power in his herbs so friends what are you waiting for dont be suffering when there is someone like Dr Ajagbo that can cure any disease HIV/ CANCER/ HEPATITIS B VIRUS, BREAST CANCER, you can contact his via:drajagboherbalhome201@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. It is a very hard situation when playing the lottery and never won, or keep winning low fund not up to 100 bucks, i have been a victim of such a tough life, the biggest fund i have ever won was 100 bucks, and i have been playing lottery for almost 12 years now, things suddenly change the moment i came across a secret online, a testimony of a spell caster called dr emu, who help people in any type of lottery numbers, i was not easily convinced, but i decided to give try, now i am a proud lottery winner with the help of dr emu, i won $1,000.0000.00 and i am making this known to every one out there who have been trying all day to win the lottery, believe me this is the only way to win the lottery.

    Dr Emu can also help you fix this issues

    (1)Ex back.
    (2)Herbal cure & Spiritual healing.
    (3)You want to be promoted in your office.
    (4)Pregnancy spell.
    (5)Win a court case.

    Contact him on email Emutemple@gmail.com
    What’s app +2347012841542
    Website Https://emutemple.wordpress.com/
    Facebook page Https://web.facebook.com/Emu-Temple-104891335203341

    ReplyDelete