Neanderthals may have been eaten by early humans

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/may/17/neanderthals-cannibalism-anthropological-sciences-journal

by awt • 17 years ago

7 11 17 years ago

guardian.co.uk

TweedHeads2• 17 years ago

If I am a modern human moving to africa, would I start eating monkeys?

Why modern humans moving to europe ate neanderthals? Why not cro-magnons, australopithecus, aztecs, mayans, vikings?

Did europeans eat american aborigins when they conquered america?

No, they just killed them.

Just because you saw a jawbone with some marks it doesn't mean one million neanderthals had that fate.

I don't deny cannibalism has existed since the dawn of humanity, but please.

qeorge2• 17 years ago

If I am a modern human moving to africa, would I start eating monkeys?

Why not? What's to say they weren't already?

Why modern humans moving to europe ate neanderthals? Why not cro-magnons, australopithecus, aztecs, mayans, vikings?

- Cro-magnons are modern humans, AFAIK

- Australopithecus existed long before modern humans (millions of years), and not concurrently

- Aztecs, Mayans, and Vikings: by this point in human history social mores against cannibalism had already developed. Most European exploration was funded by theocracies.

This isn't my field, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

Did europeans eat american aborigins when they conquered america?

No, they just killed them.

Again, this is confusing an anthropologist's "modern humans" (30k years old) with a more common definition of modern humans (last 2k years). Social mores had already developed.

Just because you saw a jawbone with some marks it doesn't mean one million neanderthals had that fate.

I agree, but I didn't see that claim in the article.

mustaphamond• 17 years ago

Cro mangnons are an example of early modern humans, though may or may not be members of H. sapiens sapiens.

Reading the article, it sounds like Dr. Rozzi had an answer in search of a question.

TweedHeads2• 17 years ago

Maybe some anachronisms slipped, let me try to explain my thoughts again:

Gorillas don't eat monkeys and monkeys don't eat chimpanzees.

Lions don't eat tigers, tigers don't eat leopards.

Maybe it is written in all species DNA not to eat themselves or their close relatives.

(Yes, they can kill each other, mating, male supremacy, territories, etc, but not "eat" each other)

Just a thought.

awt• 17 years ago

I always sort of wondered if maybe some myths in northern europe about trolls may have originated with the Neanderthals.

defen• 17 years ago

That's the basic idea behind Crichton's "Eaters of the Dead" (made into the film "The Thirteenth Warrior") except he uses it to explain the Grendel myth rather than trolls.

pygy• 17 years ago

In the same vein I wonder if the wars between Giants and Titans in greek mythology is related to the fate of the Neanderthals.

Silentio• 17 years ago

I'm just wondering, if I ate a Chimpanzee would it be considered cannibalism? I'm not sure H. Sapiens sapiens eating H. Neanderthalensis is much different from H. Sapiens sapiens eating Pan troglodytes.

Also, I'm not clear on whether the stigma against cannibalism is mainly based on social pressure or stems from our biological programming.

Neanderthals may have been eaten by early humans

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