Re: paleonet Neanderthals were not stupid, just "RED"

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It was proposed by long that the main difference between H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis is that the firs is an symbolic ape and the second not. As a symbolic animal, recent humans can create cohesion symbols such as flags, facial decoration or languaje. It is by all of we that any of these symbols make friends among otherwise unkown people. As a nice example, in international meetings, French people finally have the dinner with French people. The same for Spaniards, Irish, or Londoners...

Seems to be that besides neanderthals were better adapted for cold and dry weather they preffer Southern to the northern   Europe. Most probably because recent humans become from there. It has been proposed a parallelism between gray and red squirels. Red squirels form loose groups, Grey squirels form packs. When a red squirel see a grey one has the tendency to go away and keep distances. grey squirels keep the pack and for that developed a series of visual signs for grupal comunication (=lenguaje). In Britain, alien american grey squirels carried as pets almost extinct to the wild red ones. Recent humans are grey. 

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Dr. Patricio DOMINGUEZ
Dep. Paleontologia. Fac. Ciencias Geologicas. 
Universidad Complutense de Madrid

----- Mensaje original -----
De: Joe Cooper <joe0727@earthlink.net>
Fecha: Martes, Abril 11, 2006 11:53 pm
Asunto: paleonet Neanderthals were not stupid, just a bit anti-social

> Neanderthals were not stupid, just a bit anti-social
> IAN JOHNSTON
> SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT 
> "CRUDE, boorish and slow- witted" - even dictionaries give 
> Neanderthals a
> hard time. But our prehistoric cousins were in reality just as 
> smart as we
> are and did not die out as a result of a lack of brain power, 
> according to
> a new archaeological study. 
> 
> Until now, the leading theory of why the Neanderthals disappeared 
> has been
> that a lack of intelligence meant they were less efficient 
> hunters. 
> 
> But a team of US archaeologists believe they met their 
> evolutionary end
> because of a failure to maintain social links with other groups, 
> unlikemodern humans, who travelled widely, making the friends who 
> would help them
> during hard times. 
> 
> Working in the Caucasus region of modern-day Georgia, the scientists
> discovered evidence of highly skilled hunting behaviour by the 
> Neanderthalsthat required an understanding of yearly animal 
> migration patterns and the
> planning of traps to catch them. 
> 
> But they also found there was a crucial difference between 
> Neanderthals and
> homo sapiens. The Neanderthals tended to be anti-social, staying 
> in small
> hunter-gatherer groups, while the sapiens were "routinely" travelling
> distances of 60 miles and meeting other groups. 
> 
> This meant that if an area became hunted out or a more powerful 
> rival took
> over, the Neanderthals had no-one to turn to while the modern 
> humans did. 
> 
> Dr Dan Adler, of Connecticut University, who led the study, which 
> appearedin the journal Current Anthropology, said: "Any individual 
> Neanderthal, I
> don't imagine, knew more than 20, 30 or 50 people. That's by 
> virtue of the
> fact they didn't get around as much. Maybe they didn't want to. Modern
> humans seem to get around a lot. They were routinely covering 
> distances of
> at least 100km. 
> 
> "If you find yourself in an area where the resources just aren't 
> there any
> more - it's a bad season or you have killed all the game - you 
> need to move
> into another territory where other people are. If you don't know 
> them the
> chances are they are not going to like that. Modern humans would 
> have known
> these people." 
> 
> Neanderthals seem to have had little interest in their appearance, 
> comparedto modern humans, a sign that group identity was not 
> something they
> considered to be important. 
> 
> "We have no indication that Neanderthals really paid much 
> attention to who
> other people were and they didn't try to signal to other people 
> who they
> were," Dr Adler said. 
> 
> "Modern humans were obsessed with this. They were spending a lot 
> of time
> and energy on how they looked. They cared more about how they 
> looked and
> were more style conscious." 
> 
> However, this lack of fashion sense should not reflect badly on their
> intelligence, Dr Adler said. 
> 
> "It's fairly clear that Neanderthals were pretty smart. They could 
> huntjust as well [as modern humans] and they had expert knowledge 
> about the
> environment," he said. 
> 
> "Put you and a Neanderthal in the woods and the latter would probably
> survive a lot longer. 
> 
> "It's within the social realm where modern humans have an 
> advantage. I
> think they knew more people and lived a richer life in terms of 
> culturalcontact than the Neanderthals did. But they were both smart."
> 
> Related topic
> 
> 
> 
> Joe Cooper
> joe0727@earthlink.net
> Why Wait?  Move to EarthLink.
> 
> 
> 
>