Who Would Win in a Fight: a Modern Human or a Neanderthal?

Slate ^ | Oct. 24, 2012 | Brian Palmer

[SJackson]

We beat them at evolution. But what about fisticuffs?

A team of archaeologists, paleoanthropologists, and paleoartists has created a more accurate Neanderthal reconstruction, based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in France more than 100 years ago. The La Ferrassie Neanderthal man was short but stocky. If a modern man came nose-to-nose with a Neanderthal, could he take him in a fight?

[Vendome]

I’m just a simple Caveman,

Your ways frighten and confuse me...

[Personal Responsibility]

If we are talking a neanderthal vs. a normal, non-violent office worker then the neanderthal will probably win

Put the neanderthal against a UFC fighter or some other kind of professional fighter, my money is on modern man.

We’re built bigger, more mass...it’d be like a UFC fighter fighting against a guy from three weight classes down. It’s also much more likely that we’ll be able to adjust attack / defense patterns quicker than neanderthals.

If we’re able to bring weapons, forget it. No contest.

[Vendome]

Thought about it a little further and I'd just go Captain Kirk on his azz: \P

[Vendome]

Thought about it a little further and I'd just go Captain Kirk on his azz: \P

[WakeUpAndVote]

I'll take your Chuck Norris and raise you...

[Starstruck]

Pick up a large rock. The Neanderthal would ask "Is that an Obama"?

The Homo Sapien would answer "Place you head down here and this uncommitted third party voter will decide"

[dalereed]

Modern man, you don’t take a knife to a gun fight!!!

[Oztrich Boy]

What about an army of elves against an army of orcs?

[Bshaw]

Now 12 days!

[Secret Agent Man]

You’ve all noticed the leftards always put her or woman, in front of him/man in discussing things. “As firefighters, women and men ....” blah blah

Have you noticed they NEVER DO THIS when what is being described is a NEGATIVE situation? THere they never put the word woman, or female, or a female pronoun, they ALWAYS use the masculine.

Obviously it is done on purpose. THere’s plenty of examples of females doing negative behaviors and violence, especially on those they are more powerful over, kids mainly, and guys who won’t fight back. But using language this way is subtle, but the left does it on purpose because it reinforces the imagery they want reinforced in people’s minds - that only guys do bad things, and the only time you here women referenced it’s doing good things.

[jmcenanly]

Whose side is he on?

[Talisker]

You’ve all noticed the leftards always put her or woman, in front of him/man in discussing things. “As firefighters, women and men ....” blah blah

Have you noticed they NEVER DO THIS when what is being described is a NEGATIVE situation? THere they never put the word woman, or female, or a female pronoun, they ALWAYS use the masculine.

Obviously it is done on purpose. THere’s plenty of examples of females doing negative behaviors and violence, especially on those they are more powerful over, kids mainly, and guys who won’t fight back. But using language this way is subtle, but the left does it on purpose because it reinforces the imagery they want reinforced in people’s minds - that only guys do bad things, and the only time you here women referenced it’s doing good things.

Yep.

And if there's anything good, it's a "male" or simply the name of the profession.

If there's anything bad, it's a "man."

[varmintman]

We beat them at evolution. But what about fisticuffs?

First, a male Neanderthal at 5-9 - 6 foot could easily weigh 320 lbs without any fat on him; this is what the comparison looks like, courtesy www.themandus.org, Neandrethal with fur removed for illustration:

A one on one unarmed fight, the human would have little if any chance, the one slight hope being to target the nose or those big eyes.

Other than that we didn't "beat them at evolution"; we killed them all and the word "we" in that only pertains to descendants of Cro Magnon groups i.e. you'd need to be a member of Basque, Ainu, Australian Aborigine or some such group to claim any sort of ancestral credit for it, most of us are descended from Noah and the familiar Bible antediluvian and not from Cro Magnons.

Cro Magnons had several edges in that conflict:

• Apes and hominids lacked the kind of shoulder joints needed for throwing things; that left them using thrusting spears against humans armed with javelins and atlatls.
• Humans were able to use dogs to nullify the edge Neanderthals had with night vision (the huge eyes).
• Humans also made fire a factor: the Neanderthal fur coats made them highly susceptible to being lit up by humans with torches while the humans were far less liable to being hurt by fire, i.e. an incident which would cause a minor burn to a human would usually light a Neanderthal up and fry him.
• The most major factor: Neanderthals almost certainly had the same predator mentality as lions do; a cannibalistic creature which nonetheless buried his own dead, he almost certainly viewed the living world as neatly divided into two categories, his own family/clan, and meat. That says that humans never had to face more than about one clan's worth of them at any one time or in any on encounter. A human war party only needed to be about two and a half times the maximum size of a Neanderthal clan.
• Such human/Cro Magnon parties swept through Europe from East to West and the Neanderthals died out as they came into contact with them so that the final European stand of the Neanderthal was in Southern Spain