Stone Age feminism? [Neanderthal women to blame]

Boston Globe ^ | 10 November 2007 | Colin Nickerson

[Fractal Trader]

The Neanderthal extinction some 30,000 years ago remains one of the great riddles of evolution, with rival theories blaming everything from genocide committed by "real" humans to prehistoric climate change.

But a recent study introduces another explanation: Stone Age feminism. Among Neanderthals, hunting big beasts was women's work as well as men's, so it's a safe bet that female hunters got stomped, gored, and worse with appalling frequency. And a high casualty rate among fertile women - the vital "reproductive core" of a tiny population - could well have meant demographic disaster for a species already struggling to survive among monster bears, yellow-fanged hyenas, and cunning Homo sapien newcomers.

A spate of recent discoveries has yielded intriguing clues about humanity's closest cousin. Neanderthals and humans split from a common ancestor some 500,000 years ago. Neanderthals had Europe to themselves until Homo sapiens started swarming out of Africa about 45,000 years ago - the beginning of the end for these archetypical cave dwellers, although they hung on for 15 millennia.

No other prehistoric people had quite the same kinship with humans: just 2,000 generations ago, the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms, Neanderthals walked among us and we among them. They might have been our lovers. Almost certainly they were our rivals, competing for the same giant elk and reindeer.

Then they were gone.

[SNIP]

"If a Neanderthal were to come along, we'd think he was kind of weird. But we might also wonder whether to admit him to Harvard," Lieberman said. "They remain this touchstone species that evokes strong emotions."

[Fractal Trader]

hunting big beasts was women's work as well as men's, so it's a safe bet that female hunters got stomped, gored, and worse with appalling frequency.

Doesn't sound persuasive to me. If this situation were so bad, then Neanderthals would have never survived in the first place.

[Fractal Trader]

ggg ping

[trisham]

Interesting theory, but I’m sceptical.

[isrul]

They would have been Okay if they had used gender norming.

[mtbopfuyn]

Nope, it’s not a sound argument.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Neanderthals walked among us and we among them. They might have been our lovers.”

Case in point, my Ex-Husband, LOL!

[ElkGroveDan]

I guess what they are trying to say is, before glass, there were no glass ceilings.

[martin_fierro]

big beasts

Oh. nevermind

[JRios1968]

"If a Neanderthal were to come along, we'd think he was kind of weird. But we might also wonder whether to admit him to Harvard," Lieberman said.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

LOL

A Patriot’s History of the United States:
From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror
(Hardcover)
by Larry Schweikart (Author),
Michael Patrick Allen (Author)

My weird sense of humor caught this tidbit.
Time Line

Nineteenth Amendment (Women suffrage) ratified, U. S.economy enters recession

[Kimmers]

Waiting for the usual Helen Thomas picture.....

[SunkenCiv]

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[socialismisinsidious]

There are other plausible explanations for the Neanderthal extinction. Warming at the end of the Ice Age surely wasn't easy for robust people built for the cold.

Uh, I don't think so! That implies that global warming has been going on prior to SUVs and everyone knows that warming has only been happening since the 70s! (you know when everyone was prediditng another ice age b/c of our evil ways).

[the invisib1e hand]

wow. 14 posts and still no picture of Helen Thomas?

[Lady Jag]

And that's the way it is.

[John123]

Neanderthals walked among us and we among them. They might have been our lovers.

Ugh! No thanks...

[Syncro]

Wow that happened to me in 2000!

LOL

[Larry Lucido]

hunting big beasts was women's work as well as men's

All right, who else misread that statement like I did?

[ansel12]

"wow. 14 posts and still no picture of Helen Thomas?"<<>> Helen is too ugly, she has been replaced by a younger beauty. ============================================================