Live data from Hacker News

Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

phys.org

51–60 of 100 posts

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#51

so we are all part, Ugg, or is it part Ugg-et, or is it both?, ie: y and x chromasones have nieanderthal bits?, if its both, then that is a strong indication that things were pretty casual, ,hanging out partying, looks like Ugg and Sue are hitting it off, some tasty mastadon on the fire, heard you and the other nieandethals got a saber tooth cat last week

Haha, yeah, the idea that early humans and Neanderthals were just casually intermingling around the fire, sharing stories and mammoth steaks, is a fun mental image

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#54
post #48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely possible that they were more intelligent in some ways than contemporary Homo Sapiens. How they were overwhelmed is open to question. Perhaps just numerically - they were adapted for cold environments and may have been less fecund.

I’ve also seen estimates that Neanderthals required 2x-5x more calories per day than us, which translates into 2x-5x less population density. That’s one way to get overwhelmed.

> required 2x-5x more calories per day than us, which translates into 2x-5x less population density

If you assume that they're equally productive, sure. Why assume that?

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#56
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Plunder/Raping raids What are you referring to? Is there evidence of that being most of the way they interacted?

There are indicators, for example, the neanderthals and all other human like great apes have mysteriously disappeared except for us. (Or gotten assimilated, I mean, we have a tiny bit neanderthal DNA) Check out killer ape theory. Also look at how violent humans are to their own species.

Humans actually aren't particularly aggressive compared to other animals. The reason human-human conflicts are so deadly is that we're rather fragile and have a very long maturation period.

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#57
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have be able to communicate with your slaves.

It’s highly unlikely that a small nomadic hunter-gatherer band would have had the food surplus and hierarchical organization needed to control and keep slaves. It’s as likely that ancient humans outcompeted Neanderthals for resources as killed them off directly.

The Uralic word for slave is very archaic and dates to well before they became sedentary. The Uralic tribes came into contact with the Aryas people on the steppes, and won battles with them enough to take captives as slaves, calling them orjat.

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#58
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have be able to communicate with your slaves.

It’s highly unlikely that a small nomadic hunter-gatherer band would have had the food surplus and hierarchical organization needed to control and keep slaves. It’s as likely that ancient humans outcompeted Neanderthals for resources as killed them off directly.

This is not true, as evidenced by the slave taking exhibited by nomadic peoples in North America. It was a pretty routine practice, well documented in history. Losers in battles would often be assimilated by the winner as slaves.

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also look at how violent humans are to their own species. Species is a construct though, our genes have no idea about species. Also I think that organisms feel most threatened by same-niche competitors, and least threatened by non-competitors. Similar but just different enough is like the worst case in terms of same-niche competition. Like how geese and ducks will act really adversarial towards each other, and then…

> Species is a construct though, our genes have no idea about species. Species is a construct because it is a useful concept to bin or categorize traits. The woke ideology of pretending that all constructs are borne of "inequality" and "injustice" has no place in the sciences, where binning is a useful tool for studying populations, not individuals. And yes, binning people into races, cultures, and nationalities is o…

Calling any idea "woke ideology" doesn't sound like any science I'm familiar with.

Re: Evidence that Neanderthal and Homo sapiens engaged in cultural exchange

#60
post #48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely possible that they were more intelligent in some ways than contemporary Homo Sapiens. How they were overwhelmed is open to question. Perhaps just numerically - they were adapted for cold environments and may have been less fecund.

I’ve also seen estimates that Neanderthals required 2x-5x more calories per day than us, which translates into 2x-5x less population density. That’s one way to get overwhelmed.

I think "than us" here is quite mistaken reasoning, particularly for those of us with lots of Neanderthal DNA.
Post reply on HN