Review by Library Journal Review
In their clearly and concisely written book, Wynn (anthropology) and Coolidge (psychology; both Univ. of Colorado, Colorado Springs) present both an informative and a provocative look at the enigmatic Neandertal people. The short, muscular, cold-adapted Neandertals of Ice Age Europe lived in small groups and used stone-tipped spears to hunt mammoths, rhinoceros, and reindeer within restricted hostile territories. Through thought experiments, the authors speculate on the mental life of the Neandertals, arguing that their intellect was different from ours. The Neandertals probably had spoken language and a long-term memory but, unlike the Cro-Magnons, they were neither technologically inventive nor artistically creative. Furthermore, the authors maintain that Neandertal social life had been intimate but repetitive, exogamous, and male philopatric. They also hold that Neandertal life had no rich symbolic culture, e.g., it lacked cave paintings, long-burning fires, and grave burials with complex rituals. With a smaller memory capacity than the Cro-Magnons or modern humans, Neandertal thinking was, claim the authors, limited in scope and inflexible in use. Verdict An engaging overview of the Neandertals that will enlighten students, scholars, and interested readers.-H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Rise of Homo sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking, 2009 etc.), University of Colorado, Colorado Springs professors Wynn and Coolidge decipher clues from the Neandertal skeletons, stone artifacts and bones from sites where they hunted and butchered large predators that formed the major portion of their diet and genetic analysis. It is now accepted that modern humans and Neandertals descended from a common African ancestor around 500,000 years ago, and that we share more than 99.8 percent of our genes with them. They migrated to Europe around 200,000 years ago during a period of major glaciation, and became extinct for unknown reasons 30,000 years ago. Skeletal evidence suggests that their build would have been similar to ours, but male skeletons show grievous bodily injuries they likely received while hunting. The handheld stone-tipped spears they used for hunting indicate significant technical skills. They were cave dwellers who lived and hunted in small isolated groups of around 20 families, with little division of labor between the sexes. Wynn and Coolidge are convinced that they would have developed language, yet they note that there are no indications that the Neandertals had any of the spiritual concerns reflected in all known human societies--e.g, while they placed their dead in shallow graves, there is no indication that they practiced burial rites--perhaps because of biological differences in their brains or because of the harsh, demanding conditions of their daily lives. An intriguing look at fellow beings who seem to have been "inexact mirrors of ourselves," perhaps not as conceptually advanced but not so dissimilar either.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
