> > It's been a while since I got any zombification updates. > > But wasn't it mentioned earlier in this thread that outside Africa, > most humans have genes traceable to neanderthals?
those results are very new. The professional interpretations seem to swing between no interbreeding and some, but not enough to be significant to us. I personally wouldn't jump to any conclusions until I've read something other than a press report about it, and also read some counter-arguments. > If modern humans > interbred with the neanderthals it makes them just another race. Not necessarily. In the first place 'race' is not a term that is used in the scientific community - it cannot be defined or delineated (even 'species' is problematic, I believe). In the second place, some mammal hybrids are fertile even though the parents may be considered to be from different species (problematic as that may be). > Which > means that with racial differences taken _into_ account, "modern" > humans assimilated/diluted/destroyed the neanderthal culture. > even if there were such a thing as race, I don't see how you can infer this from the available evidence. > Whether it was by force or peacful coexistence can be up to anyone's > fancy, but considering modern man's actions throughout the few > thousand years we have of documented history (insofar as you can trust > the storytelling of "sources" like the bible, greek poets, etc.), I'd > lean towards force. I wouldn't bet on it. Documented history refers only to agricultural societies. Before agriculture people lived different types of lives altogether and while there may have been some competition between modern humans and Neandertals for resources there seems to be no indication that they were _actively_ competing or that the competition alone was responsible for the demise of the Neandertals. It's possible that an advantage of a fraction of a percentage could, over thousands of years, have a pushed an already-marginal population beyond the point where they could sustain a viable population, but neither they nor modern humans need necessarily have been in any judgmental sense responsible for this, any more than grey squirrels can be held responsible for the decline of reds in the UK. The very late entry of modern humans onto the European stage can be explained by climate change, which would also and independently affect the ability of the more specialised Neandertals to make a decent living. There are many other hypotheses which may explain the extinction of the Neandertals without modern humans as a contributory factory- the jury is still out on this question, and probably will be for a long time. Best to keep an eye on the literature and enjoy the unfolding story as an interested amateur, than to try and construct theories! Bob -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
