[ExI] forwarding tara maya's post: capitalism, etc

[Dan]

On Friday, December 2, 2011 1:40 AM Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
> We apparently weren't very nice to Neanderthals...

We? I don't remember doing anything to Neanderthals! Do you mean Modern Humans around the same time as Neanderthals?


> It seems there can be only one dominant primate in a given area
> at a given time. The secret may be to make sure that whatever
> comes next isn't a primate.
> ;-)

The jury's still out on that one. Neanderthals and Modern Humans seem to have fit in different niches -- the former in dense forests, the latter in open grasslands. So, the view that one group pushed out the other seems a stretch. In fact, it seems more likely that Neanderthals went extinct not because they met up with Modern Humans, but because of habitat loss due to the worsening conditions during the glacial period. The kind of forests Neanderthals lived in simply got smaller and smaller, and the Neanderthals themselves became increasingly isolated from each other. (There also appears to have been some interbreeding with humans, but the main story seems to a decline in viable populations due to loss of habitat and not direct competition with another primate species.)

In fact, one might say, Modern Humans got lucky. Their ancestors were pushed out of forests -- because they simply couldn't cut it there -- but then grasslands spread and this provided a large niche with little competition from other primates. Had things gone slightly different -- say, a warming period with robust reforestation -- Modern Humans might never have arisen.

At least, this seems one narrative* that fits many of the facts about early humans. Of course, as more evidence comes in, especially on interbreeding and other human species, the "best fit" story will likely change. All the more reason, though, to be cautious of drawing conclusions like Humans "weren't very nice to Neanderthals."

Regards,

Dan

* Cf. _The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals Died Out and We Survived_ by Clive Finlayson. Finlayson actually argues that it might have been Neaderthals that kept Modern Humans from entering Europe and the Middle East. In other words, it wasn't until Neanderthals were in decline, due to climate change and habitat loss, that Modern Humans could move into formerly Neanderthal dominated areas.
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