I heard an interesting story on NPR this morning... Study: Neanderthals Wore Jewelry And Makeup : NPR
The story, about how maybe Neanderthals living in Europe were perhaps not as brutish as their modern cousins, Homo Sapiens, have always made them out to be, was interesting enough, but what caught my ear were 2 lines in the story:
and,
Considering what happened here in North America and elsewhere, I got to wondering...
How different might this world look today if the original Europeans had survived...
The story, about how maybe Neanderthals living in Europe were perhaps not as brutish as their modern cousins, Homo Sapiens, have always made them out to be, was interesting enough, but what caught my ear were 2 lines in the story:
So even though Homo sapiens had developed symbolic thinking before they got to Europe, perhaps Neanderthals were figuring it out for themselves. Brooks suggests that maybe it was the arrival of those modern humans that pushed them into it.
and,
"In some way, modern humans were pushing populations in front of them," she says, "so that Neanderthals in southern Spain were becoming more crowded in some way, so that they were feeling the need to reach out to a larger safety net, if you like, of individuals."
Considering what happened here in North America and elsewhere, I got to wondering...
Is there any property on this planet belonging to white people that they didn't get by taking it from a more primitive cousin?
How different might this world look today if the original Europeans had survived...