The Role of Neanderthal

In the 1970s, the discovery of early hominid remains in southern Africa led to a new focus on the notion that early modern humans originated there and spread out to other parts of the globe. Tis scheme assumed that Neanderthals preceded moderns and that the moderns may even have been descended from them. This idea conveniently slotted Neanderthals into evolutionary schemes that were based more on wishful thinking than on the available facts. But this view, despite its popularity, was seriously challenged by new discoveries of the late 1980s. First, the "humanness" of the south African remains began to be challenged by researchers whose findings made "models of a single, culture-bearing lineage untena

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such as Neanderthals, are held to have been distinct entities that may or may not have mixed with early modern humans but were eventually replaced by them. The great merit of the single-origin theory is that it keeps to a minimum the amount of parallel evolution needed to "produce the widespread appearance of Homo sapiens characteristics." In this model, the "presumed selective advantage" of the modern type would have guaranteed its spread, and the transition from archaic to early modern would have been fairly rapid. Thus, the role of the Neanderthals in these schemes boils down to a choice between continuity (within the regions they inhabited) or replacement. For, even if Neanderthals interbred with early moderns to some degree, they were ultimately replaced by them in the single-origin theory. The question is, then, whether the emerging evidence from Neanderthal digs supports any of these interpretations. It appears, however, to support all of them, depending on the researcher. Trinkaus and Shipman have detailed the extent to which people's views of Neanderthals have related to their own biases about the special nature of humanity. Such views were more often based on how "human" is defined and on the extent to which
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Approximate Word count = 2157
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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