Neanderthal Dream #9 - Democratic Underground

H2O Man

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Thu Feb-12-09 06:15 PM
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Neanderthal Dream #9

{1} "In sleep and in dreams we pass through the whole thoughts of earlier humanity …. Dreams carry us back to remote conditions of human culture and give us a ready means of understanding them better."
--Nietzsche; Human, All-Too Human

Recently, there have been a number of important scientific studies of Neanderthals. They have focused on issues ranging from studies of their DNA, their ability to speak, to the manner in which they used spears. For many people – perhaps especially those of us who watched the National Geographic specials on Louis and Mary Leaky in the mid-1960s – studies of the evolution of the human family hold an intense fascination.

By no coincidence, there have been a number of interesting OPs/threads on DU, discussing the general topic of Neanderthals. Just as there are disagreements in the scientific community on exactly who Neanderthals were, and what became of them, there are also interesting differences of opinion found within the DU Neanderthal threads.

My interest in these threads goes beyond the purely scientific, to a curiosity regarding why people think the way that they do about Early Man, including the Neanderthals. This includes people as individuals, and in the context of the larger society. And it is not limited to people’s grasp of the scientific evidence per say.

{2} "They would have spoken a bit differently. They wouldn’t have been able to produce these quantal vowels that form the basis of spoken language."
--Dr. Robert McCarthy; Florida Atlantic University;

The history of the Neanderthals is written in stone. It includes the artifacts that they made, including points, knives, scrapers, and other tools. These are generally found at sites that groups of Neanderthals inhabited, along with skeletal remains and other things that help scientists to interpret a wide range of information about them.

Neanderthals occupied parts of Asia and Europe, over a period from 130,000 to 35,000 years ago. (Earlier groups, with proto-Neanderthal traits, had lived in some of this same general area up to 600,000 years ago.) Although all of the Neanderthals were part of the stone age, there were different sub-groups. For example, there were what are referred to as the Eastern and Western Neanderthal. More, while the majority of their stone tools fit into the Mousterian culture, there are other variations associated with some Neanderthal groups. As they lived for an extended period over a large land mass, and lived in small, extended family groups, it suggests that there may have been something akin to a larger clan or tribal identity, similar to that we associate with later peoples.

Neanderthal diet included woolly rhinoceros, horse, deer, bison, and wild ox. As it is believed they used "thrusting" spears (rather than "throwing" spears or bow and arrow), it suggests the Neanderthal were an intelligent and physically strong people.

Hunting large and dangerous prey with weapons in the range of thrusting spears tends to be a coordinated group effort. Even more than areas such as tool production, this would seem to include planning and execution in a manner requires some form of language skills. There is on-going debate regarding the possibilities of Neanderthal language, which took a leap forward in 1983, with the discovery of a hyoid bone. I find the theory of Steven Mithen most interesting; he believes that Neanderthal likely had a proto-language that was more "musical" than our own, and which pre-dated the separation of music and language as distinct communication skills.

{3} "Neanderthal was a lowbrow, but his head was long, front to back; in contrast, our heads are not so deep, but they are taller: we can certainly be described as highbrows. Might the brain growth exhibited by Neanderthal man have been in the parietal and occipital lobes, and the major brain growth of our ancestors in the frontal and temporal lobes?"
--Carl Sagan; The Dragons of Eden

As Sagan points out, the brain structure of the Neanderthal suggests that they experienced a different – though closely connected – conscious reality as modern man. This holds true when compared to our immediate ancestor, archaic man (a group that includes what was formerly called Cro Magnons), which had a brain like our own. Thus, the Neanderthal likely had advantages in visual perception, including motion (occipital); and in integrating internal and external perceptions (parietal). We have the advantage in the areas of anticipatory skills (frontal); and language (temporal).

However, Neanderthals displayed a wide range of behaviors that indicate that they represent a leap forward in human development. They are recognized for having the first mortuary ceremonial rituals: they buried their dead, often with great care, including "grave goods" consisting of artifacts and food. Frequently, the dead were buried in an east-to-west direction, which is associated in early human religious practice. Numerous examples of "alters" are found in caves located in high elevations, including the intentional placing of cave bear skulls. (Bear cults existed in a wide range of human societies above the equator.)

Joseph Campbell and others believe that the placement of hearths in many caves indicates a ritual usage of fire. Campbell compares this to the modern ritual use of fire, which includes things ranging from "eternal flames" to candles in Christian churches.

There is also some evidence of cannibalism among Neanderthals. As with modern humans, this can take different forms. There is "emergency" cannibalism, such as was used by survivors of a plane crash in the Andes; and "ritual" cannibalism, which tends to be a tactic used during territorial conflicts.

{4} "The study of constructions of folk-psychology such as these is far from being complete, but it is extremely probable that myths, for instance, are distorted vestiges of the wishful phantasies of whole nations, the (age-long) dreams of youthful humanity."
--Sigmund Freud; Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming

The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is one of the oldest surviving poems, coming from ancient Mesopotamia, is primarily an example of "the hero’s journey." As explained by C. G. Jung, it tells the story of Gilgamesh and other men who have had the experience of their conscious minds being disconnected from their bodies. The effect is described in a manner that Jung recognizes as neurosis.

The "gods" call up another man to assist Gilgamesh in his journey. His name is Enkidu, and while he is like Gilgamesh and the others, he is distinct: Jung describes him as a "cave man," who lives among the wild beasts, drinks water from open springs, and inhabits a different form of consciousness, which involves the "dream world." In the epic, Enkidu dies before Gilgamesh reaches his goal; but after Gilgamesh obtains his victory, he calls upon the spirit of Enkidu to learn a final truth. The ultimate victory, Jung notes, is thus won by Enkidu.

Carl Sagan connects the genesis myth of the bible with human evolution. Included in this is his view on Abel and Cain. One of the consequences of using the hands for tool-making was the evolution of the anticipatory skills. The combination of these gave our ancestors a distinct advantage over other forms of early man. One result appears to be found in the smashed-in skulls of those early humans who did not survive the competition for resources with our ancestors.

In much more recent history, we find numerous other examples of human beings "dehumanizing" other groups. In our nation’s history, we find that white people used to identify Africans and Native Americans as "less human." The tendency to view others as less than fully human continues today.

{5} "But there was another area of the museum still more remote, a strange mix of active research and virtually abandoned cabinets and shelves. ….A province dedicated to Neanderthal remains, including the first Neanderthal skull, reconstructed by Marcellin Boule, which I held cautiously in my hands. It felt lightweight and delicate, the sutures starkly visible, perhaps the first compelling piece of evidence tht there were once creatures rather like us who became extinct, a disquieting hint that our own species likewise might not survive forever."
--Carl Sagan; Broca’s Brain

In a relatively short time after our ancestors moved into the region inhabited by the Neanderthals, our numbers increased and theirs decreased. There are a number of possible reasons for this, including climate change, disease, violence between the two groups, and the ability of our type to access a larger amount of the natural resources needed to survive. At some point, the total sum of Neanderthals reached a point where reproduction rates were significantly lower than the rate of death, and soon, they disappeared from the scene.

While a number of scientists have theorized that some Neanderthals may have been
absorbed" into our gene pool (based in part upon some fascinating individual finds among graves), recent tests suggest that this is unlikely to have taken place on a significant scale. Of course, further advances in science may change the manner in which that is interpreted.

But even if they are, as Sagan stated, our "cousins" who became extinct, there is a great deal in which other archaic and modern humans share with the Neanderthal. Some of this is found in scientific research. But there may also be important traces to be found in our myths, our dreams, and in the songs that we use to communicate. I’ll end with a quote from a brief conversation between Marshall McLuhan and John Lennon, which took place at the University of Toronto:

McLuhan: "Language is a form of organized stutter. Literally, you chop your sounds up into bits in order to talk. Now, when you sing, you don’t stutter, so singing is a way of stretching language into long, harmonious patterns and cycles. How do you think about language in songs?"

Lennon: "Language and song, to me, apart from being pure vibrations, is just like trying to describe a dream. And because we don’t have telepathy, we try and describe the dream to each other, to verify to each other what we know, what we believe to be inside each other. And stuttering is right –because we can’t say it. No matter how you say it, it’s never how you want to say it."