• bulwark@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I first read it as neanderthals are less aggressive so they must focus now on weapons. I’m pretty sure the intention is that the guys working on the wheel have to stop because the current leadership are neanderthals.

    I think neanderthals were less war-like than humans because humans eradicated all of them, but I’m probably reading too much into it.

    • zloubida@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      I think neanderthals were less war-like than humans because humans eradicated all

      Akchually, Neanderthals were humans and we don’t know why they disappeared. The idea that homo sapiens eradicated them all is probably a wrong one; their decline begun before the arriving of homo sapiens.

      • purplemonkeymad@programming.dev
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        2 days ago

        The most recent suggestion I saw is that there were just more sapiens when they started interacting. Interbreeding must have happened, but with new groups of sapiens continuously arriving from the middle east, the neanderthal DNA just got more and more dilute. Eventually “pure” neanderthals no longer existed.

        • GreenMartian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          with new groups of sapiens continuously arriving from the middle east, the neanderthal DNA just got more and more dilute

          I can’t tell if you’re being serious, or making fun of the great replacement theory conspiracy…

          • Mirror Giraffe@piefed.social
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            2 days ago

            It is considered true but the"replacement" took place over thousands of years and the neanderthal population was very small in comparison to the ones they were bedding.

      • VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Europeans and Asians also have roughly 2% Neanderthal DNA on average, so it’s likely we absorbed a significant chunk of their population into our own.

        • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Pretty sure those 2% refer to the subsection of the genome that is unique to homo sapiens. We have >98% shared DNA among all great apes (including humans)

    • Jesus_666@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      We also might simply have outbred them. Remember that modern humans have what appears to be detectable Neanderthal DNA so interbreeding has apparently occurred; we might simply have diluted them into perceived extinction. Besides, there doesn’t seem evidence for large-scale war.

      Of course that’s all speculation.

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Neanderthals were also comparatively expensive, which is great when food is plentiful, but gave us the edge when food was scarce

    • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Huh I never thought about Neanderthals that way, but it makes sense. Crazy that now we refer to them as “less civilized” or more “savage”, considering what war is.