Apparently there is a new theory on how Neanderthals died out. A new study suggests they were hunted and eaten by modern human beings. The theory argues that a Neanderthal jawbone shows signs of butchering similar to the techniques humans used on deer in the Stone Age. You are what you eat - how true.
Considering we have been known to eat other Homo sapiens in the post neanderthal world, that is not terribly surprising. It may not even have been common.
That has been my personal theory ever since I learned of them dying out soon after the arrival of modern humans. It just made sense, but now there is evidence. Humans today are still eating chimpanzees and gorillas.
Neanderthals were also hunters, it's not so easy to wipe out them in this way. Maybe they invited them to dinner party. When they asked "what is in the menu?" our ancestors replied: "you". It is true that some species died out in human hands, but we need more evidence to claim whole species of Neanderthals wiped out by humans. If that was the fact, again it's shame, because today we would not do that. We have developed a sophisticated civilization: We would use them as soldiers...
It's much more likely that the human women thought the neanderthal men were hot, had fantasies bout turning the bad boy good, and got pregnant, and the Neanderthal simply merged with humans through women.
I love how these guys find one jawbone and jump to a conclusion like that. We probably still have a few cannibalistic cultures eeking by today and certainly did have cannibals, not more than a couple hundred years ago. We "out competed" them. That means we killed them, hunted better than them, had more babies than them and maybe even took their women and screwed them. One or all of the above or any combination. I'm pretty sure we did not eat ALL of them. Sure we ate a few, food was scarce from time to time. They prolly ate a few of us too. And we KNOW they ate each other, quite a bit actually, unless they did not eat the meat from their ritual defleshing that was their widespread custom for a long period of time. Then there are other finds of great anthropological significance and it's you know just a one off freak family with screwed up pituitary glands. Unless off course you find one tiny skull, or tiny skeleton, then it's a whole new species...as long as it's smaller than us. We really have a major Anthropological ego. Seriously out of control.
There are other theories about this. One is that they were cannibals, perhaps driven by hunger. An other is that they de-fleshed their dead for burial, for some reason (I can't remember if they hypothesized on the reason).
That's interesting, they were probably easier to kill than most game animals who have horns and teeth. Chimps eat other monkeys and even each other sometimes.
It happens very naturally, when there is suddenly an overabundance of Populations and lack of food. Like if suddenly there was worldwide famine, suddenly a lot of you SOBs would look mighty tasty to your fellow forumites(if they happened to be nearby muhahaha). Do not knock the power of the survival instinct. But as a "method" of taking out a competing species, I really doubt it.
Show proof of that theory. You provide no evidence. In fact the evidence shows we share DNA with Neandatheral.
It is very important when eating other people, not to eat the liver. The high content of Vitamin A can prove poisonous. Americans and some Europeans are unhealthily salty. Some peope prefer the taste of vegetarians, and may enjoy and Indian meal. Does anyone know any good recipes?
We share something like 93% of our DNA with fruit flies, and 50% with bananas. It's a misleading way to measure the differences between species.