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[An] engaging recontruction of Neanderthal life. (New York Times )
What it would be like to encounter a Homo Neanderthalensis, dressed in modern garb, waiting for a bus. Would he or she be noticeably different from modern humans? This fascinating book takes the reader quite a long way toward an answer to that seemingly unanswerable question. (American Psychological Association )
What it would be like to encounter a Homo Neanderthalensis, dressed in modern garb, waiting for a bus. Would he or she be noticeably different from modern humans? This fascinating book takes the reader quite a long way toward an answer to that seemingly unanswerable question. (American Psychological Association )
Product Description
There have been many books, movies, and even TV commercials featuring Neandertals--some serious, some comical. But what was it really like to be a Neandertal? How were their lives similar to or different from ours? In How to Think Like a Neandertal, archaeologist Thomas Wynn and psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge team up to provide a brilliant account of the mental life of Neandertals, drawing on the most recent fossil and archaeological remains. Indeed, some Neandertal remains are not fossilized, allowing scientists to recover samples of their genes--one specimen had the gene for red hair and, more provocatively, all had a gene called FOXP2, which is thought to be related to speech. Given the differences between their faces and ours, their voices probably sounded a bit different, and the range of consonants and vowels they could generate might have been different. But they could talk, and they had a large (perhaps huge) vocabulary--words for places, routes, techniques, individuals, and emotions. Extensive archaeological remains of stone tools and living sites (and, yes, they did often live in caves) indicate that Neandertals relied on complex technical procedures and spent most of their lives in small family groups. The authors sift the evidence that Neandertals had a symbolic culture--looking at their treatment of corpses, the use of fire, and possible body coloring--and conclude that they probably did not have a sense of the supernatural. The book explores the brutal nature of their lives, especially in northwestern Europe, where men and women with spears hunted together for mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses. They were pain tolerant, very likely taciturn, and not easy to excite. Wynn and Coolidge offer here an eye-opening portrait of Neandertals, painting a remarkable picture of these long-vanished people and providing insight, as they go along, into our own minds and culture.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The title and cover of this book immediately grabbed my attention. First, and they allude to this a few times in the book, is the series of commercials for car insurance with the slogan 'So easy even a caveman could do it'. And second, is the number of people I know who have applied Paleo or Primal caveman diet as part of their lifestyle and fitness regime. Those two points caused me to pick up the book. But this academic exercise was so much more than I could have expected. It was fascinating, and I found repeatedly that I could not put it down, or alternately had to put it down and really ponder and think about what the authors had just espoused. It was an incredible read and I have recommended it to about a dozen people, a few who told me they were hooked part way into the first chapter. The structure of the book is:
1. True Grit
2. The Caveman Diet
3. Zen and the Art of Spear Making
4. A Focus on Family
5. It's Symbolic
6. Speaking of Tongues
7. A Neandertal Walked into a Bar . . .
8. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
9. You've Got Personality
10. Thinking Like a Neandertal
Glossary
Index
This was a magnificent read. I have read science fiction about Neandertals such as Robert J. Sawyer's Hominid trilogy, The Neandertal Parallaz: Hominids, Humans and Hybrids. And I've seen numerous science fiction movies with some level of Neandertal involvement. But this book looks at the historic evidence, weighing commonly accepted theories and disputed theories. It compares and contrasts what we find in the archeological records about Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. It also compares the records with current hunter-gatherer tribes and also with some other primates both existing and ancient. They present the evidence, examine theories and present their opinion, often very convincingly. This book was the first academic level book I have read in the two years since I finished university. After reading it, the first thing I did was check to see if they have written other books and I did not care the topic. This book was very well written, is of an academic caliber but accessible to most readers, and very insightful about where we come from and how we got here. I loved it and think you will also.
1. True Grit
2. The Caveman Diet
3. Zen and the Art of Spear Making
4. A Focus on Family
5. It's Symbolic
6. Speaking of Tongues
7. A Neandertal Walked into a Bar . . .
8. To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
9. You've Got Personality
10. Thinking Like a Neandertal
Glossary
Index
This was a magnificent read. I have read science fiction about Neandertals such as Robert J. Sawyer's Hominid trilogy, The Neandertal Parallaz: Hominids, Humans and Hybrids. And I've seen numerous science fiction movies with some level of Neandertal involvement. But this book looks at the historic evidence, weighing commonly accepted theories and disputed theories. It compares and contrasts what we find in the archeological records about Homo Sapiens Neanderthalis and Homo Sapiens Sapiens. It also compares the records with current hunter-gatherer tribes and also with some other primates both existing and ancient. They present the evidence, examine theories and present their opinion, often very convincingly. This book was the first academic level book I have read in the two years since I finished university. After reading it, the first thing I did was check to see if they have written other books and I did not care the topic. This book was very well written, is of an academic caliber but accessible to most readers, and very insightful about where we come from and how we got here. I loved it and think you will also.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This up to date account summarises very well all the latest developments as well as presenting its own slant on how these people survived in the hard world without any of the things we need for a comfortable life. Now Neandertal paintings have been found in Nerja cave their story must be re-written again
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Bought this book last week & finished it yesterday, I was totally engrossed & a good many questions answered. I always wanted to read more about the cognitive behaviour of our enigmatic Neanderthals, easy reading which is not dull & prosaic. Very in depth & definitely a favourite book of mine on this subject. Loved the 'You've got personality' & 'Thinking like a Neanderthal' chapters especially. Very enlightening to read up on how a Neanderthal would live & learn if brought up by us, what career/jobs etc they could do. This book is a must if you love anything to do with Neanderthals! (Yes I am aware that it is spelt Neandertal in this book-no right or wrong way).
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