From: martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin)
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Re: Humans as Physical Creatures.
Date: 4 Oct 92 20:15:46 GMT
	<1992Oct2.115332.11796@access.digex.com>
	<MARTINC.92Oct2122534@grover.cs.unc.edu>
	<1992Oct3.205144.28512@access.digex.com>
Organization: UNC Department of Computer Science
In-reply-to: huston@access.digex.com's message of 3 Oct 92 20:51:44 GMT

In article <1992Oct3.205144.28512@access.digex.com> huston@access.digex.com (Herb Huston) writes:

   In article <MARTINC.92Oct2122534@grover.cs.unc.edu> martinc@grover.cs.unc.edu (Charles R. Martin) writes:
   >In article <1992Oct2.115332.11796@access.digex.com> huston@access.digex.com (Herb Huston) writes:
   >
   >   I think you might be confusing Cro-Magnons with Neanderthals.  The
   >   latter are a human subspecies that has been extinct for about 40,000
   >   years.  It was not because their heads were too big.  Their brains
   >   were indeed somewhat larger than ours, but they were also stockier.
   >   It's still a matter of debate as to why they became extinct.
   >
   >Or even if.  (I guess the senate races are still on my mind.)

   Now, Charlies, I really must protest your libel of the Neanderthals.
   It's lucky for you that the dead can't sue.

Charlies?  Are there two of me now?

Actually, that might explain a lot.....

   >Serious, I've read at least a few suggestions that Neanderthals and
   >Cromagnons were a single interbreeding and that the Neanderthals didn't
   >so much become extinct as be absorbed.  Maybe agriculture was too
   >tempting.... 

   Well, the two leading theories are that the Neanderthals were either
   absorbed or exterminated by the Cro-Magnons.  Given European treatment
   of various indigenous peoples, e.g., the Tasmanians, I'm not prepared to
   rule out the latter.  However, agriculture can be ruled out.  Our Cro-
   Magnon ancestors didn't make that mistake until about 30,000 years after
   the Neanderthals were gone.

Just to throw some unwarrented seriousness into this -- by the way,
where do you read up on this stuff Herb? -- I've always been a *little*
suspicious about the sorts of dates that get thrown around in near-term
archaeology (or paleo-anthropology, I'm not sure how this fits.)  I know
that CE-10K years is the accepted idea for the "dawn of agriculture" and
that -40K years is accepted for the disappearance of Neanderthals.  But
how accurate can these dates be?  What *is* "agriculture"?  Does it
include hunter-gatherers taking steps to ensure that stuff grows where
they'll look for it next year?  And how narrowly can we identify the
"date" on which the Neanderthals disappeared?

ASSUMING they have, something on which I'm still not completely resolved.
--
Charles R. Martin/(Charlie)/martinc@cs.unc.edu/(ne crm@cs.duke.edu) 
O/Dept. of Computer Science/CB #3175 UNC-CH/Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3175
H/3611 University Dr #13M/Durham, NC 27707/(919) 419 1754
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"I am he who walks the States with a barb'd tongue, questioning every
one I meet,/Who are you that wanted only to be told what you knew
before?/ Who are you that wanted only a book to join you in your
nonsense?"  _Leaves of Grass_ xxiii.4.
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