page_title: Neanderthals in popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Neanderthals in popular culture
caption_attribution_description: Veringenstadt, Landkreis Sigmaringen Denkmal "Neandertaler" auf der unteren Lauchertbrücke, zur Erinnerung daran, dass Höhlen im Stadtgebiet bedeutende steinzeitliche Funde ermöglichten. Inschrift am Sockel: "So wie dieser aus einem mächtigen Muschelkalkblock gehauene Urmensch in sich ruhend Ausschau hält, so sassen vor etwa 50 000 Jahren Menschen vom Schlage des Neandertalers vor den Höhlen um Veringenstadt. Daran soll diese Steinplastik erinnern, die hier als Zeichen für die lange Ahnenreihe der Menschheit steht." Thomas Rathgeber, "Die quartäre Tierwelt der Höhlen um Veringernstadt (Schwäbische Alb)", Laichinger Höhlenfreund 39 (1), 2004, 207-228 (S. 213) naturkundemuseum-bw.de
context_page_description: Neanderthals have been portrayed in popular culture since the early 20th century. Early depictions were based on notions of the proverbially crude, low-browed caveman; since the latter part of the 20th century, some depictions were modeled on more sympathetic reconstructions of life in the Middle Paleolithic era.
  In popular idiom, the word "Neanderthal" is sometimes used as an insult, to suggest that a person combines a deficiency in intelligence and a tendency to use brute force. It may also imply that the person is old-fashioned or attached to outdated ideas, much in the same way as the terms "dinosaur" or "Yahoo" are also used.
  There are a number of sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals, as in the novel The Inheritors by William Golding, Isaac Asimov's short story "The Ugly Little Boy", or the more serious treatment by Finnish palaeontologist Björn Kurtén, and British psychologist Stan Gooch in his hybrid-origin theory of humans.
context_section_description: Neanderthals have been portrayed  in popular culture since the early 20th century. Early depictions were based on notions of the proverbially crude, low-browed caveman; since the latter part of the 20th century, some depictions were modeled on more sympathetic reconstructions of life in the Middle Paleolithic era.
  In popular idiom, the word "Neanderthal" is sometimes used as an insult, to suggest that a person combines a deficiency in intelligence and a tendency to use  brute force. It may also imply that the person is old-fashioned or attached to outdated ideas, much in the same way as the terms "dinosaur" or "Yahoo" are also used.
  There are a number of sympathetic literary portrayals of Neanderthals, as in the novel The Inheritors by William Golding, Isaac Asimov's short story "The Ugly Little Boy", or the more serious treatment by Finnish palaeontologist Björn Kurtén (in several works including Dance of the Tiger), and British psychologist Stan Gooch in his hybrid-origin theory of humans.
caption: Neanderthal statue in Veringenstadt, Germany (1960s)
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