How different is the culture of the "Cavemen" from your own? Can you trace your roots back to the Neanderthal

Answer 1

Most of the differences in culture are superficial.

Both of our actions can be categorized according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The actions I perform may be different to my caveman ancestors but the impulses that govern them are the same.

The cavemen had to work harder to satisfy their basic biological needs that I do. I have tapped water and go shopping instead of going to streams and hunting. Neanderthal injuries resemble most closely the injuries suffered by rodeo riders. Going shopping may be tough, but not that rough.

I live in a violent society and my concerns for safety are different to theirs but are no less part of my culture.

I am more settled than my remote ancestors. The remnants of bones that circled tents show that most of them were constantly on the move, following the herds. Agriculture and settlement came much much later.

The art that surrounds me is very different. The cave paintings and rock engravings that I have seen resonate with the mystic. Something like Damien Hurst's mother and child is just weird. A modern day priest in his embroidered robes may look different to the shaman dressed up with horns, engraved on the cave wall, but the impulse that sets them both apart from their congregation is the same.

I probably don't eat as well as my cavemen ancestors. They were dependant on seasonal foods. With refrigeration, global shipping and artificial environments I can eat whatever I like whenever. I am overweight - they wouldn't be.

My tools are mainly more sophisticated than theirs. Though I have found Stone Age implements in my garden, that I use to cut open plastic bags of compost and potting soil. They still work after a 100 000 years.

The cavemen, according to pollen samples, knew some of the plants I grow in my herb garden.

Cavemen had sophisticated grooming and coming of age rituals that reinforced social bonds. There are traces of this in the patterns of flirtation at bars and family events and anniversaries.

The biggest change in our culture is the amount of work that I have to do. Cavemen would probably work two hours a day to gather food. The rest of the time would be spent making clothes and implements and being involved with the clan. Instead I work eight and a half hours so that I can pay strangers to create the items I require.

The caring that cavemen gave to injured members of the family, that allowed crippled members. to survive and heal is weakly resonated in my charitable work. Modern life has distanced me from the harshness of life. Instead of laying out and burying the dead. I will pay someone for this service.

I have been to Ngwenya mine in Swaziland - the oldest mine in the world. There I realized just how little separated me from my earlier ancestors.

So yes I can trace my roots back to my earliest ancestors.

Answer 2

I am sure that you feel good inside knowing that someone told you this fantastic story about your family. The truth is, that adam and eve or steve, what ever your preference is, they are fictitious. I am glad to see that you do believe in a fact of evolution. No one can show roots back to the neanderthal man. They did not have paper or pencils back then, Duh. But if you could send me a copy of cave dribble with your family name and shield on it, I would be happy to listen to you for a second or two.

Answer 3

Tracing ones heritage back that far would be a bit impossible. Most of us have a hard enough time with getting it back just a handful of generations... Though if we COULD document it back that far, we'd vary easily find we are all related in some way since the amount of ancestors would expand to almost an infinite amount.

Answer 4

Cavemen still exist, much as they have for a couple hundred thousand years. They are getting in short supply though, as modern life intrudes. just 4-500 years ago, they were in the majority. Indians (amerinds Hawaiians, eskimos, various tribes in the amazon, china, etc, lived very much as their ancestors did. THe natives of australia are fond of claiming that they haven't changed in 40,000 years. Also, just FYI, it is very possible that Neanderthales have completely died out. THe homos (us, homo sapiens, sapiens) probably wiped them out much in the way we edge out virtually all forms of competitor, for better or worse.
THere are those who claim that we interbred with them, and some of us (like unibrows) still carry some of their genes.
I for one, am skeptical of this claim, though I am a unibrow myself.

Answer 5

There is evidence in Paleontology that Neanderthals were a dead end. They were either killed off, died off, or interbred with Cro Magnons.

Answer 6

if your knuckles drag on the ground, chances are you are decended from a neanderthal.

Answer 7

I can name all my fore fathers up to Adam and Eve. If you have some free time I will be glad to tell you.