Daily: ANOTHER KIND OF HUMAN – Why Neanderthals were more like us than you think

<p>“Neanderthal” is a common term of abuse but should we stop feeling so superior towards our close evolutionary relatives? Did they think like us, even at the abstract level? <strong>Rebecca Wragg Sykes</strong>, author of the “insanely fascinating” <a href="https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Rebecca-Wragg-Sykes/Kindred--Neanderthal-Life-Love-Death-and-Art/21741289" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death And Art</em></a> tells Ian Dunt what we know about the astonishing sophistication of Neanderthal mind, manufacturing and material culture… and why there are traces of Neanderthal in us today.&nbsp;</p><ul><li><em>“If we could scan a Neanderthal brain it’s very possible we’d see they didn’t think so differently from us.”</em></li><li><em>“We assume we’re ‘better’ than Neanderthals because we dominated them… That doesn’t fit with the idea of different human groups meeting and interbreeding.”&nbsp;</em></li><li><em>“We shouldn</em>’<em>t be surprised that we could breed with Neanderthals. They are another kind of human”</em></li><li><em>“Homo sapiens are weird in the evolutionary tree, with our big balloon heads.”&nbsp;</em></li><li><em>“Neanderthal women were highly muscled. You wouldn’t want to arm-wrestle them.”&nbsp;</em></li></ul><p><em>Presented by Ian Dunt. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. </em><strong><em>THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production</em></strong></p> &#10;&nbsp;<br /><hr><p style='color: grey; font - size: 0.75em; '>See <a style='color: grey; ' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>