Two NOVA episodes of a series called First Peoples suggests that when Homosapiens met both Neanderthals and Erectus, there was interbreeding rather than violence, etc. The genetic evidence is clear in the first case, since all non-Africans have some Neaderthal DNA admixture.
The images and re-enactments in the series, however, assume that this interbreeding was peacefully consensual.
No room whatever is given to the notion that bride-stealing or raiding and taking the females, etc (while killing all the males) entered into it.
Who is making an unlikely assumption here, me or them?
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2 comments:
Given that interbreeding was assumed to be peaceful, I guess the possibility of, you know, Neanderthal men having their way with unwilling Sapiens women, and vice versa, never came up.
I'm sure it's possible that, in some cases, Neanderthalis and Sapiens interbred peacefully. But Homo being Homo, it can't have been all roses.
-Sean
A part of me wonders if blacks are just Cro Magnons of the modern era.
-A
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