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I'd almost file this under deliberately concealed dirty little secrets.
I'd come up with a series of traits for the Neanderthals in Maka Tanka to make them horrifying and clear bad guys.
The more research I do on the American Indian... the less distinct these traits become.
The Indians have some excellent public relations since they lost the war, that's clear.
The information is out there. It's not even hard to find.
It's in a obscure format called "history book".
Anthropology books appear to actually be anthropology texts.
There's anthropological and sociological stuff out there that matches the history texts, but it's not recent.
Colleges have been woke a long time.
Just saw a report that Neans have all the right passages and muscle groups to hear and reproduce human speech.
ReplyDeleteSo, even your average Neanderthal can sing, chant, talk, mumble, curse, swear, as well or better than 'Native Americans.'
Interesting, very interesting.
I saw that too! Right on the heels of a study that says their hands weren't good for fine dexterity.
DeleteMy hands aren't good for fine dexterity either, but yet, thanks to the backspace key, I can type. Can't paint models worth a damn. Can't do fine sewing (can do ugly sewing.) But I can hit people hard enough that they don't wanna be hit. But you really don't wanna see my handwriting.
DeleteThat's the thing, what's the definition of 'fine dexterity?' And when is gross dexterity good enough? Good enough to do flaking and flint knapping? Good enough to kill off the mammoths? Good enough to be excellent hunter gatherers? What point is the defining point of difference between gross and fine?
Was their dexterity good enough? Or was it just not good enough to withstand Homo Sapiens?
Seriously, most 'outdoor' skills like farming, wood chopping, building construction are capable of being done by gross dexterity, to a point. Heck, I've even taught basket weaving to people who are classified as 'gross dexterity only' due to birth defects or acquired handicaps.
Seen some very undextrous people able to work guns, cooking equipment, even an SCA ballista.
Really, what's good enough? Oh, sure, fine dexterity is great for making, well, fine jewelry, and fine weaving, drilling teeth, trying to assemble Warhammer figures and paint the damned things, but seriously, where's the real benefit of 'fine dexterity' in a gross dexterity world?
And to add to the above comment, one of my ex-squire mates in the SCA was a guy about 5'4", with a sloped back head with a huge brow ridge, had more fuzz on his body than you'd find on most sheep, and his arms were longer than his legs. Short stubby fingers. Really liked velcro straps on shoes, as he had crappy fine dexterity. But he was an excellent roofing carpenter, as he had ungodly strength for his size, along with a humongous endurance.
DeletePretty much the modern epitome of a Neanderthal.
But a damned successful roofing carpenter.
Though, well, he used to watch my wife and I read books like we were doing magic or something.
Unfortunately he went snow skiing drunk and fell in a hole and wasn't discovered until Spring.
Godspeed, Gimel, ya stubby bastid.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/world/neanderthal-human-hands-thumb-grip-scn/index.html
Delete'Twas ever thus. Read Mark Twain's unfinished book "Huck and Tom Among the Hostiles," which was meant as a sequel to Huckleberry Finn. Basically, Huck and Tom go West, and Tom finds out, much to his dismay, that real Indians are not nearly as nice and heroic as the ones in James Feminore Cooper's books. Oops!
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