How To Think Like a Neandertal: Book Review
How to Think Like a Neandertal: Book Analysis
How to Think Like a Neandertal is written by Archaeologist Thomas Wynn and Psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge. Throughout the book they dissect the Neandertal way of life, using archaeological evidence and modern comparative studies they try and get into the heads of Neandertals and decipher what they may have been thinking and how they went about their day to day life. Neandertals have been studied extensively, but this book allows the reader to gain a new perspective about who Neandertals might have actually been. Wynn and Coolidge provide a wide array of theories about the inner working of the Neandertal mind. Quite probably, Neandertals were similar to us (modern humans) in many ways; There are undoubtedly many key differences, differences that make us human, but also differences that make Neandertals who they were.
Cognitively, Neandertals possessed a relatively wide range of thoughts and abilities considering their primitive status. It is possible to study the Neandertal mind through studying their daily activities. One of their regular activities was hunting, this is pretty obvious. They needed to hunt in order to survive. But specifically what they hunted, and how they hunted shows a great deal about the workings of their mind. Neandertals mainly hunted big game. Specifically they hunted mammoths, reindeer, tur, gazelle, and occasionally some small animals. For mammals this size it was important for Neandertals to strategize about how they would go in for the kill. They needed to know the lay of the land like the back of their hand and they needed to use the terrain to their advantage. It is theorized that women and children also participated in the hunt, they probably would not do the direct killing but they could have participated by driving the animals or beating bushes to expose game. At the site of La Cotte Neandertals used the advantage of a steep cliff (terrain usage) to drive a herd of mammoth
How to Think Like a Neandertal is written by Archaeologist Thomas Wynn and Psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge. Throughout the book they dissect the Neandertal way of life, using archaeological evidence and modern comparative studies they try and get into the heads of Neandertals and decipher what they may have been thinking and how they went about their day to day life. Neandertals have been studied extensively, but this book allows the reader to gain a new perspective about who Neandertals might have actually been. Wynn and Coolidge provide a wide array of theories about the inner working of the Neandertal mind. Quite probably, Neandertals were similar to us (modern humans) in many ways; There are undoubtedly many key differences, differences that make us human, but also differences that make Neandertals who they were.
Cognitively, Neandertals possessed a relatively wide range of thoughts and abilities considering their primitive status. It is possible to study the Neandertal mind through studying their daily activities. One of their regular activities was hunting, this is pretty obvious. They needed to hunt in order to survive. But specifically what they hunted, and how they hunted shows a great deal about the workings of their mind. Neandertals mainly hunted big game. Specifically they hunted mammoths, reindeer, tur, gazelle, and occasionally some small animals. For mammals this size it was important for Neandertals to strategize about how they would go in for the kill. They needed to know the lay of the land like the back of their hand and they needed to use the terrain to their advantage. It is theorized that women and children also participated in the hunt, they probably would not do the direct killing but they could have participated by driving the animals or beating bushes to expose game. At the site of La Cotte Neandertals used the advantage of a steep cliff (terrain usage) to drive a herd of mammoth