Life is stranger than fiction. Not stranger than truth, since in the post-truth era truth and fiction are barely distinguishable. But life is different. Just some time ago, most people would have bridled at being called Neanderthal, which would mean both savage and stupid. But research, from those countries where historical and scientific research is possible and valued, has been uncovering possibilities that could turn the epithet into a compliment — or almost one. Most recently, it has emerged with more or less certainty that the so-called savages looked after their sick and wounded. That the lead researcher of this project, Penny Spikins, is the author of a book on the evolutionary origins of tenderness may suggest that the modern human look back with less dismissive hubris. That may not be easy. It is embarrassing enough to have apes, and then Neanderthals and other not quite Homo sapiens types, in the family tree. To have to acknowledge that the more sophisticated tendencies, associated with the modern human’s undisputed ascent up the chain of being, were shared, even bequeathed, by these not very aesthetic forms of life, cannot be palatable.
The squat, spear-wielding, grunting Neanderthal has been going through quite an image makeover, especially with research since 2010. Maybe they did not grunt at all, but talked instead — that was suggested by the study of their hyoid bone in 1989 — and they had what is called a ‘precision’ grip, more suited to brushes and sewing needles than clubs. This finding was published recently in a paper in Science Advances, and a palaeoanthropologist stated firmly that the idea of the Neanderthal as clumsy and forceful stands refuted. Worse, given the modern human’s stubborn sense of superiority, skeletons of the early modern human apparently indicate that their talent lay in the power grip, that of bricklayers and butchers. Some among them may have become craftsmen, a distribution of work not evident so far from the Neanderthal skeletons under study.
So the hairy monster of comedy may have been a little more complicated than popular imagination would expect. But looking after the sick and wounded, giving injured compatriots a bit of time to heal before going back to hunting, using medicinal herbs even for reducing pain, need not suggest excessive altruism, according to Ms Spikins. The Neanderthal, who roamed Europe and Asia till about 40,000 years ago, was not really cut out to survive in his harsh circumstances for as long as he did. Looking after his compatriots was part of his survival technique. That is, he was not a brainless, stupid clod. Is there a lesson for the modern human of the 21st century hidden here — especially for the citizen of today’s India? Maybe a reminder of a 2010 discovery, that most humans of Europe and Asia today have the Neanderthal in their DNA, may become not just a compliment but reason for hope?