the riverâs second tributary, an hourâs walk northeast,â he might say, âTreeZilch ready,â and others would know exactly where to go for what, and would get there first.
He had a huge mental data base, and hardly needed the flexibility of language and thought that our kind requires. Indeed, he may not have needed the cooperation of others of his kind, so could be pretty much a loner in his territory. He seems not to have been social in the way we were; family units may have been more typical than the larger campsite shown here. He hunted, killed, and ate much more meat than we did, eating the small kills in the field. The ultimate individualist.
His tools were similar to ours, but the proportions were different; he made, used, and threw away hunting equipment at ten times the rate our ancestors did. So just as a memorized thing does not need description or figuring outâafter all, you know where your house is, and what use it is to you, and so do your family members, so the directive
âCome homeâ needs no further definitionâNeandertal needed no clarification. But this also meant that Neandertal had little need of imagination or reasoning, and was extremely set in his ways. When he established a camp, he stayed there year round, until he had hunted it out and had to move on.
Our kind, in contrast, moved around more, having summer camps and winter camps, giving the wild creatures less time to become wary. Neandertal: we out-hunted him, in the end, and marginalized him, and he probably slowly starved to extinction. He was well off for a very long time, and would probably still be in Europe if he hadnât been displaced by a cousin species with a way that turned out to be better in the end. But the advantage of our reasoning ability took some time to manifest. Not until we learned how to use the enormous potential of our changing brain did we actually prevail against Neandertal or
Erectus.
It was as if we had a powerful new software program and didnât fully realize what it could do. So we were using our computer brain mainly to play games, as it were, instead of to design jet planes. Some things become obvious only in retrospect.
There is also a question about sex. Modern mankind is virtually the sexiest creature on Earth. The only other is our closest relative, the Bonobo chimpanzee, where sex is an ongoing social event. They really do make love, not war. But the Bonobos do not have sexual literature, pictures, movies, pornography, and legal complications. They just do it without much consideration. So I think we are the ones who are most obsessed with sex. Why? Because it is to a fair degree a basic socializing mechanism. When conditions are difficult and creatures are confined without other entertainment, sex becomes paramount. It is seen in zoo animals, and it works, so long as certain rules are followed, such as not indulging with the partner of another person, or hurting your own partner. So it is a way to get through a long cold winter without sacrificing sanity. Our ancestors did not have the diversions of books or television. Thus sex evolved not merely for reproduction, but for diversion in otherwise dull times. The fact that broad power failures lead to increased births nine months later indicates that sex remains effective.
So was rape a way to start a marriage? Yes, in certain cultures, and it still is, as discussed in Chapter 1 . We of a more enlightened culture prefer equality and consensual sex, but as with other aspects, often brutal power is the decisive factor. Discrimination against women is perhaps the most common social element today, as men seek and exercise power over them. So we are still not that far ahead of the Neandertals, socially, in some respects.
3
CRAFTâS STRATEGY
Modern man thrust generally eastward, driven by continuing population/resource pressure, but the terrain was formidable. The ice age held the northern regions in thrall, and
He had a huge mental data base, and hardly needed the flexibility of language and thought that our kind requires. Indeed, he may not have needed the cooperation of others of his kind, so could be pretty much a loner in his territory. He seems not to have been social in the way we were; family units may have been more typical than the larger campsite shown here. He hunted, killed, and ate much more meat than we did, eating the small kills in the field. The ultimate individualist.
His tools were similar to ours, but the proportions were different; he made, used, and threw away hunting equipment at ten times the rate our ancestors did. So just as a memorized thing does not need description or figuring outâafter all, you know where your house is, and what use it is to you, and so do your family members, so the directive
âCome homeâ needs no further definitionâNeandertal needed no clarification. But this also meant that Neandertal had little need of imagination or reasoning, and was extremely set in his ways. When he established a camp, he stayed there year round, until he had hunted it out and had to move on.
Our kind, in contrast, moved around more, having summer camps and winter camps, giving the wild creatures less time to become wary. Neandertal: we out-hunted him, in the end, and marginalized him, and he probably slowly starved to extinction. He was well off for a very long time, and would probably still be in Europe if he hadnât been displaced by a cousin species with a way that turned out to be better in the end. But the advantage of our reasoning ability took some time to manifest. Not until we learned how to use the enormous potential of our changing brain did we actually prevail against Neandertal or
Erectus.
It was as if we had a powerful new software program and didnât fully realize what it could do. So we were using our computer brain mainly to play games, as it were, instead of to design jet planes. Some things become obvious only in retrospect.
There is also a question about sex. Modern mankind is virtually the sexiest creature on Earth. The only other is our closest relative, the Bonobo chimpanzee, where sex is an ongoing social event. They really do make love, not war. But the Bonobos do not have sexual literature, pictures, movies, pornography, and legal complications. They just do it without much consideration. So I think we are the ones who are most obsessed with sex. Why? Because it is to a fair degree a basic socializing mechanism. When conditions are difficult and creatures are confined without other entertainment, sex becomes paramount. It is seen in zoo animals, and it works, so long as certain rules are followed, such as not indulging with the partner of another person, or hurting your own partner. So it is a way to get through a long cold winter without sacrificing sanity. Our ancestors did not have the diversions of books or television. Thus sex evolved not merely for reproduction, but for diversion in otherwise dull times. The fact that broad power failures lead to increased births nine months later indicates that sex remains effective.
So was rape a way to start a marriage? Yes, in certain cultures, and it still is, as discussed in Chapter 1 . We of a more enlightened culture prefer equality and consensual sex, but as with other aspects, often brutal power is the decisive factor. Discrimination against women is perhaps the most common social element today, as men seek and exercise power over them. So we are still not that far ahead of the Neandertals, socially, in some respects.
3
CRAFTâS STRATEGY
Modern man thrust generally eastward, driven by continuing population/resource pressure, but the terrain was formidable. The ice age held the northern regions in thrall, and
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