For decades, the million-dollar question in paleoanthropology has always been the same: how on earth do we Neanderthals disappeared? We have blamed climate changeto the lower cognitive capacity, to the diseases and even a violent genocide perpetrated by us, the Homo sapiens. However, the French paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak has put another theory much more uncomfortable on the table.
The theory. Through his latest book, ‘The last neanderthal‘, and in recent statementsthe French paleoanthropologist has pointed out that the Neanderthals were not swept away by an external force, but rather suffered an internal collapse. A true “individual and social suicide” caused by their own cultural rigidity and their refusal to connect.
The specimen. Slimak is not an armchair theorist, but has spent decades digging in Grotte Mandrin (France), a key site that has revolutionized what we know about the transition between Neanderthals and modern humans. Here the cornerstone of his argument is “Thorin”, a late Neanderthal whose remains were analyzed in a genomic study published in Cell Genomics.
What was seen. In this specimen it was seen that, despite living about 42,000-50,000 years ago (relatively “close” to the end), Thorin’s lineage had been genetically isolated for 50,000 years. This is in addition to the fact that, although there were other Neanderthal populations just two weeks away, they did not mix. They lived in a genetic and social bubble for millennia without gene flow either with other Neanderthals or, of course, with the sapiens who were already around the area.
Slimak interprets this isolation not as a physical impossibility, but as a cultural choice. Thorin’s Neanderthals, according to his reading, rejected interaction.
A clash of values. Based on this isolation of Thorin and on the lithic technology found in Mandrin, which are very creative but poorly standardized tools, Slimak draws two opposing “mental spheres.” The first of them is the ‘sapiens model’, where vast and interconnected communities meant that, if one group failed, the entire network could be sustained thanks to the efficiency and homogenization.
At the other extreme we have the ‘Neanderthal model’ where small, independent and highly creative groups existed, but fragmented. Simply put, each clan was a world where there was no interconnection.
The metaphor of ‘suicide’. The author in this case is not referring to them taking their own lives individually, but rather to a collapse of their values. Upon encountering the social “machine” of the Sapiens, the Neanderthal worldview of isolated groups became unsustainable, since, according to Slimaksome groups “decided to become invisible” or their social structure simply imploded due to the efficiency of human networks.
The scientific consensus. Although Slimak’s narrative is literary powerful, the current scientific consensus prefers less romantic and more mathematical explanations. Most paleoanthropologists do not see conscious “suicide,” but rather a structural disadvantage.
Recent literature explains extinction through a combination of factors such as demographics. In this case, stochastic drift models show that, if you have very small and dispersed populations (like Neanderthals), a very slight disadvantage in the reproduction or survival rate is enough for the species to become extinct in a few thousand years.
There is more. Coinciding with Slimak’s data, there are different investigations that accept that Sapiens They had broader social networks. This can allow for help in a major crisis, such as a local drought, where neighbors can help others move forward. In the case of Neanderthals, being isolated, as Thorin demonstrates, they were vulnerable to any ecological “bump.”
In addition to all this, we cannot forget about endogamy. Here a genetic analysis confirms that inbreeding weakened Neanderthals, reducing their fertility and biological resistance, without the need to invoke psychological factors. Something that also anticipated his complete disappearance from this planet.
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