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plt25 β Paleolithic Intimacy
Published: 2007-04-13 21:51:02 +0000 UTC; Views: 5458; Favourites: 95; Downloads: 21
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After a MA seminar in Evolutionary Theory I was moved to draw a picture of a 'modern' human man and a Neanderthal hybrid woman in a state of repose. I based her skin color on the dubious yet interesting theory of pale skin being a Neanderthal adaptation to the sunless frozen northlands. Same with the red hair. They look cute, eh?Related content
Comments: 50
Very nice portratit and figure drawing...I have watched a tv series about prehistory human long ago.There is a episode that aΒ Neanderthal man befriended with a Cro-Magnon woman,the Cro-Magnon woman gave him a bone flute as a present;at the end of the episode,the Cro-Magnon woman is either died or leaved(I can not remember it clearly0,and the lonely Neanderthal manΒ try to play the flute for the rememberance of the woman,but he is not successful in doing so;in frustration and grief he smashed the flute and cried.that episode really broke my heart.
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You don't see pretty neandertals very often, I like this!
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Great illustration. And I hadn't heard that about Neanderthals! Very interesting... thanks!
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You're welcome. Appreciate the comment, friend.
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Really nice picture, I'm fairly sure this is the first pretty Neanderthal I've seen on DA.
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Thank you. And why not a pretty neanderthal? They just get no love.
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Indeed its, a real shame how they get neglected or just turned into cartoons.
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Maybe more scientific theories should be accompanied by this level of artwork. I love the intimacy in this portrait and the way it conveys "we are different, we are all human".
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Many thanks. This is something close to my heart. I think before too long I'll try my hand at it again.
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Yes, another believer in the Neanderthal are our ancestors theory! Recently scientists found that Neanderthal actually did create art, which means that we are going to have to look at the dissaperance of neanderthal a whole new way.
I do believe that we are all descended from matings of Cro-magnon and Neanderthal, however the latest genetic testings showed no signs of such matings. I think it is because our current genetic testing is not designed to analyze fragmented remnants of DNA which could hold the key to our relationship to neanderthals. Basically we need to develop a new way of analyzing fragmented and old DNA.
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Did you hear? They've only recently corrected themselves after further analysis.
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Look here, for example. [link]
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Really, the theory of us being the descendants of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons has been proven true! Yay!
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Its a good thing, I think. Most recent evidence seems to suggest that they were not so different from us in terms of intellectual capacity, more like "just different" rather than inferior, they seem to have died out for reasons that have nothing to do with their intelligence, basically being an once great (for its time, their cutting equiptment was on par with, if not outdoing ours: [link] ) civilisation that was wiped out by a twist of fate... Like, Troy or stuff.
If a little of them survived through the descendants of hybrid children, it won't be as if they had never existed...
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"Most recent evidence seems to suggest that they were not so different from us in terms of intellectual capacity, more like "just different" rather than inferior..."
That kind of makes me think of Nerodivergent people. If this is true, then we've been around for quite some time.
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So you support the hybrid theory
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Yes. Our DNA testing certainly seems to be a bit biased. Perhaps there is a reason for that...
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Maybe... who knows? I'll have to ask my mom
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Plus I think I have living proof of Cro-magnon and Neanderthal hybridization: my dad because he looks a bit like a Neanderthal (I'm not saying it to be mean, dad, I do love you tons and tons). I'll have to get a picture of him and post it
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Love it, especially the red hair! I got to take a class with Milford Wolpoff this semester -the main proponent of MRE theory- and the evidence for it is astounding (plus Wolpoff is a really funny guy who takes everyone talking smack about him in stride). Yeah, archaeology can be tricky considering the record is spotty, but that child from Peru, the continued existence of the retromolar gap in European populations... on and on and on.
I love MRE also because it is about coming together. I think people shy away from it because it sounds a little too much like Haeckel's [sic?] racist candelabra "races evolving as separate species" hypothesis. But people forget that GENE FLOW BETWEEN POPULATIONS is a major part of the MRE hypothesis, which explains why modern H. sapiens are really really similar genetically, no matter where they're from. The traits were see as "racial," other than certain climate adaptations, are just random things from drift and the founder effect.
Man physical anthropology would be fun, that's so cool you're doing it. I wanted to do it but the more I read the academic literature the more it looked like a dick-waving contest to me :<
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Child in Peru? Tell me more...
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I like the illustration very much, and it is so rare to find intelligently themed illustration like this on here.
Not sure I subscribe to Multiregional theory though, the evidence seems rather stacked up against it.
I'm sure incidents of Moderns and Neanderthals getting it on may have happened but I wonder whether the constraints of sexual selection and possibly, slightly different niches would have rendered the two populations more or less allopatric?
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You're right, there is a lot of evidence against it, but...
I never did buy the arguments of sexual selection stopping interbreeding. Humans are not known for being exceptionally picky when it comes to what species they attempt to breed with, sad but true. Other primates create hybrids across species and even genus barriers which, among other things, shows the limits of such structural theory.
Different niches? Yeah, maybe so. But we do know that there were periods when the two co-existed in the same area for extensive amounts of time. Hard to imagine they remained isolated.
I was always fascinated by this argument, especially the forces that are at work behind it. Science does not operate in a vacuum of complete objectivity and driving forces are myriad and numerous.
Anyway, thanks for the great comment and maybe the increasing use of genetic data will help us come to some kind of conclusion on the matter. I doubt it though.
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Yeah it isn't likely to ever be cleared up anytime soon, especially since the radiocarbon chronology for the period in question is so dodgy so we cant even be absolutely sure they did coexist.
They really do seem to have had very different ranges though, I did some work on their ecology in Eastern Europe. The Neanderthals persist quite late in areas like the Crimean peninsular where the terrain promoted a range of different ecosystems within a small area; whereas the moderns tended to stay on the plains to the North. That said, as with most palaeolithic archaeology it is a very fuzzy dataset.
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This is lovely and a very interesting theory. Plus, I love their tattoos. Are they based off any existing designs?
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Thanks, I appreciate it. The tattoos are a mixture of existing paleolithic and neolithic symbols found in rock carvings or similar finds. Mostly they are universal symbols, that kind of thing.
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Cool! So, like the markings found on Iceman?
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Yeah, good example. Spirals, whorls, circles, chevrons, etc are as old as we are, I think. Loved your journal about the dream by the way. Married a Neanderthal? The best!
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Yeah, cool. I've always thought geometric tattoos were the most flattering on anybody.
Hehe, Nigel the Neanderthal. He was the best. <3
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Very nice. I think it's very likely that the two species interbred, and so the Neanderthals were absorbed into our gene pool instead of died out. It's just more logical, given the bones found and all. But however, have you heard about this even more interesting theory ? I'd like to hear your opinion about it, as you seem competent in the subject.
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I'm definitely in the camp that believes that there was gene flow between anatomicaly modern humans and neandertals. I recently completed a paper on the proof for inter-species hybridization that is common among other primate groups. Not only do many primates successfuly reproduce across species barriers, they also manage to reproduce across genus barriers! There is the question of offspring fertility, but the evidence, both genetic and comparative, seems to suggest that the two species got together. The opponents to the multi-regional model seem to oppose it more for political, ethical, and even egotistical reaons than anything else. Science, unfortunately, is often dictated by these things.
As for the theory that you mentioned, regarding the aspergers etc, I actually have seen that before. I think the theory is interesting and so far the findings have been fascinating. I for one am a believer that we are a people that are biologically still pleistocene hunter gatherers and many many problems arise from being in such a different environment than what we are designed for. This is most apparent in our culture and like the theory asserts, could cause many issues.
I could send you a research paper I did for a MA seminar on the hybridization theory if you really want to be bored! It has a lot of reference to extremely recent genetic developments.
Thanks! Lets talk again!
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I would greatly welcome that paper of yours! (The email address where you can send it is mardekar@gmail.com .) I'm currently trying to do some looking into my own family tree, to ...well, really, it's just for fun. (We Aspergians do have strange ways of having fun, eh? 
Yeah. I think you're right about we human beings still being the same cavemen as we were made originally: even I had my struggles between intellect and instinct (especially the one that keeps me annoyed and alive: I cannot resist survival instinct and commit suicide, which is slightly disturbing, for long since I had believed that I'm much more of a logical, intellectual person. Well, anyways, we live and learn.) But we screwed up our own environment, we must deal with it, or next step is extinction.
And yeah, you're also right about the political/egotistical/just plain dumb ways that often guide the lives of the smartest humans; just look at the opposition of Galilei and such. We have a quite underestimated scientist here in Hungary, Istvan Nemere, who has an alternative explanation to some of the riddles and the found "impossible" artifacts of human evolution, which contains the theory of a "previous mankind" (Atlantis?), which evolved way before us and even helped us becoming who we today are. I don't expect you to know his findings though, as we are a small country and things going on here often go unnoticed.
Back to topic, I'd even risk the thought that Neanderthals were even smarter and more logical/less warlike than what we call modern humanity. That's what the larger brain and experience with the autistic spectrum both indicate.
Thanks for your reply... I hope you don't mind if I'll be a student of yours for a while
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I'm flattered. We'll learn together, it's easier that way!
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Yep
Just don't expect me to translate the abovementioned book soon...I have some work for money now, for the local Adler institute
Meanwhile, I did some tampering with my blood and such, just to found out that I'm at least 1/4 of Neanderthal descent (signs confirmed by now: rhesus negative, fair complexion, AS, and cold adaptation [yeah, I go around in shorts in January... not having any problem with that
Where can I found more about this?
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i know this post is almost a year old but would it still be possible to get a copy of this paper you mentioned if i give you my email? very interested and also very nice gallery you have here. the gal here really doesn't look like what i think of when i think Neanderthal but what do i know i'm a painter 
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this is very well done! Worth a fave! Are you a Biologist?
i studied communication, but i'm doing my master's in enviromental communication.... It struck me the use of therminology you gave in the work's comments, plus that you make historically-correct depictions and all.
I like you'r work, and i'm going to watch you!!
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I'm working on my Master's in Anthropology right now. I'm really interested in recent human evolution and that's kind of what inspired this picture. Thanks for noticing and thanks for the favorite!
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WOW! i'm the daugther of two doctors in biology, so i'm kind of a natural-born-nerd. I love when people are have a balanced combination of artistic nature and a intellectual side. Love your work, i think i'll watch you!!
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I'm honored. I'll try not to let you down!
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you just couldn't, dont worry.
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I like the thought that we came together much more than the though of us fueling their extintion.
I love the skin tones and the tattoos. Very nice.
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As do I. It makes all kinds of things possible.
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thats awesome, I really like this. Its a compelling idea. I can see the neanderthal woman representing alot of mythical resonance, maybe a source of alot of northern european legends on the legendary people of the battle-axe peoples or the celts. Nice work.
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You get it. And I appreciate that. There is so much story in there...
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I like it!
me gusta mucho!
muy bien!
suerte...!!!!!
Rk...an archaeologist.
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Yes! Then you know what I'm talking about here! Gracias!
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