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| http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/10/ neanderthals/hall-text |
The picture of Neanderthals keeps evolving. No pun intended. A few years ago, the science shows said that Homo sapiens sapiens probably exterminated them, and had none of their genes. The case was made for conflict and little positive cooperation and interaction with Neanderthal people.
Today, that is not so much the claim - as will be especially clear to people who saw last week's episode of NOVA. All of us have a few of Neanderthal genes - they're often 2-3% of our genome. The Neanderthals had burial customs (and hence probably religion), and apparently wore decorative ornamentation. Neanderthals were also advanced tool users; their inventions included a kind of glue which helped affix spearheads to spear shafts. They cooked and ate vegetables. Maybe they even roleplayed.
OGL MECHANICS
Ice Age Human
Closest relative of modern humans
ASPECTS:
- High Concept: Cold climate survivor
- Trouble: High energy diet, please!
- Aspect: Close-in fighter
- Aspect: Advanced tool maker
- Aspect: Beginnings of art and religion
- Careful: +2
- Clever: +1
- Flashy: 0
- Forceful: +3
- Quick: +2
- Sneaky: +1
STUNTS:
- Power Lifter: The average Neanderthal could bench press 300-500 lbs. Take a +2 bonus to any Forceful attempt to lift, move, or hurl something.
REFRESH: 3
It is funny how (relatively) quickly conventional wisdom on our relationship with Neanderthals shifted. Makes me wonder what sort of genetic testing made them so certain before.
ReplyDeleteMy own theory is that it maps rather cleanly to the rise and fall of Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations" hypothesis, which went in and out with Bush. Seriously, though, it makes me wonder how reliable all this DNA testing really is, and my training is as a biologist.
ReplyDeleteMy undergrad degree was in Applied Biology with a concetration in Molecular Genetics and I'm right there with you. :)
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