40,000 years ago, everything began to change in what, anthropologically
speaking, amounts to an eye-blink of time. Cave bears, saber-toothed
tigers, mammoths, rhinos, lions, leopards, dholes … fierce as they were,
they all vanished from the forests and steppes of Eurasia. And
Neanderthal populations first drastically dwindled and then vanished as
well, and now, in our time, for two hundred years, ever since the
discovery of the first Neanderthal fossils, debate has raged as to what
caused this catastrophic die-off. The debate, though, is limited to
proportion: What part was climate change and what part was you and me,
the Homo sapien. You, in your genes, are genocidal.
In a new book, Pat Shipman adds an interesting twist to the destructive formula--all, regrettably speculative: The new Homo formed an alliance with a species that identified with our aggressive, predatory, family structured lives. The wolf-dog. We, wolf-dog and man, sat down, stared into each other's eyes and saw ourselves.
The alliance that evolved wiped out all competitors in a slow, cataclysmic eco-change.
In a new book, Pat Shipman adds an interesting twist to the destructive formula--all, regrettably speculative: The new Homo formed an alliance with a species that identified with our aggressive, predatory, family structured lives. The wolf-dog. We, wolf-dog and man, sat down, stared into each other's eyes and saw ourselves.
The alliance that evolved wiped out all competitors in a slow, cataclysmic eco-change.
No comments:
Post a Comment