The Naked Neanderthal
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Summary
In this acclaimed bestseller, an explorer and Neanderthal hunter takes us on a riveting journey of discovery
What if we have completely misunderstood who the Neanderthals truly were?
For over a century we saw them as inferior to Homo Sapiens. Today, Neanderthals are seen as fully human, different from us only because of their distant cultural traditions. But does the truth lie somewhere else entirely?
Neanderthal hunter and paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak understands these enigmatic creatures like no one else after studying them for three decades. Taking us on a fascinating archaeological investigation from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces their steps, deciphering their stories through every single detail they left behind.
In this stunning, bold book, he argues that Neanderthals should be understood on their own terms. They had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence. A remarkable intelligence, for sure, but an intelligence that may have been very different from ours - although it can still teach us much about ourselves.
A thought-provoking detective story, written with wit and verve, The Naked Neanderthal shifts our understanding of deep history - and in the process reveals just how much we have yet to learn.
'With the style of a poet and imagination of a philosopher, Ludovic Slimak probes the minds of Neanderthals. . . This fun and provocative book is a reminder that we still have a lot to learn about biological intelligence' Steve Brusatte
What if we have completely misunderstood who the Neanderthals truly were?
For over a century we saw them as inferior to Homo Sapiens. Today, Neanderthals are seen as fully human, different from us only because of their distant cultural traditions. But does the truth lie somewhere else entirely?
Neanderthal hunter and paleoanthropologist Ludovic Slimak understands these enigmatic creatures like no one else after studying them for three decades. Taking us on a fascinating archaeological investigation from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces their steps, deciphering their stories through every single detail they left behind.
In this stunning, bold book, he argues that Neanderthals should be understood on their own terms. They had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence. A remarkable intelligence, for sure, but an intelligence that may have been very different from ours - although it can still teach us much about ourselves.
A thought-provoking detective story, written with wit and verve, The Naked Neanderthal shifts our understanding of deep history - and in the process reveals just how much we have yet to learn.
Reviews
With the style of a poet and imagination of a philosopher, Ludovic Slimak probes the minds of Neanderthals, our closest cousins. All too often Neanderthals are envisioned as either prehistoric brutes or full humans, but Slimak argues that they were something unique, a species that developed their own forms of consciousness and intelligence. In an age of artificial intelligence, this fun and provocative book is a reminder that we still have a lot to learn about biological intelligence
Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs