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Neanderthal Lifeways, Subsistence and Technology pp 157–166Cite as

The Social and Material Life of Neanderthals

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Abstract

While it is a commonplace to state that every age gets the Neanderthals it either deserves, or wants, there has recently been a sea-change in these just-desserts and needs. It has taken 150 years for Neanderthals to emerge as humans with a difference and this difference depends not on the shape of the skulls or tools but rather in their competence as social actors. Here, I set out an approach that supplements the rational analysis of their behavior with a relational understanding of their lives. Using the social brain hypothesis I argue that the differences between these perspectives have important implications for the development of Paleolithic archaeology, and in particular the role of artifacts as material metaphors based on the experience of social life.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support is gratefully acknowledged from the British Academy Centenary Project “From Lucy to language: the archaeology of the social brain”. Comments on previous papers from Robin Dunbar, John Gowlett, Garry Runciman, Wendy James, Camilla Power, Matt Grove, Fotini Kofidou, Andy Jones, Chris Knight and in particular Fiona Coward have all contributed significantly to the development of the ideas expressed here.

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  1. Department of Geography, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK

    Clive Gamble

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  1. Clive Gamble
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  1. Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters Abteilung Ältere Urgeschichte und Quartärökologie, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Schloss Hohentübingen, 72070, Tübingen, Germany

    Nicholas J. Conard

  2. Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Universität zu Köln, Weyertal 125, 50923, Köln, Germany

    Jürgen Richter

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Gamble, C. (2011). The Social and Material Life of Neanderthals. In: Conard, N.J., Richter, J. (eds) Neanderthal Lifeways, Subsistence and Technology. Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0415-2_15

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