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Cognitive Capacities of the Neanderthals

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Learning Among Neanderthals and Palaeolithic Modern Humans

Part of the book series: Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series ((RNMH))

Abstract

The documentation about Neanderthal behaviors clearly proves their full abilities of intelligence, sociology, and spiritual activities, right like nowadays any societies everywhere in the world. The only differences are matters of realizations, just like any other historical situations. However, the Neanderthal concept has been created during the nineteenth century, when westerners needed primitiveness as a justification for their colonization. Neanderthals are by no way “primitive” but just different cultures and populations. On the other hand, they have been surviving during hundreds of millennia, much longer than our own recent history. By comparison, what shall we be after just one more millennium? Putting Neanderthal apart from human evolutions is not only a mistake, but mostly an act of racism.

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Acknowledgments

This article is modified from Otte (2015) “APTITUDES COGNITIVES DES NÉANDERTALIENS” Bull. Mus. Anthropol. Monaco, no. 55. Whole text and figures courtesy of Musée d’Anthropologie préhistorique de Monaco.

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  1. Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Marcel Otte

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  1. Marcel Otte
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Correspondence to Marcel Otte .

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  1. The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshihiro Nishiaki

  2. MONREPOS Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, Neuwied, Germany

    Olaf Jöris

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Otte, M. (2019). Cognitive Capacities of the Neanderthals. In: Nishiaki, Y., Jöris, O. (eds) Learning Among Neanderthals and Palaeolithic Modern Humans. Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8980-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8980-1_4

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