
How To Think Like a Neandertal
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 26. January 2012
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-0-19-974282-0 (ISBN)
Description
There have been many books, movies, and even TV commercials featuring Neandertals--some serious, some comical. But what was it really like to be a Neandertal? How were their lives similar to or different from ours?
In How to Think Like a Neandertal, archaeologist Thomas Wynn and psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge team up to provide a brilliant account of the mental life of Neandertals, drawing on the most recent fossil and archaeological remains. Indeed, some Neandertal remains are not fossilized, allowing scientists to recover samples of their genes--one specimen had the gene for red hair and, more provocatively, all had a gene called FOXP2, which is thought to be related to speech. Given the differences between their faces and ours, their voices probably sounded a bit different, and the range of consonants and vowels they could generate might have been different. But they could talk, and they had a large (perhaps huge) vocabulary--words for places, routes, techniques, individuals, and emotions. Extensive archaeological remains of stone tools and living sites (and, yes, they did often live in caves) indicate that Neandertals relied on complex technical procedures and spent most of their lives in small family groups. The authors sift the evidence that Neandertals had a symbolic culture--looking at their treatment of corpses, the use of fire, and possible body coloring--and conclude that they probably did not have a sense of the supernatural. The book explores the brutal nature of their lives, especially in northwestern Europe, where men and women with spears hunted together for mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses. They were pain tolerant, very likely taciturn, and not easy to excite.
Wynn and Coolidge offer here an eye-opening portrait of Neandertals, painting a remarkable picture of these long-vanished people and providing insight, as they go along, into our own minds and culture.
In How to Think Like a Neandertal, archaeologist Thomas Wynn and psychologist Frederick L. Coolidge team up to provide a brilliant account of the mental life of Neandertals, drawing on the most recent fossil and archaeological remains. Indeed, some Neandertal remains are not fossilized, allowing scientists to recover samples of their genes--one specimen had the gene for red hair and, more provocatively, all had a gene called FOXP2, which is thought to be related to speech. Given the differences between their faces and ours, their voices probably sounded a bit different, and the range of consonants and vowels they could generate might have been different. But they could talk, and they had a large (perhaps huge) vocabulary--words for places, routes, techniques, individuals, and emotions. Extensive archaeological remains of stone tools and living sites (and, yes, they did often live in caves) indicate that Neandertals relied on complex technical procedures and spent most of their lives in small family groups. The authors sift the evidence that Neandertals had a symbolic culture--looking at their treatment of corpses, the use of fire, and possible body coloring--and conclude that they probably did not have a sense of the supernatural. The book explores the brutal nature of their lives, especially in northwestern Europe, where men and women with spears hunted together for mammoths and wooly rhinoceroses. They were pain tolerant, very likely taciturn, and not easy to excite.
Wynn and Coolidge offer here an eye-opening portrait of Neandertals, painting a remarkable picture of these long-vanished people and providing insight, as they go along, into our own minds and culture.
Reviews / Votes
[An] engaging recontruction of Neanderthal life. * New York Times * What it would be like to encounter a Homo Neanderthalensis, dressed in modern garb, waiting for a bus. Would he or she be noticeably different from modern humans? This fascinating book takes the reader quite a long way toward an answer to that seemingly unanswerable question. * American Psychological Association *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
505 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-974282-0 (9780199742820)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Thomas Wynn | Frederick L. Coolidge
How To Think Like a Neandertal
Book
11/2013
Oxford University Press Inc
€25.90
Shipment within 15-20 days

Thomas Wynn | Frederick L. Coolidge
How To Think Like a Neandertal
E-Book
11/2011
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download

Thomas Wynn | Frederick L. Coolidge
How To Think Like a Neandertal
E-Book
11/2011
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€9.99
Available for download
Persons
Thomas Wynn is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.
Frederick L. Coolidge is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Wynn and Coolidge are co-authors of The Rise of Homo sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking and co-editors (with Sophie A. de Beaune) of Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution.
Frederick L. Coolidge is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Wynn and Coolidge are co-authors of The Rise of Homo sapiens: The Evolution of Modern Thinking and co-editors (with Sophie A. de Beaune) of Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution.
Author
Professor of ArcheologyProfessor of Archeology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Professor of PsychologyProfessor of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Content
CONTENTS ; Chapter 1 - True Grit ; Chapter 2 - The Caveman Diet ; Chapter 3 - Zen and the Art of Spear Making ; Chapter 4 - A Focus on Family ; Chapter 5 - It's Symbolic... ; Chapter 6 - Speaking of Tongues ; Chapter 7 - A Neandertal walked into a bar... ; Chapter 8 - Neandertal Dreaming ; Chapter 9 - Neandertal Personality ; Chapter 10 - Thinking Like a Neandertal