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Kindred
Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art | Rebecca Wragg Sykes
9 posts | 4 read | 10 to read
'Beautiful, evocative, authoritative.' Professor Brian Cox 'A wonderful portrait of these enigmatic, long-lost relatives.' Professor Alice Roberts Kindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. In Kindred, Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses her experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research to share our new understanding of Neanderthals, shoving aside clichés of rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland. She reveals them to be curious, clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable. They ranged across vast tracts of tundra and steppe, but also stalked in dappled forests and waded in the Mediterranean Sea. Above all, they were successful survivors for more than 300,000 years, during times of massive climatic upheaval. At a time when our species has never faced greater threats, we're obsessed with what makes us special. But, much of what defines us was also in Neanderthals, and their DNA is still inside us. Planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic sense, imagination, perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond mortality. Kindred does for Neanderthals what Sapiens did for us, revealing a deeper, more nuanced story where humanity itself is our ancient, shared inheritance. It is only by understanding them, that we can truly understand ourselves.
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Cazxxx
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In total, the Neanderthals endured for an astonishing 350,000 years, until we lose sight of them – or, at least their fossils and artefacts – somewhere around 40 ka. So far, so dizzying. But it‘s not just time: Neanderthals also spread across a remarkably vast swathe of space. More Eurasian than European, they lived from north Wales across to the borders of China, and southwards to the fringes of Arabia‘s deserts.

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jenniferw88
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Vansa Do you make these on Paint on the laptop? Or some other app on your phone?! It looks lovely! 14mo
jenniferw88 @Vansa I got the template from @chasjjlee and then use the InCollage app. 14mo
Vansa Thank you! I'll try it too😀 14mo
46 likes3 comments
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jenniferw88
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Pickpick

Forget everything you think you know about Neanderthals - this book is likely to prove you wrong! (Will explain the racism warning in comments).

#pop23 #justtextoncover #atyin52books23 #interracialrelationship #naturalitsybingo2023 #humanecology

It's extremely likely we all have a bit of Neanderthal DNA in us!

@Cinfhen @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB @Ruthiella @AllDebooks @Bluebird @LeeRHarry @RaeLovesToRead

jenniferw88 The book (& author) is not itself racist, but it does discuss racist ideas towards the end. Basically Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens > Africans etc. It would be a good book for white supremacists to read. 1y
Cinfhen Wow!!! You‘ve piqued my interest!!!!! 1y
jenniferw88 @Cinfhen I'd recommend a #borrownotbuy for you. 1y
See All 8 Comments
Librarybelle This one has been on my radar…I may need to bump it up my list! 1y
Cinfhen Thanks, Jenny!!! Ill look to see if I can #BorrowNotBuy 😆 1y
jenniferw88 @Cinfhen I don't know if it'll be available for you or not, but this is currently in the Audible 2 for 1 sale in the UK - you might be able to snag it as your "freebie" if there's one you definitely want in the offer! 14mo
Cinfhen I need to check the US Audible sale, thanks for the heads up xxxx 14mo
AllDebooks @jenniferw88 Great choice, interest piqued. I snagged it, thanks for the tip x 13mo
65 likes3 stack adds8 comments
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CampbellTaraL
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Mehso-so

I liked this one but it did lean more textbook than general reader engagement. If you're interested in learning about neanderthals, you won't be disappointed with the information packed into this book. If you're picking it up on a whim, it's slow material with a lot of details and footnotes.

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stevesbookstuf1
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Bailedbailed

First book I've DNF'd in quite a while. Had this on hold at the library, and it seemed like the kind of book I like. It's also gotten great reviews.

Nope. I was expecting a history of how views of the Neanderthals have changed over time. Instead it's in-depth chapters on the archaeological evidence we have, and how its been interpreted. Dry, dry, dry.

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RamsFan1963
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Bailedbailed

😡 I wanted to make 2021 a no bail year, but I just can't get into this book. I've had it over two weeks, and barely finished 16%. Maybe I'll come back to it later when I'm in a different mood.

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shanaqui

I've nearly finished this now! It's been so fascinating the whole way through, though I'm least interested in this bit about how the Neanderthals are related to us; I know a fair bit about that already because I'm interested in genetics, but also I'm not convinced it's the important thing about them.

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shanaqui
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Finally made a start on this, and spent a good amount of time so far info-dumping at folks about how exciting half this info is. We have skeletons of Neanderthal newborns! And teenagers! We know how they used some tools! We have splinters from one of their toothpicks!

It's pretty amazing.

15 likes1 stack add
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shanaqui

I think this will be my next read... I've been trying lately to have a fiction book on the go, plus a non-fiction history, plus a non-fiction science. This feels like it'll straddle science and history a bit, but that's okay. I do find looking at the Neanderthals and what they might have been like pretty darn fascinating.