After reading Hancock and Schoch describing the destruction and survival of the human population during the last Ice Age, I wanted to learn more about the development of primitive man. Mind you, Hancock believed the destruction was caused by a comet that broke apart and hit the earth, while Schoch has evidence that the destruction was caused by a massive plasma discharge from our Sun.
Either way, the Earth’s normal environment was radically altered, forcing surviving populations underground to survive. This dark era, Schoch suggests, lasted nearly 6,000 years.
By that time, Neanderthal-type humans were allegedly already absorbed into Cro-Magnon culture, likely through cross-breeding. Both Hancock in “America Before”, and Schoch in “Forgotten Civilization” describe the near-destruction of advanced human rituals and technology, which has long-since been lost. My review of these books can be found at covertbookreport.com .
These next two books on Neanderthals are very different. The first, “The Neanderthal Legacy” is written by psychologist Stan Gooch, and was mentioned as a footnote in Schoch’s “Forgotten Civilization”.
Gooch, as a psychologist, may be somewhat out of his wheelhouse in attempting to describe Neanderthals. However, as a doctor and practicing “Medium” or psychic, has some interesting theories about Neanderthals, their brain development, and their genetic influence on our modern brains.
In fact, his book “The Neanderthal Legacy” is subtitled “Reawakening Our Genetic and Cultural Origins”.
None-the-less, Gooch puts forward a number of interesting concepts and ideas, in fact enough to get him in a little trouble. While Gooch points out that yes, indeed, the Neanderthal had a sloping forehead indicating a smaller frontal lobe of the brain, he says the rear brain, or cerebellum, in Neanderthals was larger than that of modern man, and may have been a driver of psychic behavior.
I am frustrated, that Gooch does not leave a footnote trail to follow, only an extensive bibliography. For that reason, we have to rely on Gooch’s statements and theories.
Here is where Gooch goes somewhat astray; he labels nearly all modern traits such as left-handedness, leftist political positions etc. to be latent Neanderthal traits.
While it is understandable and possibly research-able to suggest that Neanderthals were Moon worshipers as opposed to the Sun worshipers of Cro-Magnon times and later – giving us the fear of the number thirteen (as in Moon phases), and other such beliefs that modern man has allegedly chosen to exterminate, along with left-handedness (which the next book reviewed reverses), attributing something as complex as Communism to Neanderthal beliefs can be quite a stretch.
None-the-less, “The Neanderthal Legacy” gave me a lot of somewhat esoteric information on Neanderthals to think about, and is well worth a read.
This next book was purchased to understand a more scientific study of Neanderthal culture.
The title is “The Neanderthals Rediscovered – How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story”, by Papagiani and Morse, a married and very academic couple.
“The Neanderthals Rediscovered” is adequately footnoted, indexed and illustrated – including some very cool photographs. It is easy to follow and makes clear points about Neanderthal culture. As in other sciences, new revelations keep upturning the original story of these cousins to modern man.
The last ten or twenty years has really added to the story of these powerful humans.
The authors provide quite a history of tool use, one of the key archeological methods for examining various primitive cultures. They also suggest that during the cold times of the Ice Age of that time, Neanderthals ruled Europe. They were much stronger than modern man, very adaptable, made clothes and fire to protect from the harsh climate, and practiced rituals such as burials. These traits are clearly human, and demonstrate advanced thinking and planning.
If one is curious, I would say Gooch’s book “The Neanderthal Legacy” is where you would look for the more esoteric traits of the Neanderthals, and “The Neanderthals Rediscovered” is a more scientific approach to Neanderthal culture and includes many modern scientific discoveries about their spread through ancient Europe and how they may have merely been assimilated into Cro-Magnon culture, as evident in the DNA of modern man.
These books are very different in nature, but surprisingly blend together fairly nicely.
One last thing, “The Neanderthals Rediscovered” confirms the analysis of Gooch regarding Neanderthal brain size.
“In the Neanderthal case their biology truly was different. They were stronger, perhaps required a little more food to sustain themselves and their brains may have had smaller frontal cortices. They matured more quickly. Their brains were probably wired differently .
Different need not mean inferior.”
And:
“We laugh not because cavemen and Neanderthals are beneath us but because they are us.”
-John Titus
covertbookreport.com
