----quoting me
>>Gar Lipow wrote:
>>1) In the early Paleolithic humans had spears, and fire, but not weapons at a distance. As a result humans were prey more often than predator - foragers, and scavengers with hunting a minor source of anything. - ------------Chris
>Wait a second -- didn't Neanderthals (maybe you wouldn't want to call 'em "human") hunt mammoths, cave bears and wooly rhinos armed with only spears? Admittedly, they were a lot more physically tough that homo sapiens sapiens.
1) Yes, Neanderthals were human. Because they had larger brains than we do, there is some speculation that were smarter than we are. But their language centers were smaller so if they talked they talked less. (Which definitely does not contradict the first point). But they were cousins, not ancestors. To the extent we can determine their diet, they were more carnivorous than wolves! Their diet consisted mostly of meat.
2)But, again to the extent we can determine, they hunted mainly by the method I noted for homo sapiens; they drove animals (Mammoths in the one case we know about) off cliffs. In other words their main hunting technique was one that could be done by the entire group - probably arranged as I said - expendable young males on the outside, women, and children on the inside.
And I should have said "Homo Sapiens" rather than human -since there were other species of humans. I'm mainly concerned about the history of Homo Sap here, because that was what we are.