Ben Waber reviewed Kindred by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
An Excellent Dive Into All Things Neanderthal
5 stars
This book is an excellent mix of scientific rigor and engaging prose, walking through different aspects of the state of scientific knowledge around Neanderthals to provide a holistic picture of their biology, social practices, and relationships with Homo sapiens. While the popular view of Neanderthals has been changing for some time, Wragg Sykes demonstrates the thin line between many Neanderthal practices and those of modern humans, with the implications of the anatomical differences that do exist becoming that much more intriguing. You're not going to get a big reveal about their extinction - we simply don't know exactly what happened - but there is good exploration of competing theories. Highly recommend
This book is an excellent mix of scientific rigor and engaging prose, walking through different aspects of the state of scientific knowledge around Neanderthals to provide a holistic picture of their biology, social practices, and relationships with Homo sapiens. While the popular view of Neanderthals has been changing for some time, Wragg Sykes demonstrates the thin line between many Neanderthal practices and those of modern humans, with the implications of the anatomical differences that do exist becoming that much more intriguing. You're not going to get a big reveal about their extinction - we simply don't know exactly what happened - but there is good exploration of competing theories. Highly recommend