If neanderthals lived today...?

Question

do you think we'd keep them in cages like at a zoo, or would they live among us (maybe as slaves)? Would they been seen as another race, or as an animal? What if they had the vocal abilities of, say, a six year old. Would that change things? Do you think we'd have a moral obligation to feed them and take care of them? If we didn't, do you think they would just club us and take our food, and maybe we'd have prisons or institutions to keep them in?

Sorry for all the questions, but this kept me up last night. :P

Answer 1

No insult to Neanderthals, but a lot of what you specify is VERY close to the behavior level of great apes.

They can be taught sign language, so they can communicate with humans, but their mental development level tends to stop at about the level of a 4 or 5 year old.  yet, they have greater physical strength than most humans, certainly more than a 5 years old.

I think if humans have defined a group as "lesser" whther human or animal, it takes a long time for people to recognize their error. even longer to do something about it.

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If i saw a baby chimp, or orangutan, etc, who was injured and could not care for himself/herself - i would feel a moral obligation to take care of him/her - and that would include finding a place he/she could live later.  

a year or so ago, their was a big news story, some one had somehow dropped her baby in the Gorilla enclosure at the zoo. the mother, the zoo visitors, the zoo keeprs were terrified, but the gorilla cuddled the human baby just as if it was a gorilla baby, and handed it over gently to the human trainer when the trainer got there.

Answer 2

To clear things up, Neanderthals weren't retarded, but very intelligent.

We can only speculate studying the archaeological record as to what their society looked like, but they certainly weren't primitive cavemen. They were a different species or subspecies of the genus Homo, not apes.

The bones of individual Neanders show that their tribe cared for the sick and the old, their stone tools (the Mousterian culture) exhibits high skill, craftsmanship and a sense for aesthetics of the toolmaker. They had brains and had to use them.

To answer you question - we really don't know why they died out in the first place. It could have been the changing climate, resulting in the extinction of a hundred animal species in Europe that were a part of Neanders' diet.

OR

The modern people simply replaced them.

OR

very likely both.

More future discoveries will bring about theories about their extinction.

This is important when considering your question. If Neanderthals were a subspecies (and not a different species), that meant that they could procreate with Homo sapiens. We still don't know if their genes contributed to the gene pool of the early populations of modern humans in Europe and the Middle East.

BUT IF THEY DID... that would mean some people actually do carry a small part of their genes. And you could ask yourself:

Can you tell which do and which don't?

Would you recognize them just by looking at them?

Would you think these people are less intelligent than the rest of the population?

Do they deserve to be locked up in a zoo, even if they can think, talk, create and show emotion?

I'd say NO to all these questions.

Answer 3

If neanderthals had survived up until the last 2000 years, they would have been eradicated by our societies as devils, demons, less than humans, freaks of nature, much like we did to many, many native populations around the world.

Answer 4

It would not surprise me with the large areas of jungle yet to be explored and with moutain ranges that have not been fully mapped to hear that some of them did survive. We keep hearing about various animals that managed to survive even though we have thought they were extinct.

Answer 5

This is like ask if we should take care of our grand fathers, if they  would(unfortunately) live among us, we might treat them as humans, as our grand fathers, as they were, why do you think the privilege of intelligence belongs only to you? in my opinion we should see them as very especial specimens where we come from, and wherever they be know surely they are watching us with some kind of shame by our prepontency, our moral obligation must be to watch them proudly and respectfully. Thanks God they are not anymore among us just for not being with people like the existing ones.

Answer 6

That would sure shut the fundamentalists up about evolution... ah nevermind, it probably wouldn't.  They disregard any evidence, no matter how obvious it is.

Answer 7

Depends, if they were found living in small tribes... If it was the case, they would haev been put under UNESCO protection quite fast, as they would be very important for our understanding of evolution trends and our biologic differences...

But I do believed that they were clever enough to talk and make trades with others. I am not sure that they got really extinct, or were just integrated in human genomes...

Anyways, with all the virgin mountains range in the world that have not been explored yet, I do believe it could still be possible to find a tribe of 12 or more inhabitants... Especially when you know that they just discover the mythic Mustang horses in the Tibetan region (Altitude horses used to wage war in the region few centuries ago and were considered a myth by todays Academics)...

Answer 8

If Neanderthals lived today, they could get on the A train in NYC and nobody would see a difference.

Answer 9

Read the Clan of the Cave Bear  aka  Earth's Children series.  It would probably be something similar to that.  We might put them on 'reservations' now.

Answer 10

They're still here!  We know them as---Fundies.

Answer 11

they would be on tv insulting Geico for treating them badly.

hehehe  - no, seriously, I think they would be treated like disabled persons and be taken care of in group homes or allowed a large area of land where they can live in the natural state to which they are accustomed.

Answer 12

Interesting question!

We need to look at how we treat each other, other races, other cultures, other species, other life forms.  Historically not too good!  Have we improved in that area yet?

Would the neanderthals existence threaten some religious doctrines?  

I don't know, but I would like to think we would treat them with the respect and honor their existance.

Answer 13

Neanderthals were custom-designed for the Ice Age.  They were stocky, had wide nasal passages to warm cold air, and were stronger than Homo Sapiens.  As the Ice Age receeded, they had to adapt, evolve, or fall to extintion.  

Setting aside the possibility that those of us with European ancestry may have Neanderthal blood in us, what if they as another human species lived here on Earth with us?

Most likely, being masters of the Ice Age, Neanderthals would choose to live closer to the poles.  I doubt many would choose to live in Equatorial areas as their bodies would not tolerate heat as well as ours do.  

Their physiology indicates that they probably did have abilty to speak.   "The hyoid is a small bone that connects the musculature of the tongue and the larynx, and by bracing these structures against each other, allows a wider range of tongue and laryngeal movements than would otherwise be the case. Therefore, it seems to imply the presence of anatomical conditions for speech to occur. The bone that was found is virtually identical to that of modern humans" (Wikipedia).  Evidence also exists that they could hear as well as we do.  The clarity of their speech as compared to Homo Sapiens is still under debate, but some scientists beleive it could have been as complex as ours.  Also, tool making of the time suggests that societies as theirs could not have been developed with out some sort of language.  

I would guess that if they were here today, we would inter breed with them and eventually there would be just one species eventually.  This may have been what happened.  Many give Neanderthals too little credit.

Answer 14

If they could learn rap music they would find a perfect niche within today's social structure.

Answer 15

They would seperate themselves, and we would probably try and let them

They are a different race, as in a different sub species of humanity.

we might keep them as slaves, but humans keep other humans as slaves (even today) so that is kind of an oddball question.

they would likely just form their own group and stick with it, trying to have as little to do with us as possible