Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society

NASTY, BRUTISH AND SHORT?

Author(s): Michael Szpir
Source: American Scientist, Vol. 81, No. 4 (July-August 1993), pp. 328-329
Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/29774966
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 SCIENCE OBSERVER

I NASTY, BRUTISH AND SHORT?!

were theNeanderthals? Were
Who they
dub-wielding, slump-shouldered, brut?
ish loutswho tripped on theirknuckles
and grunted a lot?Or were theyamore refinedpeo?
ple, sharing some of thebehavioral traitsthatwe as?
sociate with humanity and only vaguely distin?
guishable frommodern people by their receding
chins, sloping foreheads and poor enunciation?
Although most anthropologists now imagine
that theNeanderthals (who became extinct 40,000
years ago) were more humanlike, the apelike cave?
man image has a strong hold on thepublic mind.
So strong, in fact, that popular representations of
Neanderthals rarely appear any other way. Car?
toons,magazines, books and, in at least one natur?
al historymuseum, a diorama of "life theway it
was" continue to promote the bestial caveman
stereotype. The word "Neanderthal" has even
come into common use as an insult, denoting a
crude or boorish individual. How did theNean?
derthals get such amercilessly unpleasant image?
Marcellin Boule's vision of theNeanderthals. Entitled "The Man of La Chapelle-aux
Saints: An accurate reconstruction Cave-Man skull was
of the Prehistoric whose
In the December 1992 issue of Antiquity,
Stephanie Moser from the School ofArchaeology
at theUniversity of Sydney contends that scien?
tists themselves are largely responsible for creat?
ing and promoting the stereotype.Moser looked
at hundreds of images ofNeanderthals thathave
appeared in newspapers, textbooks and research
articles since these hominids were discovered in
themiddle of the 19th century.Two pictorial rep?
resentations inparticular caught her eye.
One image was published in association with
thework of the anatomist Marcellin Boule in the
French newspaper LIllustration in 1909. Itdepicts
an apelike Neanderthal standing at the entrance
of a cave (which contains a nest-like accumula?
tion of vegetation), carrying a club in one hand
and a boulder in the other. The second image was
presented by theBritish anatomist Arthur Keith in
the IllustratedLondon News in 1911. Entitled "Not
in the 'Gorilla' stage: theMan of 500,000 [sic]years
ago," it shows a much less hirsute Neanderthal
wearing a furwrap and a necklace, and sur?
rounded by other products of his intelligence: a
spear, a hand ax and a controlled fire.
According toMoser, the two images are remark?
able because they are based on the same fossil?the
"old man" fromLa Chapelle-aux-Saints in south?
western France?and yet they represent two dia?
metrically opposed views of theNeanderthals. "It's
important to note that these images are not pre?
sented as fancifuldepictions, but were intended to
be actual reconstructionsbased on careful scientific
study," saysMoser. "They are, in fact, the firstsci?
entific images of theNeanderthals."
Together the images contain several icons?
such as the club, the necklace, generous amounts
of body hair and the furwrap?that send mes?
sages about the identity of the Neanderthals.
These icons were originally used by Boule and
Keith as ammunition to support their arguments,
says Moser. "Boule held that the Neanderthals
were an evolutionary side branch, not part of the

found in theDepartment ofCorreze." human lineage," she says, "whereas Keith

328 American Scientist, Volume 81

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 viewed theNeanderthals as a phase in the evo?
lution of anatomically modern humans." Re?
markably, these icons continue to be used in
modern depictions ofNeanderthals, despite the
fact that clubs, necklaces and furwraps have
never been found in association with Nean?
derthal remains.
Where did Boule and Keith get these icons?Ar?
chaeologist Glive Gamble of the University of
Southampton (a coauthor with Christopher
Stringer of the recentlypublished book In Search of
theNeanderthals, Thames and Hudson 1993) be?
lieves that the caveman imagerywas pervasive in
western Europe throughout the 19th and early 20th
centuries. Not coincidentally, itwas a timewhen
Europeans were coming to termswith thediscov?
ery of other peoples living at the farcomers of the
as
globe. "Many Victorians smugly believed that
one traveled progressively farther from London,
the indigenous peoples were representative of in?
creasinglymore distant periods back in time," says
Gamble. "As a result theappearance of distant peo?
ples became exaggerated to thepoint of caricature."
Boule and Keith picked up on these images and
on how they
promoted differentaspects depending
viewed theNeanderthals.
The view that "wild men" and "primitives" ^^^^^
Arthur Keith's vision of theNeanderthals. Entitled "Not in
the 'Gorilla' stage: theMan of500,000 [sic] years ago."
were living on the outskirts of civilization extends
far back intomedieval and classical times, says
Gamble. "Medieval manuscripts of the Roman anderthals because we recognize them as being
writer Pliny contain fabulous illustrations ofmon? like us, yet somehow different. Itbecomes an is?
strous races thatwere supposed to be living on sue ofwho belongs and who doesn't."
the edges of civilization." Among themost in? Have the caveman images influenced this cen?
triguing of these are the Blemmyae, a grotesque tury's theories about whether theNeanderthals
race of nomads who reputedly wandered the are part of the human lineage? Moser is certain
deserts of Libya. "Depictions of theBlemmyae are that the current debates about theNeanderthals
are historically rooted in the early images. "The
strikinglyreminiscent of theNeanderthal stereo?
sever? power of argument held invisual reconstructions
type,"Gamble says. "These images express
al caveman icons: they are naked and hairy, they of early humans has yet to be fully recognized by
wield clubs and their faces sit on theirchestswith? the anthropological and archaeological commu?
out a neck, suggesting a stooped posture. nities," she says. "Scientists need to recognize the
"Throughout history, humans have always power of these stereotypes and replace themwith
looked at the other people just over the hill and more contemporary visions of the species."
recognized
them as 'us, but not us,'" notes Gam? But there are other lessons to be learned, ob?
ble. "It comes down to the question of 'Do we serves Gamble. "We must ask ourselves about
fight them, or do we make love with them?' A the theoretical content of early human studies.
similar phenomenon takes place when we look are
Judging from the simple sorts of icons that
over the horizon of time at people who lived in used in these depictions, the theoriesmay not be
the distant past. We make caricatures of theNe as profound as we might think."?Michael Szpir

I BUILDING A BADDER MOTHER |

Biotechnology promises a rich harvest for
agriculture. Thanks to genetic engineering
we can look forward to pest-resistant grains
and tastier,heartier vegetables. And bad mothers.
Bad mother turkeys, that is. Encouraging hens to
be a littleless nurturing, it seems, is good business
forcommercial turkey farmers.
The problem with turkeyhens is that, like other
birds, theybecome //broody// afterthey lay theireggs.
Broody turkeysprefer to incubate theeggs theyhave
ratherthan laymore. To increaseproductivity,turkey
farmershave been tryingtobreed thebroodiness out
of thebirds so they'llproduce more eggswhile an in?
cubatorwarms thealready-laid eggs.
The success of these breeding effortshas been
limited. But what good breeding can't do, molec

1993 July-August 329

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