• ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    10 minutes ago

    Were we the elves? Or were they the dwarves? Stocky, strong, maybe good at crafting tools, big noses and furrowed brows.

  • Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world
    6·
    1 hour ago

    Top comment stolen shamelessly from reddit:

    7LeagueBoots 3y ago Edited 3y ago Profile Badge for the Achievement Top 1% Commenter >Top 1% Commenter Take a look at Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. This a good, comprehensive place to start.

    She compiles the current (as of a couple of years ago now) state of knowledge and lays it out clearly and well.

    The upshot is that no, there is no real evidence to indicate that Neanderthals were any less intelligent than H. sapiens. They appear to have been at least our intellectual equals. Their societies and evolutionary path differered a bit, that’s the main difference, and even that’s not such a big thing.

    Her list of references that went into the book is immense, and is not printed with the book due to space constraints (it’s a 61 page list). She has the full set of references available on her site as a link to a Google Document you can download if you want to browse the original sources she used in writing the book.

  • Airfried@piefed.socialEnglish
    4·
    2 hours ago

    What gives you the idea Neanderthals were less intelligent? If anything the modern human is just more arrogant.

  • FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world
    2·
    2 hours ago

    Yes, i like this analogy a lot. Also we care for other animals and have advanced medicine and among the animal kingdom we are specialists in projectile weapons.

    We also like living near forests and running water (very Mirkwood and Rivendell-y) and build many things out of wood.

    Where we cannot immediately access running water, humans are known to move land and water to force it to run straight through their homes.

    I guess what makes LotR really compelling is that every mythical race reflects different aspects of humanity, as if they were all people who just leaned into their ecological niche a little too much.

    Edit: When i was a kid and teenager i really identified with elves, actually, because I too was taller than most people around me and had exceptionally pointy ears