What would a Neanderthal think of our world today?

Published: Tue, 03/09/21

It has come to my notice that the president of the USA has referred to ‘Neanderthal thinking’ in a remark about the Governor of Texas and his plans to end the Covid pandemic in his state. I have to confess I don’t know what a president is, or a state, is since we had no use for things in my time. However, I have been having some Neanderthal thoughts about how the 21st century human race manages things such as illness.

I admit to being puzzled. Apparently you have a terrible disease afflicting millions of people who are not even sick. We Neanderthals sometimes became unwell, but there were symptoms like a high temperature, or vomiting, or perhaps a broken bone. And we would look after a member of the community who was clearly ill, but if you looked and felt fine you were probably healthy.

Apparently people are dying of this terrible disease too. Well, everyone dies of something eventually, no matter how much the human race might have advanced since my day. Death is still with you and always will be. We Neanderthals just accepted that one day our spirits would join the ancestors and in the meantime we lived, loved, and celebrated every day for the blessings it brought us.

We also liked to be honest about why someone had died. Everyone dies within 28 days of a full moon, but even we knew that the moon is not responsible for people dying. If someone died within 28 days of a hearing a mammoth trumpet we didn’t consider that they had been trampled to death by a hairy pachyderm if they actually got savaged by a saber toothed tiger, or drowned, or just passed away from old age. I believe a wise man will one day have something to say about lies and statistics. I am glad to say that we Neanderthals were not much into statistics, or lying, come to think of it.

I have also heard about a strange custom of wearing face coverings which has become fashionable over the past year. Some people apparently wear these strange objects every time they go out of their own houses because they believe that breathing air is bad for them. Other people are compelled by law to wear such items before going into buildings and can be punished if they refuse. I am not quite sure what a law is, or a building come to that, but it sounds quite serious.

When I asked for an explanation it seems that there is a terrible fear of something called a virus, far too small to be seen, but apparently quite deadly. You can buy these face coverings in packets and when I asked for the instructions to be read out it seems like these face coverings offer no protection against viruses at all. Or of course you can make your own mask from any cloth and wear that. It seems to me that these strange things you people are wearing on your faces are more symbolic than actually useful. Like a religious symbol to prove that you belong to a particular cult.

We Neanderthals never really did religion, we enjoyed our connection to the living world around us, we knew that our ancestors are always with us, and the creator spirit guided us from, but we didn’t need to do anything special to make or maintain those connections, it was just how we lived. I suppose that between my time and yours religion got invented, became terribly important, and then then became obsolete as your society became secular. Or it could be that over the past year you have just adopted a new religion. A belief in a deadly threat, you wear a symbol of your belief in the threat. There is a taboo against getting too close to other people, and lots of hand washing I have also heard that there is a very special ritual called ‘getting the jab’ which apparently protects you from the wrath of the virus.

Of course those who do not participate in the ritual will be considered a danger to those who have and will be excluded to the margins of society. We Neanderthals discovered what that experience was like as Homo Sapians took over our lands and pushed us to the margins.

You may think that we Neanderthals are long dead and gone. You would be wrong, we are still very much alive and with you. We never died out, we were assimilated and although our outward appearance may have disappeared and our culture may be lost we are still there, deep inside you. I am the yearning to be out in the wild and be part of nature. I am the connection you have to the divine spirit which created and sustains the universe. I am still small voice which guides you to health, compassion, and self-acceptance when you are prepared to listen. Neanderthal thinking is simple, Neanderthal thinking is guided by what is, Neanderthal thinking is ready to accept death as part of life. Neanderthal thinking, feeling, and knowing is our gift to you.