>Sunday night I watched the 2 hour show "Neanderthal" on PBS not once but
>three separate times. The dramatization is based on anthropological
>theories derived from findings at various digging sites over Southern
>Europe.

Jean, I didn't see this, no.  Sounds horrible.  Anthropology and nutrition
seem to be the two scientific disciplines that get the most bizarre twists
in the popular science media.

>The "energy cost" of breastfeeding for 5 years was described as a heavy
>liability on the clan to feed the mother, especially as she would not be
>able to do her full part in the food gathering and other work, for the
>full 5 years, implied from the script!

Gag.  Right.  Tell that to all the women of the world today who do more than
a full day's work AND nurse their babies.  This dramatization is NOT based
on real anthropological data.


>Meanwhile the mother looked worriedly everywhere but at the baby,
>especially at the dominant female in the clan

Oh yeah, right, Neanderthals had "dominant females" -- yeah, you can really
tell that from fossils and archeological remains.  NOT.

>This was apparently to tie it in with their conclusion that fossil
>evidence showed that the "problems for the clan" posed by childbearing
>and breastfeeding were often "cured" by infanticide.

All cultures commit infanticide -- some before birth, some after birth,
usually for unusual circumstances such as baby born out of wedlock or to a
man not the mother's husband, physical deformities, albinism, twins, blind,
born too soon after the previous baby, etc. etc.

>Any wonder they died out?

Most anthropologists do not believe that the Neanderthals died out.  There
is plenty of evidence that Neanderthals, while a distinct-looking population
of southern/eastern Europe and the Middle East, continued on and contributed
many genes to central and eastern European gene pools.  You have only to
look at the faces of people from this part of the world (including my
husband Steven, whose ancestors are from Switzerland and Czechoslovakia) to
see the Neanderthal influence.

Kathy Dettwyler

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