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The Naked Neanderthal

By: Ludovic Slimak, Dr. David Watson
Narrated by: John Sackville
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

What do we really know about our cousins, the Neanderthals?

For over a century we saw Neanderthals as inferior to Homo Sapiens. After new discoveries, the pendulum swung the other way and they are generally seen as our relatives: not quite human, but similar enough, and still not equal. Now, thanks to an ongoing revolution in palaeoanthropology in which he has played a key part, Ludovic Slimak shows us that they are something altogether different - and they should be understood on their own terms rather than by comparing them to ourselves. As he reveals in this stunning book, the Neanderthals had their own history, their own rituals, their own customs. Their own intelligence, very different from ours.

Ludovic Slimak has travelled around the world for the past thirty years to uncover who the Neanderthals really were. A modern-day Indiana Jones, he takes us on a fascinating archaeological investigation: from the Arctic Circle to the deep Mediterranean forests, he traces the steps of these enigmatic creatures, working to decipher their real stories through every single detail they left behind.

A thought-provoking adventure story, crafted with wit and verve, The Naked Neanderthal shifts our understanding of deep history - and in the process reveals just how much we have yet to learn.

©2023 Ludovic Slimak (P)2023 Penguin Audio
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    4 out of 5 stars
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At times confusing but brilliant

I wanted to love this book and I did but................. He is an expert in his field and you need to have similar expertise to join the dots that he describes in the first few chapters. For me it needed some layman's summaries as we went along. I found his conclusions to be well reasoned and evidenced from his extensive research. I would love to know what future analysis uncovers to support his hypothesis. I need to listen to it again.

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Expanding our idea of what is human

Systematically unpicks misconceptions about Neanderthals - and only at the end arrives at a cautious description of how they may differ from us. In the end it is a plea to stop us seeing ourselves mirrored in Neanderthal and try to see them for what the evidence suggests they are. Highly enjoyable and thoughtful read.

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Very disappointing

Rambling, speculative and poorly evidenced. The author criticises other writers for making assumptions and then does the same thing himself. There are much better books about Neanderthals out there.

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