TOWNSHEND — Every family has one. The black sheep, the misfit, the weird uncle no one wants to talk about.
In the Human family, Neanderthal Man takes this role.
For years, we denied that we were related. He wasn't an ancestor, just an “evolutionary dead end.”
Then the DNA test came back. We are all descended from Neanderthal Man, whether we want to admit it or not.
* * *
Neanderthals are commonly depicted as dimwitted cave dwellers. I can't help thinking that they get a bad rap.
I doubt that Neanderthal Man was as dumb as people say he was. If you don't believe me, try living out in the woods without modern equipment for a while. It's not easy. Most of us wouldn't last a month.
Things were harder back then. The winters were colder, food was difficult to come by, and cell-phone reception was horrible.
So we can't blame Neanderthal Man for being a bit rough around the edges. Yeah, he was tough, but you had to be back then. It is hard not to sympathize with him.
I imagine small bands of Neanderthals trudging across the permafrost in search of game. I picture them sitting in front of a smoky fire as darkness fills the world and savage beasts howl through the night. I imagine them brooding in the darkness watching the fire for signs and omens.
This was when the first stories were told. Ghost stories and hunting stories, the same tales that are being told around the shimmering electric fire of the television set.
The stories grew and took flight, becoming magic and religion.
* * *
Neanderthal Man was hunter, storyteller, artist, and shaman. So why do we scorn him?
Because he is us. The part of us that loves to hunt. That snaps awake at a strange noise outside. The part of us that likes to sit around the fire at night.
We owe a lot to Neanderthal Man. He gave us fire and our fear of the evil dead.
* * *
Once, I came face to face with Neanderthal Man. I turned the corner in a museum, and he was there, standing inside a glass case.
His skull stared at me across the centuries. There was a lot I wanted to ask him, but he wasn't talking.
I wanted to know what happened to him. Why did he become extinct?
We might never know. Sometimes the best stories are the ones that are never told.