Neanderthal Dinner

Wholefoods doesn't have Pleistocene salad

I recently read  "Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art," by author Rebecca Wragg Sykes and holy shit it just opened up a crazy whirlwind for my mind. I love fiction but recently I have been in my I-need-to-know everything reading kick and wow was this such a motivator. Even if you are not into science jargon and want to be entertained this book might push you into nonfiction. The art featured in the book by Tom Björklund is just astounding on its own.

What I am about to discuss regarding any fact is my recollection of information from the book, I am no expert, I am just obsessed with Neanderthals now.

My main takeaway upon closing the book: Why am I so upset that I am unable to taste and eat like Neanderthals?

Yes, I can just make a meat-based meal focusing on local plants to supplement it. However, Neanderthals had different senses of perception, taste, sight, and smell due to our anatomical differences. So even if I was able to strike down any number of Pleistocene megafauna, my perception of the taste of that animal would be different! The weather and sense of place, the cooking method, and cultural ways of eating would change the taste perception drastically beyond anatomical difference (at least in my mind). Eating an identical meal on your living room floor versus with your closest friends in an ideal vacation spot mentally just has a different effect. I dream about Neanderthal dinner. In another universe I could sit and watch the preparation and enjoyment of this meal as an invisible bystander, jaw gaped open in awe.

Neanderthal Woman depicted by Tom Björklund — please dear god go look at more of this artist’s work, it creates such a beautiful impression about the nature of Neanderthals that imparts more into the viewer than I can describe

Even just preparing the meal would be such an incredible task to take part in. Neanderthal groups varied in culture by location with some groups having no tasks divided by sex or age. Neanderthals had an incredible knowledge of tool creation, their migratory pathways being influenced by the rocks they could use to make carving tools. The shoddier the material, the shorter distance moved if conditions were bad. Movement and food were incredibly interconnected creating unique cultures for different groups of Neanderthal family units.

As Homo sapiens we share ancestry from Neanderthals, meaning we share a common ancestor in the same way we share a common ancestor with Silverback Gorillas. The main narrative story throughout Sykes’ book is that these beings were kin to us and their cultural lives are connected to ours separated by time and geologic history. How then do I feel connected to them with an emphasis on their humanity? Neanderthality? What I am reaching for here is the fact that all species have a culture whether or not we understand it. The closer genetically related we are the more capacity we have to see that culture and recognize its familiarity to ours. So now that makes me wonder about ant culture and bacteria culture (pun intended).

I recently moved cross-country to a city I have never visited before with only my partner. I love him very deeply but I lost my community. I lost ties to myself in terms of culture. I have moved before but the culture shock has never been this big in terms of weather, customs, food, and architecture. I lost pieces of myself and in doing so I lost my sense of connection to others. Currently, I have no friends and my workplace is a true solo endeavor focused on customer service so even the human connection is predicated on me being not myself. 

In this respect, I am thankful to Sykes for giving me a connection to people who are not quite “human” in the way we understand.