The Neanderthals as Our Ancestors
The fact that Neanderthals are part of our ancestors does not come as a surprise. They were the same size as humans and had almost identical morphological characteristics (Trinkaus & William 124). They, on the other hand, appeared to be shorter in stature but shared certain characteristics, including a similar skull and teeth. People need not be unhappy over Neanderthals becoming our predecessors since, whether they had any undesirable characteristics, we have advanced and are already superior to the old types. Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with being identified with animals that discovered the use of hand-held instruments and the significance of flames (Howell 379-380). The Neanderthals are also associated with the positive trait of burying their dead. All these activities prove they were intelligent species of our ancestry.
Neanderthals and Racial Stereotypes
Neanderthals are associated with stereotypes such as being dumb, something that makes people not want to be associated with the extinct species. Besides, numerous studies have shown that the Neanderthals are more associated with the Europeans and lesser with the Africans. As a result, the missing intelligence link between the two racial groups is associated with this old species. The quantity of the DNA of these extinct species and that of the Europeans has a great resemblance and thought to be almost similar (Noonan et al. 1115-1118). Races that are associated with these species in other parts of the world, like in Australia, are thus considered to be more intelligent and is stereotypically used to examine the economic, social, and political developments.
Neutralizing Racial Stereotypes
The racial stereotypes associated with Neanderthal man aimed to make the black people feel adequate in their intelligence skills can be neutralized through focusing on their things that make us equal and superior beings. For example, our creativity, ambition, and imagination cannot be compared to any other species of our ancestry before. The environment among psychological and sociological factors that determine our behavior and adaptability has helped us to fit well in the modern world that should lay lesser emphasis on the Homo sapiens sapiens relations to the Neanderthal man in relation to the superiority in the gene constitution.
Appreciating Neanderthal Man and Objective Understanding
Conclusively, the Neanderthal man is an important evolution figure that human beings should be selectively associated with. As part of the evolution, the various stages that we went through should be appreciated even if there are some qualities considered as undesirable. Being objective is one way to find roots to our ancestry with the selective application of knowledge. The desired qualities of the Neanderthal man are currently being used by human beings to establish superiority among groups of people around the world. The fact that the blacks have lesser DNA connection should not be used as the source of what is considered as the "intelligence link." There are many factors that shape the intelligence of people regardless of their racial background, thus helping to establish a different, rational, and objective source of their reasoning and intelligent quotients. The fact, therefore, remains that we are supposed to be equal regardless of our past histories that may have caused conflict and hatred between us. People, therefore, need to avoid those stereotypes that put us in a conflictual form of relationship that causes psychological harm to others.
Work Cited
Howell, F. Clark. “The place of Neanderthal man in human evolution.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 9.4 (1951): 379-380.
Noonan, James P., et al. “Sequencing and analysis of Neanderthal genomic DNA.” Science 314.5802 (2006): 1115-1118.
Trinkaus, Erik, and William W. Howells. “The neanderthals.” Scientific American 241.6 (1979): 124.
