Kindred is important reading not just for anyone interested in these
ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in
humanity.--The New York Times Book Review
[A] bold and magnificent attempt to resurrect our Neanderthal
kin.--The Wall Street Journal
Kindred is the definitive guide to the Neanderthals. Since their
discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from
the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. Rebecca Wragg
Sykes uses her experience at the cutting-edge of Paleolithic research to
share our new understanding of Neanderthals, shoving aside clichés of
rag-clad brutes in an icy wasteland. She reveals them to be curious,
clever connoisseurs of their world, technologically inventive and
ecologically adaptable. Above all, they were successful survivors for
more than 300,000 years, during times of massive climatic upheaval.
Much of what defines us was also in Neanderthals, and their DNA is still
inside us. Planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic
sense, imagination, perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond
mortality. Kindred does for Neanderthals what Sapiens did for us,
revealing a deeper, more nuanced story where humanity itself is our
ancient, shared inheritance.
