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.
In Kindred, Rebecca Wragg Sykes uses her experience at the
cutting-edge of Palaeolithic 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. They ranged
across vast tracts of tundra and steppe, but also stalked in dappled
forests and waded in the Mediterranean Sea. Above all, they were
successful survivors for more than 300,000 years, during times of
massive climatic upheaval.
At a time when our species has never faced greater threats, we're
obsessed with what makes us special. But, 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. It is only by understanding them, that we can truly
understand ourselves.
