ANT 101

Assignment #4

Ever since the Neanderthal fossil discoveries in the 19th century, debates have
erupted about who they were. Were Neanderthals direct ancestors to modern humans?
Were they completely different species or sub-species? This brings us to another question of
now what should we do with the Denisovans? This essay will discuss what characteristics are
required to be fully human. In doing so, I will describe the similarities and differences of
Neanderthals and Denisovans to themselves and humans as well. Lastly, the essay will
explain weather or not Neanderthals were fully human. This question is extremely difficult
with the limited evidence to draw from, but with modern discoveries and technology the
answers are becoming closer to the truth.
What does it mean to be fully human? Humans are obviously upright walking
beings that have hands capable of using and making tools. Anthropologists claim that
humans have a unique brain capacity for symbolic behavior that hominins in the past lacked
(Smiley 2015). Evidence for symbolic behavior is the appearance of art. Species creating art
give a definite clue of having the capacity for symbolic behavior. In Blombos Cave, South
Africa, evidence of human activity from 70,000 years ago was discovered (Smiley 2015).
Jewelry and stone carvings found at this time indicated new behavior for hominins, and
gives us evidence of a species fully human living at this time. Another characteristic
unique to humans is religion (Smiley 2015). Religion provides a sense of commitment to a
group of people and lets people understand things and why they matter. Religion is
something that you find in every single human society across the globe, but nowhere else
for any other species.
Neanderthals lived around 400,000 to 40,000 years ago in Europe and
southwestern/central Asia. Some defining features of their skulls are the large middle part

of the face, angled cheek bones, and a bug noses for humidifying and warming cold, dry air
(Smiley 2015). Their bodies were shorter and stockier than ours as an adaptation to living
in the cold. Their brains were just as large as ours. Neanderthals made and used a diverse
set of advanced tools for the time, controlled fire, lived in shelters, made and wore clothing,
were skilled hunters of big animals and also ate plant foods, and sometimes made symbolic
or ornamental objects (Smiley 2015). Evidence shows that Neanderthals buried their dead
and occasionally even marked their graves with offerings. No other primates, and no earlier
human species, had ever practiced this sophisticated and symbolic behavior.
The Denisovans are a slightly unknown or mysterious hominid species that we only
know about from two molar teeth and the bone of a pinky finger discovered in the Denisova
Cave in the Altai Mountains of Siberia (Smiley 2015). DNA extracted from the fossils has
opened the door to understanding this ancient species. New research now exposes that far
from being a small, isolated population, the Denisovans lived vastly across Asia, for tens of
thousands of years beside Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The DNA analysis also revealed
that the Denisovans were directly related to Neanderthals, but genetically distinct as well.
This leads anthropologists to now confidently state that Neanderthals, Denisovans, and
others labelled archaic are in fact an interbreeding part of the modern human lineage. We
are all the same species.
With this knowledge of interconnectedness and what it means to be fully human, I
would say that the Neanderthals are indeed fully human. Evidence shows that they made
art which is found in no other life other than human. They buried their dead and even made
headstones for the lost ones. This evidence without a doubt shows that the Neanderthals
had the capacity for symbolic behavior. This behavior directly links to humans and seems to
be the early signs of becoming human. On top of the behavior shown by the Neanderthals,
the physical anatomy is extremely similar to us with very small differences that were likely
as they were due to the environmental/lifestyle Neanderthals lived.

References
2009 Becoming Human. Part 1 WGBH Boston. Video on
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/ becoming-human-part-1.html
2009 Becoming Human. Part 2. WGBH Boston. Video on
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/ becoming-human-part-2.html
2009 Becoming Human. Part 3. WGBH Boston. Video on
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/ becoming-human-part-3.html
Smiley, Susan G.
2015 ANT 101: Humankind Emerging. An online web course taught Fall 2014 at Northern
Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ