Chapter 12: The Madness Gene

    We begin chapter 12 in a valley located in Germany called Das Neandertal. Kolbert speaks about the first Neanderthal remains found from the 19th century. After extensive observation and studies, it was found that neanderthals thrived off hunting animals, skinning them for clothes and using bones as weapons. Neanderthals are said to bare heavy resemblance to humans but appear to have a slouch and a large abundance of hair. The resemblance to humans was also proved as many people have a large amount of DNA comparison. After a large comparison, many began to question what makes someone human. Due to this, Kolbert later dives deeper into the factors that differentiate a human from other species, for example, the main variable is intelligence and communicating to solve problems. Scientist, she met at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Svante Paabo states that Neanderthals lacked certain qualities such as ambition. Ambition is a quality humans have that allow us to progress and strive for more than just basic needs. He also explains how other species similar to humans, such as Denisovans, died out due to their low reproduction rates. He takes it further when he brings other human resembling species such as apes might become extinct because of their reproduction rates. Throughout the end of the chapter, Kolbert visits France and sees where the neanderthal's remains are stored and displayed. She believes that if humans were not present the neanderthals would still be alive today. This is shown when it states, “In recent decades, it’s become increasingly clear that the Neanderthals; went the way of the Megatherium, the American mastodon, and the many other unfortunate megafaunas. In other words, as one researcher put it to me, “their bad luck was us” (pg. 237). (C) I relate this back to Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest and social Darwinism. Human’s ambition and intelligence allowed us to be the superior species which in return led to the downfall of the neanderthal. (Q) I wish I could be able to see an actual neanderthal, if they were still alive today would they have adapted into closer human characteristics like Jean-Baptiste believes.