Reconstruction of the bust of Pierrette, a prehistoric woman, using the bones of the skull which were found on the site of Saint Césaire, Charente Maritime, May 26, 2005 -
NOSSANT JEAN MICHEL / SIPA
Accused Neanderthals.
Again.
The human cousin of our species Homo Sapiens, which has trod our soil for about 400,000 to 35,000 years, has long been considered a rough and brutal ape-like hominid.
With the Covid-19 pandemic, here he is again on the dock: people carrying a segment of his DNA are at greater risk of severe complications from the disease, according to a study published in
Nature
.
To consider Neanderthals as inferior, only worthy of the oblivion of history is a mistake, affirms Marylène Patou-Mathis.
This prehistorian, research director at the CNRS attached to the Prehistory department of the National Museum of Natural History, is a specialist in the behavior of Neanderthals and the first modern humans.
In this episode, we deconstruct several historical clichés, including this hierarchy of hominids for a long time in the scientific world.
Another cliché to deconstruct: consider Neanderthals and prehistoric men… Only as men.
They are also women!
And "these prehistoric women did not spend all their time sweeping the cave and looking after the children while waiting for the men to come back from hunting," according to Marylène Patou-Mathis.
Neanderthal was (also) a hunter of large mammals, craftswoman, builder, explorer of forms of symbolic expression ...
Marylène Patou-Mathis, who published
Who Was Neanderthal?
(Bayard edition, 12.90 euros), out
the essay
The prehistoric man is also a woman
(Allary editions, 21.90 euros), is the guest of this episode of Minute Papillon !, the news podcast of
20 Minutes
.
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