Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The vexata quaestio of Neanderthals’ cognitive capacity in comparison with anatomically modern humans – and the role this may have played in their demise as a separate species – has attracted extensive attention in archaeological studies of the past half-century. In contrast, other aspects of Neanderthal life and thought have received far less interest. Following an initial review of cognitive aspects and their ramifications, necessary to clarify the author’s opinion on this debated matter, the paper attempts to expand the horizon and break this ‘cognitive circle’ by examining Neanderthal ways of being-in-the-world, based on the available archaeological record and selected theoretical approaches in anthropology from a comparative perspective.
DOI: 10.54799/kpox9368
Author: Gianpiero Di Maida
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: G1313360653, G541157068
OpenAlex ID: W4414244569