We don't know a lot about what kind of social groupings Neanderthals lived in...and we don't want to assume that they were like ours. Like any of ours. Neanderthals, like humans, may well have varied.
But the remains of 11 Neanderthals in the Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai Mountains proved to be closely related, indicating that they were part of an extended family or clan that lived in that area. They even found a father and daughter (likely indicating that the father lived with or near his mate). The circumstances show that the 11 people were likely killed in some kind of disaster or freak weather. As this is Siberia, a blizzard is a reasonable suspect.
The pattern also showed that at least these Neanderthals were patrilocal, that is women moved in with their husbands in most cases not the other way around.
Of course, this is one group and likely reflects only Siberian Neanderthals. Again, we arrange things differently in many places, so likely they did too.
No comments:
Post a Comment