One of my favorite ways that Sykes does this is her introduction to each chapter, poetically written scenes that force you to see Neanderthals as alive, active, and warm, not long-dead fossils found among rubble. She wants you to be able to picture yourself there with them, knapping a tool from flint, hunting horses, or sleeping around the fire, tucked in furs. She wants to help you shed your idea of them as wholly other and instead see them as capable, thinking people worthy of our admiration.
Sykes does not only want to bestow you with facts about Neanderthal migration or tool-making techniques. What sets Kindred apart from its predecessors is that it is told not through the lens of discoveries, names, and numbers, but of emotionally understanding who Neanderthals were. Published in the fall of 2020, Kindred is the latest in a long line of books about Neanderthals, but anyone who has read Kindred knows that it is not like the others. Our perception of the Neanderthal has changed dramatically, but despite growing scientific curiosity, popular culture fascination, and a wealth of coverage in the media and beyond are we getting the whole story? The reality of 21st century Neanderthals is complex and fascinating, yet remains virtually unknown and inaccessible outside the scientific literature.īased on the author's first-hand experience at the cutting-edge of Palaeolithic research and theory, this easy-to-read but information-rich book lays out the first full picture we have of the Neanderthals, from amazing new discoveries changing our view of them forever, to the more enduring mysteries of how they lived and died, and the biggest question of them all: their relationship with modern humans.If a book can be “hot” in the world of paleoanthropology, then Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art is that book. Since their discovery 150 years ago, Neanderthals have gone from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins.
This book sheds new light on where they lived, what they ate, and the increasingly complex Neanderthal culture that researchers have discovered. In Kindred, Neanderthal expert Rebecca Wragg Sykes shoves aside the cliché of the shivering ragged figure in an icy wasteland, and reveals the Neanderthal you don't know, our ancestor who lived across vast and diverse tracts of Eurasia and survived through hundreds of thousands of years of massive climate change. " bold and magnificent attempt to resurrect our Neanderthal kin."- The Wall Street Journal "Kindred is important reading not just for anyone interested in these ancient cousins of ours, but also for anyone interested in humanity."- The New York Times Book Review
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