I wasn’t doubtful about interbreeding—that is all over the news. I was doubtful about interbreeding being the cause of the cultural explosion. Like I said, no evidence. In fact, contrary evidence, since Neanderthals were largely a European phenomenon.
You have a point about the cultural explosion, though. Africans don’t seem to be less cultural than non-Africans, despite the fact that they don’t seem to have any links to Neanderthals. It occurs to me that this lack of a link, after all this time, exemplifies how slow gene sweep is in a population as numerous, long-lived, and spread out as humanity.
Actually, there is genetic evidence now.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100506141549.htm
There are genes lacked by Africans that are shared by Neanderthals and non-Africans. Interbreeding seems the most likely explanation for this pattern.
I wasn’t doubtful about interbreeding—that is all over the news. I was doubtful about interbreeding being the cause of the cultural explosion. Like I said, no evidence. In fact, contrary evidence, since Neanderthals were largely a European phenomenon.
Neanderthals were also in the Near East.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Neanderthal_sites
You have a point about the cultural explosion, though. Africans don’t seem to be less cultural than non-Africans, despite the fact that they don’t seem to have any links to Neanderthals. It occurs to me that this lack of a link, after all this time, exemplifies how slow gene sweep is in a population as numerous, long-lived, and spread out as humanity.