I think this post is really misleading as someone who works on the topic.
The clearest example: you write that the Sexual Selection hypothesis predicts that the evolution of these traits occurred after the split between humans and neanderthals, but you provide no evidence for this. Later you mention that Richard Alexander proposed a hypothesis in which sexual selection happened after the split, but this is just one specific instantiation of the broader hypothesis. The sexual selection hypothesis alone, at least as you present it here, does not predict this at all. Sexual selection before the human to neanderthal split is just as possible!
I have similar qualms about most of the other hypotheses. You do not explain why you think they predict what you say they predict. Since your whole study is theoretically based on these predictions, this feels confusing.
However, I do appreciate you bringing attention to this truly interesting question!
I think this post is really misleading as someone who works on the topic.
The clearest example: you write that the Sexual Selection hypothesis predicts that the evolution of these traits occurred after the split between humans and neanderthals, but you provide no evidence for this. Later you mention that Richard Alexander proposed a hypothesis in which sexual selection happened after the split, but this is just one specific instantiation of the broader hypothesis. The sexual selection hypothesis alone, at least as you present it here, does not predict this at all. Sexual selection before the human to neanderthal split is just as possible!
I have similar qualms about most of the other hypotheses. You do not explain why you think they predict what you say they predict. Since your whole study is theoretically based on these predictions, this feels confusing.
However, I do appreciate you bringing attention to this truly interesting question!