• Question: would the early humans name each other

    Asked by anon-195245 to James, Ed on 7 Jan 2019.
    • Photo: Ed Morrison

      Ed Morrison answered on 7 Jan 2019:

      It weird to think how different human sub species considered each other when there were several. Did they consider them other animals? Or more like other races today?

      We do know that early humans like Neanderthals and Denisovans interbred. You can see their genetic sequences in modern people today. So I would guess that the different humans saw each other like we see different races today. They probably had names for them and perhaps considered them different but similar enough to breed with.

    • Photo: James Cole

      James Cole answered on 8 Jan 2019:

      This is an interesting question, as Edward explained previously, our human ancestors almost certainly would have had a strong sense similarity and difference between different human species which would be based on biological similarity as well as behavioural similarity. I would guess that once language develops within our human ancestors around 600-400 thousand years ago, they would start to formalise those similarities and differences with an identifier such as a name. Although what those names were we will never know, and they almost certainly would not match the names we call them today.

Comments