Sunday, October 14, 2012

Neanderthals More Human Than We Perceived

In recent news, National Geographic posted an article online titled "Neanderthals... They're Just Like Us?" Apparently there is more DNA evidence that proves that traces of Neanderthal DNA is present  in modern-day humans.

Neanderthals have been perceived as being unintelligent cavemen with unibrows, hairy bodies and protruding jaws for a long time. It is generally accepted that present-day humans are not descendants of Neanderthals. These beliefs are being questioned now because of new DNA evidence.

To show the possible "human-ness" of Neanderthals, National Geographic conveniently include a photo of "Wilma," a DNA-based reconstruction of a Neanderthal in the article. Wilma is a redhead with freckles and fair skin. Today, people would call her a ginger or a redhead. 


Although she is portrayed as dirty and sad or unhappy, she has a very human face that people can connect with. It is much easier to see her as being a modern-day human than previous photos of stereotypical Neanderthals who look hairier, dirtier, and more wild (refer to photo below from the BBC). In the reconstruction, Wilma shows human emotion and they show her as having dirt on her face and in her hair. But, if she were cleaned up and smiled, it would be even easier to pass her off as a modern human. Her human-ness would not be questioned at all.

This article just shows that when they need or want to, the news uses photos that help tell their story. You cannot always trust what you see in their photographs (and in the articles) because they have manipulated it to tell you what they want you to think and take away from the article. If this had been an article about something different, like how another Neanderthal skeleton or weapon had been found, the news would present us with a picture of a stereotypical Neanderthal. It would confuse us to see such a human Neanderthal in just any random article. But it would get readers' attention since the typical Neanderthal looks more like the one from the BBC photo.

The man from the BBC photo has physical features that are more pronounced. The lips are big and protrude away from his face, he has a unibrow, unkept hair, and an angry or mean facial expression. Even his clothes look harsher and more animalistic. Wilma has on soft brown cloth whereas he is wearing animal hide and fur. He looks more like a relative of the primate family than the Homo sapiens family.

In further analysis of the photo, I actually found that National Geographic actually recycled the photo of Wilma because she fits the more human side of Neanderthals. Wilma was originally created by National Geographic in an article from 2008 as the first model created by findings from a Neanderthal. They analyzed DNA from the bones to figure out what she should look like.

It is curious how the topic of Neanderthals looking more human is not a new concept, but four years later, National Geographic  is discussing it again and showing the same exact picture of Wilma. In fact, there is a amount of recycling of this image, which is about four years old.

This just further emphasizes that had it not been an article about how human Neanderthals actually are, the second image, from the BBC, would have been used instead of this one of Wilma. Editors pick photos to be published that help complete a story. A picture is not picked without great thought and careful consideration for its value to the telling of a story.

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