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Seven Ages of Man - Thomas Keightley - Why did the Ancestors 'fail' or cease to thrive?
Identifier
021750
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
It is fairly clear that Neanderthals and their predecessors did not want to compete with their more aggressive competitors.
They were not well organised. They had not formed alliances with one another, or grouped to form
stronger knit communities capable of using numbers as their strength as opposed to aggression. If aggression is not the desired strategy, you need alliances and numeric strength and politics to oppose an aggressor that wants your resources. The Neanderthals appear to have none of these things. All myths describe them as rather retiring, gentle and shy.
Neanderthals appear to us now to be an almost perfect race of beings, kind generous, unselfish and hard working, with none of the unpleasant characteristics of homo sapiens. Not exactly good looking of course, but then they probably appeared good looking to each other.
If we look at this in the context of the objectives of creation, Neanderthals were a good test to see if reasoning rational intelligent man could survive as a species, but long term they were never going to ‘progress’. They were not that bothered about creating material possessions or empires, they did not form aggregates to increase power and function, they responded badly to any competition – they neither defended attacked or formed alliances. Furthermore they did not increase their numbers that much, happy to keep the numbers down and live in small family groups or communities, a Neanderthal community only met its neighbours when it needed to find partners for its children who were from a different family grouping. So as an increment in man’s evolution, Neanderthals were an intriguing, apparently likeable maybe even lovable intermediate step, but were clearly not the intended final solution as far as man was concerned
But there is one perhaps important rider to all this. We cannot be at all sure they have actually gone. A number of legends and myths tell of inter-marriage between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. The accusations of wife stealing, were probably as much prompted by their inability to comprehend the concept of ownership, as their probable attractiveness to women who had to cope with the egotistical possessiveness of the average homo sapien male at the time. Many of the women wanted to marry the dwarfs – kind, hard working, generous what more could you want?
A description of the experience
Grimm's Deutsche Sagen Source Thomas Keightley - The Dwarf Husband'
A poor girl went out one day and as she was passing by a hill she heard a Dwarf hammering away inside it, for they are handy smiths, and singing at his work. She was so pleased with the song, that she could not refrain from wishing aloud that she could sing like him and live like him under the ground. Scarcely had she expressed the wish when the singing ceased and a voice came out of the hill saying
'Should you like to live with us?'
'To be sure I should' replied the girl, who probably had no happy life of it above ground
Instantly the dwarf came out of the hill and made a declaration of love and a profer of his hand and a share in his subterranean wealth. She accepted the offer and lived very comfortably with him, as he proved an excellent little husband
And it wasn't always the women that wanted to marry the Dwarf men, sometimes it appears to have been the other way round ….
Ecclesiastical History of Iceland by Finnus Johannaeus source: Thomas Keightley
“They sometimes invite men home and take especial delight in the converse of the Christians, some of whom have had intercourse with their daughters and sisters, who are no less wanton than beautiful, and have had children by them.....”