http://www.themandus.org/

Kardoorair Press is proud to present Them and Us by Danny Vendramini, the most revolutionary idea in human evolution since The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin.

Put aside everything you thought you knew about being human - about how we got here and what it all means. Australian theoretical biologist Danny Vendramini has developed a theory of human origins that is stunning in its simplicity, yet breathtaking in its scope and importance.

Them and Us: how Neanderthal predation created modern humans begins with a radical reassessment of Neanderthals. He shows they weren’t docile omnivores, but savage, cannibalistic carnivores - top flight predators of the stone age.

Neanderthal Predation (NP) theory reveals that Neanderthals were ‘apex’ predators - who resided at the top of the food chain, and everything else - including humans - was their prey.

NP theory is one of those groundbreaking ideas that revolutionizes scientific thinking. It represents a quantum leap in our understanding of human origins.

neanderthal predation theory
According to NP theory, Eurasian Neanderthals hunted, killed and cannibalised early humans for 50,000 years in an area of the Middle East known as the Mediterranean Levant (see map, right).

Because the two species were sexually compatible, Eurasian Neanderthals also abducted and raped human females.

Them and Us cites archaeological and genetic evidence to show that this prolonged period of cannibalistic and sexual predation began about 100,000 years ago and that by 50,000 years ago, the human population in the Levant was reduced to as few as 50 individuals. Neanderthal predation generated the selection pressure that transformed the tiny survivor population of early humans into modern humans. This Levantine group became the founding population of all humans living today.

NP theory argues that modern human physiology, sexuality, aggression, propensity for inter-group violence and human nature all emerged as a direct consequence of systematic long-term dietary and sexual predation by Eurasian Neanderthals.

NP theory resolves the last great mysteries of humanity - how, why, when and where we became human beings. As such it is a candidate for the biggest shake-up in evolutionary theory since Darwin.

“Danny Vendramini presents a truly unique and innovative picture of the role of Neandertal predation in human evolution… Vendramini pulls together countless different threads of scientific evidence to re-cast Neanderthals as “apex predators”, proverbial “wolves with knives” who were effective rivals with our ancestors….  It has been a long time since I read a book about human evolution that I enjoyed so much.”

Associate Professor John J. Shea
Anthropology Department & Turkana Basin Institute
Stony Brook University, New York

Ooooh, nothing is such a good old, dehumanizing stereotype as the canniballistic rapist…...

* bangs head on desk *

* feels a bit ashamed of his colleagues that seem to laud this theory *

Come on guys! Get real!  - very big sigh -

Sounds like the guy is trying to put a new spin on the killer ape theory.

And I was just getting used to music playing Neanderthals who buried their dead with flowers.

darn

Ok we are fogetting that war is hell. homo sapiens sapiens (wise wise man) does not commit rape (ask those who survivied bosnia or Ms. Dugard), We do not murder for no reason (Jack the ripper or the Green river Killer).  In the wars to survive and the battle to survive (whatever your reason may be religon or…) homo sapiens do things that are irrehensible(sp I know bad speller). If we followed the tenets that a lot of the sacred texts tell us to we would not be this way. I know a lot of people are mentally ill and these people need to be treated or if need confined and treated. We cannot claim any evolutionary advantage

Exactly. The evidence for cannibalism among our own species Homo sapiens is a magnitude larger than that for Homo neanderthalensis, the Neandertal. Yes, both species did occasionally behave cannibalistic. Moula-Guercy gives good evidence for Neandertal cannibalism (but is one out of 3 of such possible cases only). But both archaeology and historic accounts are riddled with evidence of cannibalism by our own species.

The “reconstructions” on that webpage are a joke. They are a cheap knock-off of this century-old drawing :
http://cndls.georgetown.edu/applications/posterTool/data/users/Boule Neanderthal.jpg

Frankly, I cannot believe that people like Shea and Davidson would really endorse this view. I’ll have to look up what they wrote on the book, as I suspect it might be very selective quoting….

Okay, I am starting more and more to believe that this is a hoax or some kind of social experiment.

There is a bit too much reference to known stereotypes in this all.

I also have been searching for the origin of the favourable quote, apparently from a review, attributed to the journal Current Anthropology (a well known scientific journal), but can’t find it anywhere in that journal’s content. In fact, I haven’t been able to locate any review in any journal so far.

In that case I can only say:
“Leave those Neanderthals alone…!!”
[/hysterics]

50 individuals? In most mammalian species a population of 1000-2000 is needed to avoid the gene pool being totally messed up. Incest would have killed us all off.

eovti - 17 September 2009 08:26 AM

50 individuals? In most mammalian species a population of 1000-2000 is needed to avoid the gene pool being totally messed up. Incest would have killed us all off.

Never heard of bible belts?

LaMa - 17 September 2009 04:02 AM

Okay, I am starting more and more to believe that this is a hoax or some kind of social experiment.

There is a bit too much reference to known stereotypes in this all.

I also have been searching for the origin of the favourable quote, apparently from a review, attributed to the journal Current Anthropology (a well known scientific journal), but can’t find it anywhere in that journal’s content. In fact, I haven’t been able to locate any review in any journal so far.

Inspector LaMa is on the case!  Hurrah! 

What I’m wondering is how come the fifty individuals who survived in the Middle East are supposed to be our common ancestors.  What about all the thousands of Homo sapiens who were living elsewhere?  Did they just all suddenly decide that heterosexuality was old-fashioned and stop breeding, thus leaving the fifty in the Middle East to carry on the species?

eovti - 17 September 2009 08:26 AM

50 individuals? In most mammalian species a population of 1000-2000 is needed to avoid the gene pool being totally messed up. Incest would have killed us all off.

The general rule (not accepted by everyone, of course) is that you need at least 50 individuals for short term population survival, 500 for long term.

Have any of you people actually read Danny Vendramini’s book Them + Us: how Neanderthal predation created modern humans, or have you simply relied on a journo’s interpretation of the news release? If not, I suggest you go to his web site, http://www.themandus.org, order a copy, read it, think about it, and then perhaps consider an informed response. While his NP Theory might well make you a little uncomfortable about our possible origins, it might also enable you to better understand some of his assertions. For example, an explanation of how we - the glorious human race - became the most efficient killing machines in the history of the world. Or why we worry about what might be following us in the dark. I’ve actually read the book and, without making any extravagant claims about its credibility, I can say Vendramini’s theory provides a great deal of food for thought. Better - by far - than the Bible. And far more credible. Once you too have read it (and the science based evidence he offers to support his theory), you might feel better qualified to offer comment. At least then you might have some idea of what you are talking about.