Neanderthal Republics?

 On today's edition of the CBC Radio One's distinguished Quirks and Quarks, a science show, the guest was talking about Neanderthal hunting techniques.  I am writing this from memory, so excuse the lack of detail, including the name of the interviewee, a German-Australian archaeologist based in Perth.

This fellow was talking about Neanderthals and hunting, in particular the hunting of 30-ton "super-elephants".  He and his colleagues were impressed by the fact that the butchering techniques evident fro the cuts on the elephant bones are the same as the cuts made today.  In other words, this was a developed technology, not some fluke.

This has implications for the social history of humanity.  These Neanderthals had to be organized to successfully kill the super-elephants, and especially to dispose of the elephant meat before it rotted.  Were elephant hunts large impermanent republics?  Or armies organized around would-be Napoleons?  One undeveloped idea is to compare the elephant hunts to the buffalo hunts of 19th century North America.  Phil Paine has written interestingly on the Metis, a "national" group formed from disparate elements to meet the social and political challenges of the Prairies in the 19th century.  I will see if I can find a linkable copy for this article.

I've given up thinking of Neanderthals as "primitive."

Political hunting:"Fabulous beasts can only be slain by fabulous humans."

At the Kalamazoo Medieval Congress I snatched up at a very reasonable price the single display copy of Thomas T. Alllsen's The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History.

My interest was simple. I had noticed in my recent teaching of ancient history that monarchs of nearly every culture we touched on were routinely depicted as mighty hunters. I got into the habit of telling my students "here is so-and-so as Gilgamesh," referring to one of the earliest examples of such depiction. Similarly, in teaching world history I was fascinated by all the pictures left by North Indian and Central Asian monarchs of their hunting exploits and what looked like huge picnics.

I finally had some time today to look at Allsen's book and I'm glad bought it. It is an elegantly written, wide-ranging exploration of how hunting, a practical and high prestige activity through most of history, has also served as a symbol of royal control over nature, and the strength and accomplishment of monarchs. I look forward to having a chance to read it thoroughly.

The environmental historian joining our department in the fall, Dean Bavington, has worked on fishing as hunting versus fishing as modern managed economic activity. I wonder if he'd like to have this book in our collection when he gets here?