Culture of Science

Assignment #2: Neanderthal Essay Guidelines
The research essay is due March 19th
. It should be written in essay form and be about
8-10 pages, double-spaced. The Essay is worth 35% of your final mark.
Hypothetical extinct creature halfway in the evolutionary line between modern human beings and their anthropoid progenitors (i.e., Missing
Link
Modern Human
Neanderthal
?
Illustration #1 – A phylogenetic tree for human ancestry (late 19th and early 20th centuries)
Australopithecus
africanus
Homo Sapien
Neanderthal
Homo Habilis
Homo Erectus
Illustration #2 – A phylogenetic tree for human ancestry (mid- to late-20th century)
Leeming / Culture of Science/ HUMN 2006 / Neanderthal Essay / 2021
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Australopithecus
africanus
Homo Sapien Neanderthal
Homo Habilis
Homo Erectus
Illustration #3 – A phylogenetic tree for human ancestry (late-20th to early 21st centuries)
There are three illustrations above. The first shows a phylogenic tree to represent the ancestry of Modern
Humans and Neanderthals from a hypothetical extinct creature halfway in the evolutionary line between
modern human beings and their anthropoid progenitors, i.e., a “Missing Link,” that was commonly used
during the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century. The second shows a phylogenic
tree to represent the ancestry of Homo Sapiens from Australopithecus africanus that was commonly used
during the mid- to late twentieth century. The third shows a phylogenic tree to represent the ancestry of
Homo Sapiens from Australopithecus africanus that was commonly used during the late-twentieth and early
twenty-first centuries. Placed side by side, the three phylogenic trees represent what Kuhn called “puzzling”
towards solving ongoing questions concerning the evolutionary descent of humans beings.
A phylogenetic tree is a branching diagram showing the evolutionary relationships among various taxa (i.e.,
groups to which organisms are classified, including species, based upon similarities and differences in their
physical and/or genetic characteristics). According to the theory of evolution, the taxa join together in the
tree, having descended and branched out from a common ancestor. The three illustrations above show
paradigmatic shifts in the evolutionary relationship between various taxa of human ancestry change over
the 19th and 20th centuries and changing theoretical conceptions about the “humanness” and “inhumanity”
of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens. The anthropologist Paul Graves (1991) said: “Palaeontologists of the
19th and early 20th centuries tended to regard all fossil hominids as representatives of side branches of the
“true” human stock. To an extent this analysis resulted from the paucity of fossil material and the lack of
accurate dating. Yet it was also part of a wider tendency to push back the origin of a distinctly human
Leeming / Culture of Science/ HUMN 2006 / Neanderthal Essay / 2021
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lineage to a comfortable distance…”. The archaeologist Julia Drell later (2000) further explained: There
were “three broad tendencies within Neanderthal [phylogenic tree] reconstructions: following the expulsion
of Neanderthals from ‘humanity’ in the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, the 1950s
are characterized by a shift in this perception. From then, Neanderthals appear as essentially human
creatures trapped in archaic bodies.”
For this assignment, you will write an essay that uses Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions to investigate
how scientific theories about Neanderthals changed from (1) thinking about Neanderthals as a distinct
species from Homo Sapiens to (2) treating Neanderthals as links between earlier and later hominids
represented on the phylogenic tree to (3) considering Neanderthals as interspecies relatives that co-existed
with Homo Sapiens.
For the essay itself, you will use articles available on CANVAS, under the Course Reserves tab, to track
changes in evidence leading to changes in the scientific theories about the evolutionary relationship
between Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens over the course of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Start by comparing and contrasting articles by Marianne Sommer (“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”) and Julia
Drell (“Neanderthals: A history of interpretation”). Pay special attention to, first, new fossil finds and other
evidence that supported new theories about the evolutionary relationship between Neanderthals and Homo
Sapiens and, second, the special relationship between science, journalism and illustration in gaining
support for the new theories. Then, using the article by Kelley Harris and Rasmus Nielsen (“Where did the
Neanderthals go?”), explain how DNA evidence was used in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries to move the science involved from paradigm crisis to scientific revolution. Finally, draw
conclusions about why Neanderthals have been regarded as “non-human” and “human” or over time. All
references to articles should be cited in the essay and the articles listed in a “References” Section. No
additional references should be necessary.