Neanderthals Among Us

Why are we so obsessed with a group of archaic humans who disappeared 40,000 years ago?

'A rich and thorough study of Neanderthals as they existed not in prehistory but in our modern imagination.' Angela Saini, author of Superior

Brutish ancestor or noble cousin, stupid ape-man or compassionate kinsman, vanquished species or relict survivor… Ever since the discovery of the first Neanderthal fossils in 1856, we have struggled to make sense of our Palaeolithic double, just as we have used them to reflect on ourselves. Neanderthals Among Us brings together an accessible history of how we have imagined Neanderthals, from scientific debates over human origins to representations of race, gender and prehistory in popular culture.

Drawing on a wide range of sources – including the medieval Wild Man figure, nineteenth-century racial science, museum reconstructions, horror films, science fiction, the rise and fall of the Neanderthal insult and genetic ancestry testing – Peter Sahlins’ original and compelling history of Neanderthals in the modern world makes us rethink what it means to be human – and different.