A review by senholto
Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes

3.0

Rebecca has provided an interesting read. Full of speculations to be sure, draped around the meagerest of evidence. The authors discussion of why Homo neanderthalensis became extinct was noticeably absent, despite an indepth examination of the latest appearances of the species. The book was driven more by #AllNeandertalsMatter than by a dispassionate examination of the evidence. The discussion of the Chatelperronian was the highlight of this book for me, along with the discussion of the mousterian. The book does have value, but it would take an experienced palaeoanthropology student to see how the author massages some of the evidence to fit their preferred conclusions. The discussion of "Neanderthal art" was particularly bad. At times the author had to throw a few depricating darts at Homo sapiens to make Homo neanderthalensis seem more cultured. The "Art" of Homo neanderthalensis is questionable at best. One particularly agregious moment was the authors reference to the Schoningen site as a "Neandertal site". No hominin remains have been found in Schoningen, but the author is not going to Iet that get in her way. I suspect that I was not the intended audience of this book, but the opening paragraphs of each chapter was pointless poetic filler. Dropping these could have substantially shortened the book. The final moments of the last chapter were cringeworthy. Overall, a interesting book drenched in unnecessary flowery prose and flaws galore.