Singing Neanderthals

The articles on Neanderthals presented speculation about methods of communication between Neanderthals. With a lack of cognitive fluidity and a heavy facial structure speech was very unlikely but in place of speech they were able to create a large range of sound with perfect pitch in a “Hmmmm.” Although their advancement as a species was difficult without a vocabulary they were able to survive for a long period of time through their “singing” and most likely dancing. I found it fascinating that the Neanderthals could live a life that did not mechanically advance much farther than the way it started and stay in existence for such a long time. The article discusses the importance of communication in the development and rearing of offspring and the organization for group hunting. I believe that it would be possible for the Neanderthals to live and communicate through body language and singing because both dancing and singing are very emotional forms of communication and I think almost everything that needs to be communicated within a community can be represented through singing and dance. Also mentioned in the article is reliance on imitation for learning and carrying on methods of tool making. Since all of the tools looked exactly alike it would be easy to see that imitation is a large part of survival and even though they did not advance beyond where they started as a population, they could get by and survive on passing on methods that had worked for their peoples in the past. It seems that for the Neanderthals, speech was not necessary and they were just as capable with singing and dancing in place.