Un-Civilizing America

Chapter 1In the Beginning

… For I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

—Matthew 25:42–43¹

In April 2017 came news of the discovery in Morocco of a long‐lost cousin. This was not the first, but the fifth relative to show up in the last few years. The human family, it turned out, is much bigger … and much older … than we had thought previously. The new findings are possibly 300,000 years old—about 100,000 years older than the oldest as‐yet‐discovered “human.”

At the end of the previous century, people still believed the simple “out of Africa” story. Its hero was a single species of human … perhaps descended from a single mutant. The Homo sapiens tribe survived and spread all over the world, adapting to local conditions as necessary. At least the story was easy to remember.

But it wasn't true. In the last few years, anthropologists have identified several other human species. The first, already well known, was Homo neanderthalensis, presumed to be our closest relative. There are enough bones around, so we have a pretty good idea what he looked like—heavier than modern humans, perhaps smarter, and often depicted with red hair.

The surprise came when scientists traced a small percentage of the modern human genome to these Neanderthal ancestors. Europeans and Asians, but not Africans, all have a Neanderthal swinging from their ...