What if there are two or three human species today?

[seneschal]

Neanderthals almost survived as a species if only their birthrate were slightly higher than they were. In Asia, a third hominid species called Denisovans who were closely related to Neanderthals survived longer, as recently as 15,000 years.
With that said how different would human history be today if the Neanderthals or Denisovans had survived from the brink of extinction? Their numbers need not be the same as Cro Magnon man or rival their population, but just enough for the species to contunue today. Would they have their own nation? Their own state? Or would they be a minority within homo-sapien dominated societies relegated to living in reservations? Most of these populations of homo-neanderthalensis would be located in Europe and Western Asia, but some, provided Columbus still sails to the New World, would probably migrate to the Americas. Imagine some of Columbus's crew being Neanderthals. Of course I doubt there would have been a Columbus to begin with because the history of the human species would unfold very differently.
How different do you think human society and culture would be if we had continued to coexist with another human species to the present day?

 

[sparky]

Nope , homo Sapiens Sapiens is remarkable for its murderous exterminations
always was , always will be

 

[stevev]

Nope , homo Sapiens Sapiens is remarkable for its murderous exterminations
always was , always will be

Agree. However they could have possibly survived in remote locations until quite recently. Once found however they would likely succumb to disease at least. It would still probably provide more information about our common origins. Our knowledge of genus Homo is still full of holes such as the existence of Homo heidelbergus and the relation between it and both Neanderthals and modern humans.

 

[sparky]

there is actually a pre-sapiens homo who survived by mixing his ( male line ) gene into the Sapiens sapiens gene pool

Albert and Adam rewrite the story of human origins

morality..... make children not war !

 

[sailorsam]

Nope , homo Sapiens Sapiens is remarkable for its murderous exterminations
always was , always will be

you call it 'extermination'
Darwin called it 'survival of the fittest'
as I unnerstand it Neanderthal/Denisovian dna survives in us today.
sad fact is many Europeans viewed Indians, Aborigines etc as essentially inferior subspecies. I suspect Neanderthals/Denisovians would have been treated the same. hopefully we would have allowed them to survive!
if they were smart they would have stayed in remote hills, marshes etc.

perhaps the Red Clay settlement could serve as an indication. back in the day the Cherokee were allowed to keep a section of Tennessee. they had their own villages and government and their own subculture. unfortunately Andrew Jackson (Hateful Bigot) shut them down and forced them out to Oklahoma (Trail of Tears).
sad legacy of humanity, we never seem to get along with the different.

 

[seneschal]

 

[Haakbus]

There already are: history nerds and everyone else.

 

[Naomasa298]

you call it 'extermination'
Darwin called it 'survival of the fittest'

No, he didn't. Darwin was not postulating that one species survived by deliberately wiping out another.

"Survival of the fittest" simply means that an organism able to reproduce is a fit organism. It does not mean the suppression of other organisms, much less their deliberate destruction. It's an often misunderstood term.

 

[Haakbus]

No, he didn't. Darwin was not postulating that one species survived by deliberately wiping out another.

"Survival of the fittest" simply means that an organism able to reproduce is a fit organism. It does not mean the suppression of other organisms, much less their deliberate destruction. It's an often misunderstood term.

Social darwinists reinterpreted that using the is-ought fallacy and simplified it to be outright domination, not just outcompeting.

 

[seneschal]

Nope , homo Sapiens Sapiens is remarkable for its murderous exterminations
always was , always will be

Except that there is no evidence of systematic extermination by homo-sapiens of Neanderthals. Most of the time they avoided each other, sometimes interbreeding. Infact there is more evidence for interbreeding than extermination, In Asia, the ancestors of modern Asians interbred with Neanderthals longer which is why East Asians today have 20% more Neanderthal DNA than Europeans.

Joshua M. Akey, a University of Washington geneticist and graduate student Benjamin Vernot have proposed that the reason for the anomaly is that Asians inherited extra Neanderthal DNA at a later date. Their hypothesis is that the ancestors of Asians and Europeans parted, with the early Asians travelling East where they had a second encounter with Neanderthals: Why Asians carry more Neanderthal DNA than others | Cosmos