#neanderthal predation theory

[visions-of-our-past]

Pages 3-12 of Gary McClusky's adaptation of Robert E. Howard's first published story Spear and Fang (1925). Needless to say, Howard's portrayal of the neanderthal is a bit out of date (despite what Danny Vendramni would like to believe), but McClusky has faithfully reproduced it for the sake of the story. It honestly looks more like a Gigantopithecus to me, which is a better fit for the apparently tropical setting anyway.

[visions-of-our-past]

We don't "realize neanderthals were just brutal savage destroyers of human lives." The neanderthal predation theory is fringe pseudoscience only taken seriously by white supremacists for obvious reasons.

Humans vs Superhumans | When Monsters Were Real and We Almost Went Extinct

rethinking, re-imagining, revisiting our conceptions of ancient hominids

…Tolkien was less of a fiction writer than you might think, a great writer indeed but so much of it is actually based on stories mirrored by recent scientific discoveries…

and yet also the skin coloration critique remains like, why is it that when we thought neanderthals were like, these gentle giants we depicted them as whiteys, now that we realize neanderthals were just brutal savage destroyers of human lives and hunted humans we’re going to let AI depict neanderthals as dark skinned now? blind spot alert … 

like fully decoding the fact that neanderthals were pale skinned beasts, quite aggressive compared to humans… does this explain a lot of why honky caucasians seem to be more aggressive generally?… 

I have heard of the “Dravidian Albino” explanation hypothesis for white people, bu problem is, even if you have two Dravidian albinos making babies, three out of four of those babies are going to be dark skinned. It’s a really recessive trait. 

I can definitely say I have the “Neanderthal bump,” or aka the occipital pad, the back-of-head knob that allows my weirdly huge part-neanderthal-mostly-human brain to sit on top of my otherwise-normal human shaped and sized body… I mean I definitely have a larger head than most people. I’m a freak and I’ve had to live with it lol I look like an alien… but still had also my cousin do a DNA test and sure enough we’re a few percent Neanderthal. So while some humans do have the occipital pad, all Neanderthals did, and I’m one human with an occipital pad / neanderthal bump with also the verified neanderthal DNA… does eating meat really drive you crazy like this, into a violent mad being? 

[dr-abigail-richelieu]

Vampires were an extinct human subspecies, discovered and then de-extinct through morally questionable genetic engineering research in the year 1981 by The Genomic Innovation Institute (or G.I.I) in an attempt at finding cures for some neurological disorders through gene therapy and tweaked retroviruses. Thanks to these… Morally questionable experiments, It was discovered that some specific dormant genes were extremely widely spread throughout the population and that these genes could be reactivated in some individuals. In certain cases some of these genes express spontaneously. This gave rise to the theory that some neurological disorders could at least partly arise from the expression of these genes albeit in a very “broken” and rudimentary form. Essentially the treatments to cure certain types of neurological disorders turned out to activate some of these dormant genes, essentially turning the test subjects into what we now call a Vampire. The Genomic Innovation Institute decided to pursue research on this subspecies, hoping to turn a profit. Thanks to them, we now have a complex understanding of Vampires…

They were humanity's natural predator, emerging between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago, around the same time as Homo sapiens, or at least shortly after. They hunted our ancestors with brutal efficiency, to the point that even though we eventually forgot about them (before bringing them back from extinction), they remained engraved in our cultural memory. For lack of better words, they were the things we feared were in the dark.

It's difficult to identify ancient vampire remains, as their identifying traits are primarily neurological and soft tissue-related. However, their skeletal structure does have some minor differences, which allow for identification now that we know what to look for. It seems that vampires began going extinct around 2000 BCE, with their population drastically reducing as civilization emerged. Their extinction was due to more than one factor. 

-Vampires were extremely antisocial, which makes sense for a predatory species whose prey resembled it that much. This however did complicate mating between vampires because vampires didn't just tend to ignore each other but would see other vampires as threats and would often attempt to dispatch each other upon contact. Since sexual dimorphism is quite lacking in Vampires, which not only resulted in both of the sexes looking very androgynous, it also meant that both Male and Female had essentially the same musculature and strength and general ferocity, sexual coercion would have most likely resulted in one or both of the party's demise or heavy maiming, rendering it extremely inefficient. Plus, vampires seemed to generally be very uninterested in copulation, though it did happen from time to time. Strangely enough all of this seemed to have made the idea of mating with humans more appealing for some Vampires which is why like with Homo Neanderthal, Vampiric DNA can be found in modern day humans. (The mating behaviours of Vampires will be discussed more thoroughly in another chapter)

-The Emergency of euclidean architecture seemed to have greatly affected vampires. We discovered that in their eyes, the receptor cells that respond to horizontal lines are cross wired with those that respond to vertical ones. When both are fired simultaneously in a specific way it'll result in quite a violent seizure. We call the effect “The Crucifix Glitch”. While the glitch will only trigger when intersecting right angles occupy more than 30° of visual arc, we discovered, thanks to our currents subjects, that the simple suggestion of the Crucifix Glitch being triggered is enough in 75% of cases to completely dissuade an attack, if they had been exposed to it previously (depending on the vampire's current emotional state). These seizure are quite violent, reminiscent of Tonic-Clonic seizures, but because of the vampire's particular muscular structure and their higher distribution of fast twitch muscle fibers, these seizures tend to result in dislocated limbs much more often than regular seizure. Plus, with the Vampire's unique neurochemistry, we suspect that the seizures are much more distressing for them. In conclusion, the seizures caused by the Crucifix Glitch are extremely traumatizing and painful for vampires to the point that any right angles, even if not in a context that could induce the glitch, will usually make a vampire extremely uncomfortable and anxious (work best if they've been exposed to the glitch at some point in their life). Because of this a lot of the vampires did not even dare to approach human settlements with euclidean architecture, which greatly complicated things for the overall survival of the species.

-Vampires make for terrible parents. Given their natural antisocial behaviour, it’s unsurprising that they aren’t the best caregivers. Despite their longer lifespans, one might expect them to invest more time and effort in their offspring, but this is not the case. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; their longer lifespans and fertility lead them to essentially not value their offspring, as they can always have another later on in life. The father is most likely going to be completely absent, as he typically feels no compulsion to ensure the survival of his offspring. The mother, on the other hand, while interested in her child's survival, is not as invested as one might expect from a primate species. She won't hesitate to abandon her offspring if she considers it a liability. She'll usually take care of it up until it's pre teenage years where she'll abandon it. However, some exceptions to this were found, as we've recently found proof of a Vampire Pack, more on this in a later entry.

-Mating with humans: As previously mentioned, vampires tend to be awful parents, to the extent that some began mating with humans. Why? Because it was easier. Human mating rituals were simple for vampires to emulate, and once mating was complete, the male vampire could leave, confident that its offspring would be cared for. Meanwhile, the female vampire could stay with the human and be looked after during her pregnancy, a wolf in sheep's clothing, she could discreetly sustain her need for blood by feeding on humans in the tribe or even her mate. Once she gave birth, she could either leave or continue caring for her children with a continuous blood supply. Another tactic vampire would use to get out of raising their young is “Brood Parasitism”. They would kidnap human children and replace them with their own. We believe that this is what gave birth to the legends of “Changelings”.

Overall the extinction of Vampires wasn't due to one reason but a combination of many things. A reminder of how evolution might screw you over. You may have been a perfectly adapted predator but something seemingly insignificant can truly come back to bite you.

Speaking of biting, the infamous bite of Vampires while not exactly as described in myths, is nothing to joke about...

This is from a setting of mine, where alot of cryptids, myths, etc are real or were directly influence by real events/creatures all explainable by science, kinda like the amazing YouTube Channel ThoughPotato This entry focuses on Vampires which biology and history is inspired and influenced by the Amazing Peter Watts and his just as amazing books Blindsight and Echopraxia (in fact this setting started out as a AU of his awesome universe)

[untitledgoosegay]

'neanderthal predation theory' worry about the homo sapiens predation theory because i'm coming for you with a baseball bat

[randomclod]

@randomwordzard

it's healthy for academics to have professional feuds. enrichment activity

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

So I've seen assorted theories on why The Uncanny Valley is a thing. The two I find the most compelling are

Humans who are actually human yet look a little "off" in appearance, gait, or manner are statistically more likely to be near death due to a contagious disease than those who don't. Therefore some portion of this nervousness about people looking "off" is your body recoiling from possible plague.

Leftovers from when some portion of our ancestry decided to declare Neanderthal Man an enemy species. A lot of the specific elements people point to when talking about what makes a face "uncanny" apply to descriptions of neanderthals.

The idea of a predator that used mimicry of humans is fun to toy with - it's like the human psychology version of creepypasta - but FAR too unsupported to take seriously.

One explanation that I don't really see mentioned in others' descriptions - perhaps because it's less...fanciful - is the idea that in the process of developing pattern recognition we developed antipattern aversion. Like, the idea that our pattern recognition registers to us as an image that matches the pattern looking "right." This necessarily defines things missing the pattern's markers as "wrong." If it's far enough away that it's part of some different pattern, it's not marked as "wrong;" It's marked as part of that other pattern. Like:

This is [doll, abstract]

This is [doll, high artistry]

This is [child human-shape, wrong]

[visions-of-our-past]

This excerpt from Robert E. Howard's 1925 short story Spear and Fang provides the entire thesis of the so-called "neanderthal predation theory." What the charlatan Danny Vendramini and his acolytes try to pass off as a radical new theory is merely the premise of a 100-year-old piece of horror fiction.

[lesbianmichelmishina]

theories on how the hisuian variants/species went extinct:

sneasler: outcompeted by invasive weaviles. yes, sneasler has a type advantage, but that's not everything. weaviles are explicitly stated to be pack hunters while sneaslers are solo. sneasler has the higher attack, but weavile is faster. a pack of coordinated weaviles could take out a sneasler before the sneasler could even fully react. weaviles are also dark-types, so underhanded tactics are kind of their thing: stealing from sneaslers, setting up traps, sneak attacks... incidentally, this is part of what wiped neanderthals out. sapiens were smaller and weaker, so had to get more creative, which lead to us gaining the advantage with things like the atl-atl.

avalugg: look i'm sorry but ice/rock is a godawful typing. two quad weaknesses and four normal weaknesses? not to mention that hisuian avalugg sacrifices its special stats for speed compared to the kalosian, but that extra 10 speed is useless when the end result is only thirty-eight. it's a big target, it's slow, it's not going to do well.

zoroark: human hunting, probably. it's the 1800s, people only barely have an idea of conservation. if an animal/pokemon is seen as a threat to humans, it gets wiped out. the dark-type variant got away with it by just being a prankster, but the hisuian form is outright hostile to humans.

overqwil: the hisuian qwilfish is not a water-type, but it lives in water. that's... not ideal. probably got outcompeted by tentacruel, which fills a similar niche as an aquatic poison-type.

wyrdeer/kleavor: probably not actually gone completely - people just lost how to get them to evolve.

ursaluna: similar to the above, but i want to point out that outside of outbreaks, there is only ONE wild ursaluna in the game, and that one is a special case. ursaring is already a massive predator. can the ecosystem even handle multiple ursalunas in the same area? it might actually be beneficial for ursarings to not evolve.

basculegion: firstly, the white-striped basculin is noted to be very docile compared to its unovan counterparts. secondly, most of the game's basculins are found in the coastlands. firespit island will one day become stark mountain, and based on the relative sizes of the islands and the apparent fertility of the area around stark mountain, i'm guessing that a volcanic eruption happened between PLA and DPPt. take the two together, and basculin may not have been aggressive enough to survive in the suddenly much more hostile environment.

arcanine: again, fire/rock is just a bad typing, especially for something that lives so close to water. the upheaval caused by this hypothetical eruption could have been enough to push the growlithes and arcanines over the edge.

lilligant: i'm genuinely not sure. i guess maybe that gaping flying weakness let roserade outcompete it?

braviary: weaviles again. psychic/flying vs dark/ice, in an environment that the dark/ice-type is perfectly suited for? yeah, whoever introduced weaviles to sinnoh really fucked up.

electrode: honestly wouldn't be surprised if they all just lost the grass-type and became the modern version when modern pokeballs were invented. even today, top pokemon researchers are baffled.

[prehistoriceurope]

Cave bear

The cave bear lived in Europe and Asia and evolved from the Ursus Deningeri (Deninger's bear) 1,8 million to 100,000 years ago into the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). This bear was named the cave bear because most of the fossils have been found inside caves. Whether this bear spent more time inside caves than bear species still alive until this day is not fully clear. Fossils in caves have a much better chance to be preserved.

Just like the woolly mammoth, the first fossils of the cave bear were confused with other species. The fossils were first described in a book 'newly discovered zoolites of unknown four footed animals' by Johann Friedrich Esper back in 1774. The bones clearly confused scientists of the 18th century who thought it might belong to a species of canids, felids, apes or even a mythological creature such as a dragon. The writer of the book, Friedrich Esper, believed the fossils belonged to polar bears.

It wasn't until 20 years after the publication of the book that an anatomist, Johann Christian Rosenmüller, finally gave the species its name. Most of the cave bear fossils have been found in Austria and unfortunately during ww1, the Austrians started using earth from caves in order to win phosphate. This process destroyed a lot of the original prehistoric cave environments so that only the cave bear bones remained.

The cave bear itself was absolutely massive. The shoulder height of a cave bear could reach an average of 1,31 meters and when it stood on two legs, it could reach a height of 3,5 meters. It's the largest of all the bear species, slightly larger than the polar bear which is nowadays the largest bear species. A male cave bear could weigh about 600kg to even 1000kg while females are a lot smaller, only about 250kg.

Also the teeth of the cave bear were much larger than those of modern day bear species. This means they probably didn't have a full meat diet as you would expect from a predator of this size. The big molars of the cave bear were used to process a more plant-like diet such as tubers. Some scientists even go as far as saying that the cave bear was a solely herbivory animal. There is some evidence to back this theory up since the isotopes of cave bear bones show low levels of nitrogen-15 which is the usual case in herbivores, the levels of nitrogen inside cave bear remains are about the same as those of the woolly mammoth who also was a herbivory animal.

It is however also possible that perhaps the main diet might have been vegetarian but that they did scavenge cadavers for some meat. Some scientists suggest that the cave bears ate their own kind, the ones that died during hibernation. Judging by bear behaviour in modern times, it is very well possible that the cave bear was mostly vegetarian with occasionally some meat in its diet.

Early humans and cave bears had an interesting relationship with each other that is still not fully understood. An interesting example of this is the discovery inside the Drachenloch cave in Switzerland. Inside this cave, a low wall was found covered with several cave bear skulls. The positioning of the remains suggest a human touch which leads to a theory that early humans such as the Neanderthals worshiped the cave bear in a form of primitive religion. It is however impossible to proof this theory.

The Drachenloch cave isn't the only cave with such a discovery. The famous Chauvet cave has a skull chamber in which a cave bear skull has been placed on top of a rock resembling an altar. This skull has been placed there around 30,000 years ago so it might have been part of a religious ritual of our own species, homo sapiens.

Another strange discovery was made in Regourdou, France. A rectangular pit was found which contained the remains of 20 bears covered by a slap. The pit was located next to another pit which contained the body of a Neanderthal buried there with objects such as a cave bear bone, scrapers and flakes, these are Neanderthal grave offerings and their burial rites might have included the worship of the cave bear.

The Basura cave in Italy has a stalagmite inside that vaguely resembles a cave bear in appearance. This stalagmite is surrounded by cave bear bones which seems to have been dropped here on purpose by Neanderthals for a ritualistic purpose. Yet again we can not be fully certain about this but the fact that several caves have been found with purposefully placed cave bear bones, does suggest that both Neanderthals and us held the cave bear in high esteem.

Unfortunately the cave bear went extinct somewhere around 20,000-12,000 years ago. This is slightly earlier than the extinction of most of the other megafauna such as the woolly mammoth. Scientists believed that the cave bear went extinct because of its diet. Due to climate change, the plants eaten by the cave bears slowly disappeared which meant that the bears themselves also disappeared. It would explain why the cave bear disappeared before the woolly mammoth.

Another theory suggests that overhunting by humans might have been the cause but this seems unlikely. Cave bears were most likely avoided by early hunters, they were simply too dangerous to hunt thanks to their massive size.

An interesting fact to notice is that the species declined rapidly around 40,000 years ago. This is around the same time when modern humans appeared in Europe and Asia. Maybe humans and cave bears were competing with each other on habitats, the caves or it was a combination of both climate change and the arrival of modern humans. Even though the species has sadly disappeared, a completely preserved cave bear cub was discovered last year in Siberia. Maybe some day in the future we can bring the species back, a cave bear would surely be magnificent to behold.

Here are images of: Depiction of a cave bear from the game Far Cry Primal, Skeleton of a cave bear photographed by myself in the Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands, Cave bear skull in the Chauvet cave, Cave bear cub found in Siberia in 2020, A cave bear altar? found in Montespan cave,

[angieflynns]

There not only are non-scientist humans who would have a problem with this, there's that lunkhead james chatters too (we hate him). He's an 'archaeologist' (literally has a BA, but he got involved in the whole 'Kennewick man"/the Ancient One debacle and now people for some reason act like he knows what he's doing.

Anyway, I agree with you that it's beautiful.

Oh I'm aware that there are probably people in the science community too (I mean the guy with the freaking Neanderthal predation theory, although from what I understand he's not actually a scientist. I refuse to remember his name. His whole neanderthal concept art would be pretty sick if he wasn't trying to play it off as accurate though.), but I was thinking as someone who lives in a very rural area I'm not even sure how to explain that there were other species that were also human to some of the people I know.

But also yeah, the book where I first noticed it was "The World Before Us" by Tom Higham.

[thecoffeeisblack]

During the twilight hours of crisp Spring morning, a mother Cave Bear and her cub search for food in the shadow of massive stone mountains. Frost covered foliage collapse under the female's immense weight as each foot step makes a heavy crunching noise. Her head low to the ground as she tries to sniff out the food that will hopefully help sustain her and her child after a long winter of hibernation. The young cub follows behind her, cutting a meandering path of distraction and play through the large footprints left by their mother.

Momentarily distracted by her progeny when she lets out a bellowing roar as pain surges from the spot where a stone spear head has been imbedded into her back, moving between her attackers and her child she turns to face the some of the deadliest predators to ever walk the earth, Homo neanderthalensis.

Ursus spelaeus, also known as a Cave Bear, was one of the largest bear species alive during the Pleistocene, they ranged from Europe into Asia. Analysis of their teeth and bones suggest that they had a mostly herbivorous diet.  

Their remains were first described in 1774 by Johann Friedrich Esper, a German paleontologist and pastor, though humans and their relatives encountered these animals first hand much much earlier. There is evidence that Neanderthals would not only hunt Cave Bears but also that they would also utilize the large caves the bears used as their dens as shelter after they killed the former occupants. While there was some early speculation as to whether they worshipped the bears and utilized their remains in religious ceremonies, this theory has been largely debunked.

After modern humans arrived in Europe they recorded their encounters with bears and other Ice Age animals in cave paintings like those found in France's Chauvet Cave.  

Cave Bears lived from around 250,000 to 24,000 years ago, likely going extinct due to food becoming scarce as the climate warmed. Male specimens have been estimated to reach upwards of 2,200 pounds with females weighing in at around 550 lbs.  

Recently, in Russia, a two new preserved specimens of what might be cave bears have emerged from the ice, one might possibly be the first preserved adult Cave Bear ever found, the other is a young cub found at a different site, researchers are hopeful to get DNA from both sets of remains but it is too early to tell if they are indeed U. spelaeus or another species of Ice Age bear.

[sciencespies]

We just got even more evidence of humans interbreeding with mysterious Denisovans

https://sciencespies.com/humans/we-just-got-even-more-evidence-of-humans-interbreeding-with-mysterious-denisovans/

We just got even more evidence of humans interbreeding with mysterious Denisovans

Island Southeast Asia has one of the largest and most intriguing hominin fossil records in the world. But our new research suggests there is another prehistoric human species waiting to be discovered in this region: a group called Denisovans, which have so far only been found thousands of kilometres away in caves in Siberia and the Tibetan Plateau.

Our study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, reveals genetic evidence that modern humans (Homo sapiens) interbred with Denisovans in this region, despite the fact Denisovan fossils have never been found here.

Conversely, we found no evidence that the ancestors of present-day Island Southeast Asia populations interbred with either of the two hominin species for which we do have fossil evidence in this region: H. floresiensis from Flores, Indonesia, and H. luzonensis from Luzon in the Philippines.

Together, this paints an intriguing – and still far from clear – picture of human evolutionary ancestry in Island Southeast Asia. We still don’t know the precise relationship between H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis, both of which were distinctively small-statured, and the rest of the hominin family tree.

And, perhaps more intriguingly still, our findings raise the possibility there are Denisovan fossils still waiting to be unearthed in Island Southeast Asia – or that we may already have found them but labelled them as something else.

An ancient hominin melting pot

Stone tool records suggest that both H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis are descended from Homo erectus populations that colonized their respective island homes about 700,000 years ago. H. erectus is the first ancient human known to have ventured out of Africa, and has first arrived in Island Southeast Asia at least 1.6 million years ago.

This means the ancestors of H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis diverged from the ancestors of modern humans in Africa around two million years ago, before H. erectus set off on its travels. Modern humans spread out from Africa much more recently, probably arriving in Island Southeast Asia 70,000-50,000 years ago.

We already know that on their journey out of Africa about 70,000 years ago, H. sapiens met and interbred with other related hominin groups that had already colonized Eurasia.

The first of these encounters was with Neanderthals, and resulted in about 2 percent Neanderthal genetic ancestry in today’s non-Africans.

The other encounters involved Denisovans, a species that has been described solely from DNA analysis of a finger bone found in Denisova Cave in Siberia.

Intriguingly, however, the largest amounts of Denisovan ancestry in today’s human populations are found in Island Southeast Asia and the former continent of Sahul (New Guinea and Australia). This is most likely the result of local interbreeding between Denisovans and modern humans – despite the lack of Denisovan fossils to back up this theory.

To learn more, we searched the genome sequences of more than 400 people alive today, including more than 200 from Island Southeast Asia, looking for distinct DNA sequences characteristic of these earlier hominin species.

We found genetic evidence the ancestors of present-day people living in Island Southeast Asia have interbred with Denisovans – just as many groups outside Africa have similarly interbred with Neanderthals during their evolutionary history. But we found no evidence of interbreeding with the more evolutionarily distant species H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis (or even H. erectus).

This is a remarkable result, as Island Southeast Asia is thousands of kilometres from Siberia, and contains one of the richest and most diverse hominin fossil records in the world. It suggests there are more fossil riches to be uncovered.

So where are the region’s Denisovans?

There are two exciting possibilities that might reconcile our genetic results with the fossil evidence. First, it’s possible Denisovans mixed with H. sapiens in areas of Island Southeast Asia where hominin fossils are yet to be found.

One possible location is Sulawesi, where stone tools have been found dating back at least 200,000 years. Another is Australia, where 65,000-year-old artifacts currently attributed to modern humans were recently found at Madjebebe.

Alternatively, we may need to rethink our interpretation of the hominin fossils already discovered in Island Southeast Asia.

Confirmed Denisovan fossils are extremely rare and have so far only been found in central Asia. But perhaps Denisovans were much more diverse in size and shape than we realized, meaning we might conceivably have found them in Island Southeast Asia already but labelled them with a different name.

Given that the earliest evidence for hominin occupation of this region predates the divergence between modern humans and Denisovans, we can’t say for certain whether the region has been continuously occupied by hominins throughout this time.

It might therefore be possible that H. floresiensis and H. luzonensis (but also later forms of H. erectus) are much more closely related to modern humans than currently assumed, and might even be responsible for the Denisovan ancestry seen in today’s Island Southeast Asia human populations.

If that’s true, it would mean the mysterious Denisovans have been hiding in plain sight, disguised as H. floresiensis, H. luzonensis or H. erectus.

Solving these intriguing puzzles will mean waiting for future archaeological, DNA and proteomic (protein-related) studies to reveal more answers. But for now, the possibilities are fascinating.

João Teixeira, Research associate and Kristofer M. Helgen, Chief Scientist and Director, Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. 

#Humans

[dyeus-pater]

Neanderthal Predation Theory

[visions-of-our-past]

Good breakdown of exactly how nonsensical and frankly stupid this "theory" is.

[germanicseidr]

Giants

The species of giants called Jötnar in old Norse have their origin before the Germanic culture was formed. They are beings who wandered around all 9 realms and are extremely powerful and wise. Their knowledge is incredibly ancient, dating back to the formation of the worlds. The Asir Gods eventually banished them to one of the realms called Jötunheimr.

Their name in English is quite misleading. The giants are not all big in size. The word started to be used because of French linguistic influences when William the Conquerer took over England in 1066AD.

It makes much more sense to take a look at the old Norse word Jötnar. This word has been derived from the proto-Germanic Etunaz which means devourer. The old English word for Etunaz is eóten. This is where William the Conquerer comes into the picture. When he took control of England, the English language started to get replaced with certain French loan words. One of those loan words was Geant. Geant replaced the word eóten and eventually developed into Giant which is why they are called giants now in modern English.

The giants are linked to certain aspects of nature. They are also known as nature spirits. The worship of nature spirits predates the worship of antropomorphic Gods. This could also be the reason why they are seen as the adversaries of the Gods.

The giants ruled the world in prehistoric ages until the Gods took over. The belief in giants as nature spirits could date back many thousands of years ago. Viewing objects and aspects of nature as spiritual beings is the key part of animism, the world's oldest spiritual belief system. It might have even been practiced by the Neanderthals, although we do not have direct evidence for this theory yet.

They represent elementals, the dangerous wilderness outside the habitats of our prehistoric ancestors. They were seen as the creators of swamps, forests, seas, mountains, ice, bogs and also held responsible for natural disasters like avalanches, floods, fires, earthquakes and storms. The Gods however are the ones who can tame these elements of nature. They protect humans against the dangers of wild untouched nature. The Giants fear thunder, a power linked to the Gods, and see humans as a threat to their habitats.

The eddas are a perfect example of this. In the Völuspa you can read how the Giant species came before the Gods and how the death of the primal giant Ymir, led to the creating of the world in which we are able to live. The death of the Jötnar means the conquest over nature itself. An incredible important factor for survival back in prehistoric and medieval ages.

There was no need for our ancestors to worship the Jötnar. No archeological or written evidence has been found that the Germanic people honoured the giants. Survival was tough and there was no control over any aspect of nature nor was it damaged to such an extent as it is right now.

I think it is time to respect the surviving Jötnar now. We are losing nature at an incredible pace and we won't survive without it.

Names for the Jötnar in other Germanic languages:

Proto-Germanic: Etunaz/þurisaz (note how þurisaz is also seen as the most powerful and destructive rune)

Old Norse: Jötnar/þursar/Risi/Troll

Old English: Eóten

Old High German: Duris

Old Dutch: Risi

Modern Dutch and Frisian: Reuzen

Swedish: Jätte

Danish: jætte

German: Riese

artist photo: https://www.artstation.com/eytan

[rogue-rhino]

So, I've been thinking for a while about how exactly humans were able to become this amazing pursuit predator that heals super quick and why we managed to outlive Neanderthals and have come up with my own theory. So, when we were being a true pursuit predator, we would have our injured pack mates heal up, so the faster you healed and the stronger you were, the more activities you could perform, so we basically performed selective breeding on ourselves where those too weak to heal and go long distances died and those better suited for it lasted longer, and because of this we were able to refine our natural recovery and endurance to insane levels in the animal kingdom.

I mean, I'm not sure exactly how this plays into stories but imagine some race of aliens that just keeps records of EVERYTHING, and they see us doing that and not realizing we are on the fast track to evolution, bonding with everything in sight, and in general just being weird and some group of aliens find them or make an alliance and find these records of us, so they make the unanimous decision to stay the fuck away from THERE. I mean, our ability to go without food rivals that of far larger animals and reptiles and we are far smaller than most, so if they tried to do something to our food, well we'll also eat just about anything that seems edible, so good luck trying to get us to starve to kill us.

Oh, you tried to poison our food with capsaicin? Hell we put that shit on for fun. Try and mess with our computer systems to have less oxygen levels to weaken us? Need to get rid of just about all of the oxygen or we'll just get used to it and end up stronger in normal conditions. Try and incapacitate us? Well, you'll need to just about break some bones to keep us from moving around and we heal REAL quick. Basically almost everything they do to weaken us would in the long run strengthen us in one way or another, so good luck weakening us before a fight.