Lots of evidence that in many instances Sapiens integrated into their societies and they integrated into ours. The other hominids were never extremely populous (usually existing in small pockets) and yet their genome lives on in statistically significant ways in modern humans. That wouldn’t be the case at the scale it currently is if we always avoided each other or killed each other, even accounting for sexual violence. These peoples in many places became community and family, and eventually that integration (combined with Sapiens sheer numbers and geographic distribution) “wiped them out”.
Now, there’s also plenty of evidence of conflict too, like a cave where we can see Neanderthalis butchered and probably ate Sapiens. But it wasn’t always bad.
True, we probably will never know for certain, but at the rate of occurrence in our genome sexual violence would have taken place basically constantly over many generations and in many places (and then the offspring raised normally), or community would have taken place constantly over many generations and in many places.
Community is generally regarded by anthropologists as more likely.
Lots of evidence that in many instances Sapiens integrated into their societies and they integrated into ours. The other hominids were never extremely populous (usually existing in small pockets) and yet their genome lives on in statistically significant ways in modern humans. That wouldn’t be the case at the scale it currently is if we always avoided each other or killed each other, even accounting for sexual violence. These peoples in many places became community and family, and eventually that integration (combined with Sapiens sheer numbers and geographic distribution) “wiped them out”.
Now, there’s also plenty of evidence of conflict too, like a cave where we can see Neanderthalis butchered and probably ate Sapiens. But it wasn’t always bad.
Is there any way to prove that? From what I understand, we have some genetic evidence and a scattering of caves that seem to show snippets of life.
It seems like it would be really hard to form an accurate overview of millennia of coexistence from a small handful of data points.
True, we probably will never know for certain, but at the rate of occurrence in our genome sexual violence would have taken place basically constantly over many generations and in many places (and then the offspring raised normally), or community would have taken place constantly over many generations and in many places.
Community is generally regarded by anthropologists as more likely.