According to an MSN headline today, man may once have had sexual relations with neanderthals.

Neanderthals, if you don’t know, isn’t me, although I behave like one quite often. A neanderthal was a humanoid species living on our planet 24,000-30,000 years ago.

The reason I actually read the article and now am commenting on it (see original article) is because a few years ago, I was really into a series of book the basically looked at our ancestors Cro Magnon and how this girl, homo sapiens, got lost during an earth quake and was adopted by ‘flatheads’ aka. neanderthals.

The neanderthals were primitive and suggested an almost complete instinctual nature, which was implied by the ‘memories’ aka how animals, such as the Flatheads, have most of their instinctual behaviors ingrained in them and they only need to be ‘reminded’ of them by their elders. Unlike humans, who do not ‘know’ anything at all when they are born and instincts quickly get offset by knowledge, norms, customs, and basic socialisation.

In the series by Jean M. Auel, Earth’s Children series, religion, language, sexuality all are given an interesting perspective. While the validity of the theories is somewhat questioned since I do remember my Archaeology prof in college warning us about Auel’s work, this series is definitely an entertaining read.

Particularly, if you enjoyed the Anne Rice vampire series, you will enjoy this series. Why? Because, just as Rice defines her characters, the vampire lifestyle, and the story itself so well, you are almost drawn to believe this entity of vampires could exist. Likewise, Auel is so thorough with her story, that you literally feel like all the happenings of the series are plausible.

Plus, the series began way back in 1980! So, for Auel to create this other universe so vividly for the reader is no ordinary feat.

So, check out the series, which currently features 5 novels with another, or possibly two others still in the works.