My Dear Cousin

As we, humans, continue with our bravado, it is important that once in a while, we remember our extended family.

cousin PPAcD 15839

Not only do we share genes with them, we often face the same fate as them.

Our prehistoric cousins, the Neanderthals, have been speaking up from the great beyond. Scientists have been digging up their bones and studying what they left behind. The discoveries of these scientists have been revealing things about us – things we have to pay attention to.

Our cousins became extinct some 30,000 years ago. Old research said that they got wiped out because they relied so much on meat. A new research by the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian natural history museum in Washington which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found particles of roots, grains and tuber in their teeth.

Interesting!

So 30,000 years from now, when we, the homo sapiens, must have become extinct, what will those who will inherit the earth find in the plaque of our teeth? Sushi? What will they find in the canal of our veins? Hennessey?

Another study in Israel discovered the teeth of the Neanderthals that are 300,000 years old. If the study stands, it threatens to change the story of man’s origin which says that we originated from Africa and moved on to other parts of the world.

What does this say to you? What does it say about our present obsession with Jesus, Mohammed and Moses? The three are little children born only yesterday, when compared to our cousins.

How did we get obsessed about what happened some 2000 years ago when our family has been around for over 300,000 years ago? And more importantly, why are we not humbled by the possibilities of things we are going to discover about our cousins and ourselves in years to come?

Why are we acting as if we are so sure about our past? Why are we not humbled by the possibilities of our future?

My dear cousin, forgive us for we do not know what we are doing.