Our Ancient Origins?

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When I was talking about "sensory overload," I was talking mostly about what occurred in the hunt. There was lots of excitement during these sorties after prey. One also had to be able to do "two or more things at once," and to "think on one's feet." One cannot deny that!

When one is in a cave or shelter, one could experience sensory overload.

In the cave, it's because of the acoustics. In the shelters, it's because people lived in "close quarters."

The species/subspecies known as Homo neanderthalensis/Homo sapiens neanderthalensis certainly went extinct. There are no modern humans with close to the peculiar adaptive anatomy of the Neanderthals.

They almost certainly interbred with "anatomically modern" humans. Europeans have Neanderthal lineage.

In Africa, it is a certainty that there are people with autism (or autistic-like symptoms). I know a place which houses a few of them. It's located in the northern part of Ghana. It is funded by the Hand in Hand Ministries. None of the clients have any "European" descent.

Some of what I "know" about Neanderthals is recollected from college anthropology classes (almost 20 years ago now) and the rest is gleaned from Clan of the Cave Bear, subsequent sequels, and very limited access to a small portion of the resources mentioned therein or in similar works. So basically my "knowledge" is inadmissible.

AFAIK, Neanderthals relied a lot less on verbal communication and a lot more on nonverbal communication than H. sapiens. That would seem to make a link between H. neanderthalis and autism unlikely...

...unless the nonverbal communication were much more intentional and formalized than the nonverbal communication of H. sapiens. We're pretty good at memorizing large volumes of rote information, adhering to rigid rules systems, and following patterns.

Speaking of finding and following patterns... I can see how that, and an absorbing attention to detail, could be major assets in survival for a species of hunter-gatherers. Particularly on the gathering side. The more edible plants you can identify, the more likely you are to be sufficiently nourished (and thus survive to reproduce and have your offspring survive). The more detail-oriented you are, the more likely you are to distinguish between edible plants and their poisonous look-alikes (and it only takes one error). People say it's hard to differentiate between Queen Anne's lace and poison hemlock-- it's a little trickier in the early spring, but not THAT hard (at least for my autistic eyes). Differentiating between wild parsnip and poison hemlock when they're not in flower-- now THAT takes an excellent rote memory and an eye for details (even WITH an excellent field guide).

The PATTERNS, though, would be the big scale-tipper for a nomadic species. If you know the TRAITS of edible plants (and the traits of poisonous ones), you're going to be more likely to be able to identify food when you enter an unfamiliar environment, or when the climate changes and changes the flora with it.

As for the reasons for extinction... H. sapiens consistently says that H. sapiens survived where H. neanderthalis and every other hominid species didn't because H. sapiens was smarter, more social, and more adaptable.

I sometimes wonder if H. sapiens didn't emerge the victor because H. sapiens was simply that much more AGGRESSIVE than all the others.

The Neanderthals seemed to be less sociable than anatomical moderns. If that was because they lacked spoken language and had to communicate through nonverbal means then that would argue against the Neanderthal theory of the origin of ASDs because autistics are worse, and not better than NTs at nonverbal communication.

There are indications that Neanderthals HAD language.

The position of the hyoid bone in Neanderthals is almost identical to anatomically-modern humans; hence, it has been stated that Neanderthals could intone most of the phonemes which anatomically-modern humans could intone.

Have you heard the theory that the first language was rendered in song?

Have heard something like that. Read the book "the singing Neanderthals" about how Neanderthals might have communicated through song.