‘News reports tweaked the science to speak to contemporary anxieties’: How Neanderthal extinction is a projection of our own, modern fears

Since the discovery of their remains in the 19th century, Neanderthals have fascinated scientists and the general public alike. Although our understanding of these ancient hominins has been transformed tremendously since then, how we have viewed this other human lineage became deeply entrenched in how we see our own species, with geopolitical events shaping the rhetoric around our ancient relatives.

In his new book, “Neanderthals Among Us: The Making of a Prehistoric Human” (Oneworld Publications, 2026), historian and author Peter Sahlins examines our complicated view of Neanderthals, with this lost human lineage being viewed through the lens of cultural and political ideologies. In this excerpt, he looks at our theories for why they went extinct and the philosophical reckoning we’ve placed up on them.

Peter Sahlins is Professor of History Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley. The son of renowned anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, Peter studied early modern French and European history at Harvard and Princeton, then taught for thirty years at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written six books and scores of articles on a range of topics, most recently “1668: The Year of the Animal in France”. He divides his time between Paris and Arcy-sur-Cure in Burgundy, where he also gives guided tours of its famous prehistoric caves.