Chapter 10

Neandertals and humans, according to historical records, did not breed together. There are many theories to this and the ones Sumner talks about are that they had different sexual preferences and they may not have been able to reproduce because of their sheer physical contrast in size. Animals and humans were put on earth to reproduce. Our bodies are made to reproduce. With humans, we have a highly specialized brain that we can think in ways that animals can’t. Humans have sex for fun and pleasure because even though we are made to reproduce, we are able to think cognitively. We can theorize, think critically, and think abstractly. There are kinds of hormones in our body, progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone, that make us sexually driven. Hormones can’t be measured through fossils so we don’t know if Neandertals had the same hormones as we do. This could also be a reason we didn’t have sexual intercourse with each other.