The first genocide committed by the humans

In the last century, the idea of war, crime, and fight for supremacy has become a social state of spirit. The genocide organized by the Nazis during the Second World War still torments us and we avoid the movies, the books that tell about the human tragedy unfortunately created always by the people that maybe never deserved the appellation of “human”.

Another reason for us to be ashamed of is the fact that the Jaws were not the first victims of the human nature’s evilness. Let’s remember the Spanish conquistadors who exterminated the local cultures from South America, in the name of the gold. So, which was the first genocide, the first masse crime the man committed? (As far as the history can remember, of course)

Although the opinion is not unanimously shared, the major number of the paleoanthropologists considers that between 40.000 and 27.000 years ago, Homo Sapiens committed the first genocide, exterminating the only species on the planet having the same genetic heritage, the Neanderthal.

The Neanderthal was having a totally different aspect confronting the Homo Sapiens. Although the DNA of the two species was coinciding 99.5%, the missing 0.5% created essential differences. First of all, the brain of the Neanderthal was 10% BIGGER than ours. Then, the frontal bone had a double arcade, ditched on center. The mandible was very prominent, and the chin was totally missing. Another characteristic was the existence of the chignon occipital, a specific prominence, and the existence of the triangular prominences from the nasal cavity. Talking about his body, it is considered that the muscular masse of the Neanderthal was at least 30% greater that the Homo Sapiens’s muscular masse.

The man gained since historical times his supremacy on the planet killing in masse, exterminating his own relatives.

Book of reference: Robert J. Sawer, "La genesi della specie", Fanucci Editore, Roma, 2004 - the winner of the Hugo Prize, 2003