Free trade may have finished off Neanderthals
Modern humans may have driven Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago because Homo sapiens unlocked the secrets of free trade, say a group of US and Dutch economists. The theory could shed new light on the mysterious and sudden demise of the Neanderthals after over 260,000 years of healthy survival… Jason Shogren, an economist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, US, says part of the answer may lie in humans’ superior trading habits. Trading would have allowed the division of labour, freeing up skilled individuals, such as hunters, to focus on the tasks they are best at. Others, perhaps making tools or clothes or gathering food, would give the hunters resources in return for meat.
At first, I thought this was an April Fool's joke, but apparently not. So, a bunch of economists reckon that our success over the Neanderthals may be down to free trade. Well, I suppose everyone has their own way of looking at the world. This would appear to be a totally untestable hypothesis (and not, as the article states, a theory)—although that doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong.