Neanderthal (1996)
By John Darnton
Archaeologists stumble upon a community of prehistoric Neanderthals living in remote European caves.
Archaeologists Matt Mattison and Susan Arnot are recruited by the Institute for Prehistoric Research to rescue their mentor, Dr. Kellicut. Deployed by the Institute to investigate reports of Neaderthals in Tajikistan, Kellicut disappears from an expedition to the Pamir mountations, leaving only an observation-filled notebook to guide his former students. Though Matt and Susan are skeptical that Neanderthals could still exist, they cannot ignore Kellicut’s proof – a Neanderthal skull that appears to be only a few decades old. Accompanied by guide Rudy and psycholinguist Van Steed, Matt and Susan retrace Kellicut’s movements through the artic Pamirs. The group discovers a network of caves in which the Neanderthals have been living in communities. First encounters with the Neanderthals reveal them to be malevolent creatures – the leader clubs Rudy to death. Matt and Susan flee through the caves and are rescued by a group of peaceful Neanderthals who live in a nearby valley. There they find Kellicut, who has been communing with and studying the creatures. He is reluctant to admit Matt and Susan into the community, for fear that their presence will upset the delicate equilibrium between the renegades Neanderthals and their peaceful neighbors. The community intrigues the archaeologists, who begin to compare their earlier theories about the prehistoric beings with their actual existence. Matt and Susan agree that they must allow this community to remain secret and undisturbed, but in order to return to their homes, they must pass through and survive the renegade community. To do so, they will employ the one element which distinguishes homo sapiens from their Neanderthal predecessors: deception.
Interaction with earlier species of humans forces questions about the essence of humanity. Although their theoretical approaches to Neanderthal culture differ, Matt and Susan agree that determining the cause of their extinction will evoke an understanding of homo sapiens’ primacy in the evolutionary struggle. Matt theorizes that, through “reproductive imperialism,” homo sapiens interbred with Neanderthals and genetically overpowered them. Although the gene flow favors the homo sapiens, certain genetically-ingrained behaviors carry forward from Neanderthal DNA. Because of the genetic affinity between Neanderthals and homo sapiens, Matt and Susan have difficulty determining which of the Neanderthal groups display the more “human” qualities; the renegades, with the community formations and organized hunting, represent the more favorable aspects of human behavior even as they demonstrate aggressive tendencies that seem inhuman. Kellicut theorizes that the renegades, who were originally part of the valley tribe, were expelled because of innate, antisocial behaviors; that antisocial tendencies carry through to modern homo sapiens implies that these are inherited traits. And while Rudy’s murder appears “inhuman” to Matt and Susan, the Neanderthals’ need to protect their community and dominate the threatening homo sapiens is actually survival behavior. The Institute backs Kellicut’s expedition so that they may collect and dissect the Neanderthals; in comparison to the benevolent valley Neanderthals, such behavior seems as barbaric as that which characterizes the renegades.
Evaluation: Darnton’s attempt to deliver social commentary comes across as clumsy and unsubtle. The dialogue is wooden, and the plot and characters retread ground covered by hundreds of preceding thrillers.
– Natalie Champ