I was perusing Bluesky recently, and saw a post about the newly discovered Neanderthal animal fat processing site:
This was my reply to it:
This got me thinking in a different way about the value of diversity.
We know that Neanderthal was as smart, maybe smarter, than us, and engaged in similar methods of thinking. And yet, they died out at the end of the last ice age and we didn’t. Why is that?
Most of the research suggests that Neanderthal struggled to adapt to the changing climate. Homo sapiens have a body plan that makes us remarkably adaptable to a wide range of environments, but Neanderthal was highly specialized to ice age Europe. As the climate changed, we adapted more readily and moved out into new environmental areas. Neanderthal, by contrast, wasn’t able to do the same. Their population became sparse, isolated in pockets that had less and less contact with each other. Over time, the lack of genetic variation and limited access to resources rendered the species nonviable.
I wonder what impact this change had on Neanderthal culture. As populations became isolated from one another and groups ceased having regular contact, it wasn’t just genetic material that stopped being exchanged: they stopped exchanging culture—stories, ideas, art. Individual populations became culturally stagnant. And I’m certain this, too, factored into their demise.
Cultural exchange brings new ideas into a population. New ideas inspire new approaches to challenges and often open pathways to innovative solutions. Without robust cultural exchange, a population loses much of its ability to innovate. They struggle to come up with new and better solutions to the problems they face. As Neanderthal populations lost their cultural exchange through increasing isolation, they lost much of their ability to find new ways to adapt to their changing circumstances. This must have contributed to their final end. Their demise wasn’t just due to physical limitations, but also the cultural loss.
Diversity is cultural exchange. Diversity—the exchange of stories, ideas, perspectives, understandings, art, music, beliefs, morals—is one of the main and most important ways new ideas come into a society. These new ideas help a society innovate and explore a wider array of options to address our struggles. Without this exchange, we become stagnant, we dramatically lessen our ability to adapt and discover better solutions.
It’s ironic: much of the resistance to diversity is a fear of losing our unique and individual culture. But without diversity, without active cultural exchange, a society is doomed to stagnate. Diversity is what keeps culture healthy. It’s what saves us.
Diversity means survival.
John the Librarian 