"'...goblins make crude tools and appear to have a language of sorts. As if Australopithecus survived on Earth.'" (p. 75)
"'You see, there are two related species on the planet, one further along in evolution than the other. As if Australopithecus had survived till today on Earth.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Master Key" IN Anderson, Trader To The Stars (New York, 1966), pp. 115-159 AT p. 124.
In the first case, on Ishtar, the goblins are left unmolested whereas, in the second case, on Cain, the Yildivians enslave or, more accurately, domesticate the Lugals.
Careful rereading leads to recognition of repeated phrases.
6 comments:
There are a few cases of speculation about other hominids surviving in parts of the Earth while homo sapiens developes civilization.
Eg: "A Different Flesh" by Harry Turtledove.
In this collection of alternate history stories austrolopithecus or homo erectus somehow gets to the Americas and the paleo-amerindians don't. So when Europeans build sailing ships good enough to cross the Atlantic, history becomes substatially different. Whether to say these hominids get domesticated or enslaved in this history is a matter of interpretation.
I might later recall title and author of another novel in which a small population of non-sapiens hominids exists in Africa to the 20th century. They get domesticated/enslaved by one tribe of sapiens Africans. The story is about this becoming public knowledge at about the time of the writing of the novel.
Kaor, Paul and Jim!
Paul: Anderson did write at least two stories showing us earlier hominins: "The Little Monster" and "The Long Remembering." The former showing us what may be Australopithecines and the latter Neanderthals.
Jim: I have also read Turtledove's collection A DIFFERENT FLESH. Intriguing, interesting stories. Some things I recall being H. sapiens and H. erectus were genetically enough like each other that they could mate and have offspring. Another being that the Spanish colonists in the alternate Americas thought H. erectus were human and could be baptized, but the Protestant colonists did not.
I don't recall that other story of earlier hominins surviving in Africa.
Ad astra! Sean
It would make sense for those Protestant sects that don't believe in infant baptism to reject baptizing H. Erectus individuals, since those individuals would likely be about as capable as a small child of comprehending Christian doctrine.
Kaor, Jim!
Yes, there are Protestants who regrettably think like that. But we Catholics and Orthodox believe firmly in the validity of infant baptism and that it is of divine and apostolic origin.
A pity no members of the species H. erectus or H. neanderthalensis survived to our times!
Ad astra! Sean
If nothing else it would give us the interesting ethical conundrums shown in "A Different Flesh" about how to treat beings less intelligent that H. Sapiens, but that all *that* much less.
The small amount of Neanderthal DNA in many current humans doesn't give us that problem. Neanderthals *might* have been about as smart as H. Sapiens, but just did less innovation only because there were fewer of them.
Kaor, Jim!
Good points! I did wonder if it was plausible of Turtledove to have H. erectus unable to speak (the communicated using sign language). And I think Neanderthals were as intelligent as H. sapiens.
Ad astra! Sean
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