Neanderthals looked a little different, but they were people like you and me. In fact, unless your ancestors are 100% Africans, you carry some Neanderthal genes.
A new report in Science Advances demonstrates they acted with compassion and decency.
How?
Genetic analysis identified a child with serious congenital ear problems that indicate deafness and balance problems, and was Down syndrome yet lived to 6 years of age.
Think about the implications.
Bobbing Around 
From where could/did the very earliest Neanderthals obtain empathy for the sick or injured among them?
Could that have arisen from some other instinct(?), or reasoning?
But without their “kind” preceding them, that seems unlikely. Perhaps they somehow reasoned that by looking after those who were sick or injured, there would be safety in numbers.
Trevor Tucker.
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Empathy is not something you obtain, but something you do. Humpback whales, dolphins. octopuses, elephants, wolves, tigers… the list of species that have demonstrated compassion is very long.
Why should we question that a human subtype had it?
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My frustration is not that human subspecies practiced empathy, but rather, how did they know how to act that way if they had no forbears to show them?
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They did have ancestors, same as us.
Empathy, compassion, unconditional love and non-judgmental acceptance, call it what you will, is the universal force of our Universe. All sentient beings grow, life after life, until this is their natural reaction to all.
Why should the N-people have been any different?
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