Ludovic Slimak is a paleoanthropologist at the University of Toulouse in France and Director of the Grotte Mandrin research project. His work focuses on the last Neanderthal societies and he is the author of several hundred scientific studies on these populations. His research has been featured in Nature, Science, The New York Times and more. The Naked Neanderthal was published to great acclaim in France.
With the style of a poet and imagination of a philosopher, Ludovic
Slimak probes the minds of Neanderthals, our closest cousins. All
too often Neanderthals are envisioned as either prehistoric brutes
or full humans, but Slimak argues that they were something unique,
a species that developed their own forms of consciousness and
intelligence. In an age of artificial intelligence, this fun and
provocative book is a reminder that we still have a lot to learn
about biological intelligence
*Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs*
A thrilling, bracing and scholarly introduction to modes of being
and of paying attention to the world which are both akin to ours
and importantly and revealingly different. We need urgently to
consider less dysfunctional ways of occupying the cosmos and our
own heads. The Neanderthals, speaking movingly and iconoclastically
through Slimak, might be able to help
*Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast*
Ludovic Slimak provides a remarkable and well-informed account of
the many facets of the lost Neanderthals. It shows us what it means
to be human and allows us to better imagine what extraterrestrials
might be like
*Avi Loeb, author of Extraterrestrial*
Who were the Neanderthals, and what do we really know about their
artefacts and tools, customs and culture? An eye-opening and
refreshing account, full of surprising revelations and personal
reflections from a researcher who has spent thirty years coming
face-to-face with another human species
*Lewis Dartnell, author of Being Human*
A fascinating, immensely enjoyable read by a brilliant and original
thinker who has dedicated his working life to studying
Neanderthals
*Jonathan Kennedy, author of Pathogenesis*
Roaming through caves, digging through earth and rocks, and
unearthing fossils, this adventurous, bearded archaeologist takes
us from the Arctic Circle to Mediterranean forests in his search
for the famous Neanderthal. His personal quest combined with the
scientific argument gives the book its real weight. The writing is
lively and the author deftly uses sarcasm and shock factor
*Les Echos*
A candid and uncompromising approach to a much-debated part of
humanity's early history ... Slimak immerses us in the daily life
of a prehistoric archaeologist ... a bold book
*L'Histoire.fr*
Ludovic Slimak takes us on an astonishing archaeological quest. . .
he squarely confronts the myths surrounding this extinct species
... This human 'creature' is the Neanderthal, of course. But it's
us too, whose unexpected portrait emerges from this comparison
across millennia
*Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco*
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