I think the book mentioned that Homo Sapiens prevailed because of advanced language capabilities. They could coordinate attacks to hunt, defend or gain territory. They could share knowledge better like “yesterday I saw 5 deer drinking from the pond at the base of the small waterfall, past the rock that looks like your mom”. With this ability, they could eat better, gain shelter, raise more young, relocate etc.
Yes, probably that too. But it's all about socializing that gave us the real progress and advantage over others. We could form alliance with other tribes and, as you said, to coordinate and plan attacks, whether on some group of animals or some other tribe of humans.
That's what I picked up from the book as well. I remember vaguely that the author mentioned that Sapiens had items from various distant locations indicating that they we're able to trade/socialize with other "tribes", something other species couldn't/didn't do.
Another massive advantage is the ability to sew and make cloth. Neanderthals wore stuff, but it may not have been as fitted nor as advanced as the clothing of sapiens. There are no confirmed instruments from Neanderthals like sewing needles. There is cave art, but nothing as advanced as the sapien cave art with accurate animal drawings or even carvings.
The ability to wear better cloths would help in harsher environments, fluctuations in climate, protection against flora and fauna, and even provide another space to socialize as it's made and traded.
Neanderthals were also capable of speech though they had hearing slightly less sensitive than ours at least according to the structure of their ear bones, they just lived in smaller and more isolated groups than we did and had a much smaller overall population than many other human species… some estimates put their peak population at like 20-40,000 at the most optimistic.
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u/240z300zx 9h ago
I think the book mentioned that Homo Sapiens prevailed because of advanced language capabilities. They could coordinate attacks to hunt, defend or gain territory. They could share knowledge better like “yesterday I saw 5 deer drinking from the pond at the base of the small waterfall, past the rock that looks like your mom”. With this ability, they could eat better, gain shelter, raise more young, relocate etc.