Ludovic Slimak > Quotes

“The Neanderthal was never just another version of us, but we are a long way off understanding its own ways of being human.”
― Ludovic Slimak, The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature

“Was cannibalism one of the extreme survival strategies on the part of some of these peoples of the forest? Or were these acts a sign of something more profound, fragile archaeological evidence of ancient rituals that we have not been able to”
― Ludovic Slimak, The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature

“Their distant testimonies tell us that the Neanderthals were never other versions of us – not brothers, not cousins – when it comes to mental structures, but an utterly different humanity.”
― Ludovic Slimak, The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature

“J'ai déja exploré la richesse de toutes les anthropophagies qui justement ne se limitent jamais à une question de protéines mais représentent toujours la marque de valeurs collectives d'une profonde richesse. Et l'on peut discerner, sous-jascente à de tels actes, cette confrontation des sentiments qui pourrait bien relier l'aimer et le manger, l'amour et l'ingestion. Comme face au rire de ces jolis bébés, si merveilleux que l'on a envie de les croquer. Et ce rapport à l'ingestion de l'autre pourrait bien transgresser toute valeur culturelle et s'inscrire non pas dans les structures de telle ou telle société mais, plus profondément, relever de nos comportements les plus universels, les plus naturels, de notre éthologie. Etonnante ingestion de l'autre.”
― Ludovic Slimak, The Last Neanderthal: Understanding How Humans Die

“Whether drilled into a shell, a tooth or a bone, the first Neanderthal hole has simply not yet been discovered.”
― Ludovic Slimak, The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature

“So even humans can die out without warning?”
― Ludovic Slimak, The Naked Neanderthal: A New Understanding of the Human Creature