Contemporary societies as well

"They asked me to serve as editor for one of the encyclopaedia's major cross-cutting topics: the relationship between culture and the environment among hunting populations. I accepted and was assisted by Rebecca Miller, a colleague at the University of Liège. All the different contributions actually answer the same question: how have predator populations adapted over time? This question applies to both prehistoric populations in the traditional sense of the word, as well as existing populations without a written language, such as Australia's Aboriginal people, the Bushmen of South Africa, the Pygmies, the Fijians, Southeast Asian populations such as the ones living in Borneo, the Buryats in Siberia, etc. Taking existing populations into account was a new experience for me, and was the most exciting part of the work."

Humanity is the same everywhere, not only in geographic terms today, but also in the past. In Marcel Otte's opinion, the things that archaeologists traditionally study in prehistoric societies also take place in current civilisations that refuse to write. However, this doesn't mean they can't learn to write; we must not confuse ability with production. It's extremely important not to reduce a civilisation to its achievements. On this topic, we can refer to Marcel Otte's book L’aube de l’Humanité (Read The dawn of human spirituality), published in 2012 by Odile Jacob, in which he claims that the human spirit is what drives human destiny, much more than biology.

A clash of civilisations

Marcel Otte also recently edited a book (2) on the encounter between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, which he defines as "the most important event in the history of the European continent". What is he referring to? The period of time when successive waves of populations from Asia rapidly replaced populations that had been developing in Europe for hundreds of millennia (Neanderthals). Europeans are descended from these ancestral populations. Rather than just an encounter, it was perhaps more of a direct clash, according to Marcel Otte’s introduction to the book: "A system of values, shaken by proximity to another which seemed much stronger, cannot remain unchanged, as it beings to doubt its own relevance. Therefore it adapts, transforms, or disappears along with the population that no longer believes in it.”

The book, which includes several chapters written in English, is organised geographically, each chapter demonstrating how this encounter left its mark in various places all over Europe and even the Middle East, which experienced similar events. "Throughout the continent, there were extremely different reactions," explains Marcel Otte, "depending on the intensity of existing local traditions... The success of this modernity was irreversible, and served as the foundation for later civilisations in the area". This encounter had such a profound impact on Europe, explains Professor Otte, because "before that, a single population reigned over Europe, with various ethnicities that had very different traditions and a variety of spiritual expressions. After this encounter, there was a succession of civilisations that differed in their composition, duration, and geographic movements." 

(2) Neandertal/Cro-Magnon: la Rencontre, edited by Marcel Otte, Errance, 2014.