Episode 70: Master of the World (1983)

We’re getting back to our roots with Master of the World (1983), an Italian film about modern humans and Neanderthals, and cave bears, and cannibalism, and fighting! And herons. And a plot? Well this is an artistic film, so if you didn’t get it then maybe you’re just not as evolved as we are. Win some SotSA Merch! Send your mistakes, inaccuracies, and corrections to us by email or social media: Twitter: @SotSA_Podcast Bluesky: @sotsapodcast.bsky.social Facebook: @SotSAPodcast Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/sotsa/ Email: [email protected] In this episode: The world’s oldest spears: https://archive.archaeology.org/9705/newsbriefs/spears.html Modern humans ate Neanderthals? https://www.theguardian.com/science/2009/may/17/neanderthals-cannibalism-anthropological-sciences-journal The Fore people and Kuru disease: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/06/482952588/when-people-ate-people-a-strange-disease-emerged Endocannibalism, finger amputation, and other funerary practices: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/how-these-5-death-rituals-from-around-the-world-honor-the-dead You’re Wrong About – Survival in the Andes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/flight-571-survival-in-the-andes-with-blair-braverman/id1380008439?i=1000584554361 The Last Podcast on the Left – Survival in the Andes: https://podcasts.apple.com/il/podcast/episode-557-survival-in-the-andes-part-i-stayin-alive/id437299706?i=1000638739044 The Cult of the Cave Bear: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-cult-of-the-cave-bear/ A Cross-cultural Perspective on Upper Palaeolithic Hand Images with Missing Phalanges: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41982-018-0016-8 I couldn’t find an ethnographic source for the use of birthing poles, but here’s an article from OrgasmicBirth.com: https://www.orgasmicbirth.com/birthing-pole/ Were bees the source of the Shanidar burial pollen? https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/aug/28/study-casts-doubt-on-neanderthal-flower-burial-theory Samson killed a thousand men with a donkey’s jawbone: https://www.bible.com/bible/compare/JDG.15.16 Chewbacca’s voice: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/the-remarkable-way-chewbacca-got-a-voice/375697/ Badger badger badger… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1jEh2bUWuM