I am annoyed no end by the fancy camera work—actually, digital image processing—in a new television series about the stone age, but I nevertheless enjoy tremendously the bold speculations about our ancestors that underlie much of the story. For instance, the so-called human revolution some forty-thousand years ago—when art and religion, among other wonders of prehistory, appear on the scene—is tentatively credited to the interaction between modern humans and Neanderthals, who were subsequently assimilated into the mainstream of humanity. Although the two species of Homo had joined battle in some parts of the world, where they competed for the same resources, there is evidence of their cooperation and interbreeding in others. Neither the cultural revolution of modern humans nor the disappearance of Neanderthals from the face of the earth makes much sense in the absence of such interaction. At any rate, I must admit that I was immediately attracted by this story, but I soon realized that this might have to do with my attitudes toward conflict in what used to be Yugoslavia.