Neandertals evolved in the larger environmental context of the cold climates of Middle Pleistocene western Eurasia, and therefore display specific morphological and metabolic adaptations, alongside cultural strategies, to thermoregulate and maintain body heat in the face of cold stress. These adaptations align with Bergmann’s and Allen’s rules, indicating that Neandertals had greater body masses and shorter limbs, traits conducive to minimizing heat loss. After the migration of Homo erectus into more temperate zones 1.8 million years ago, Neandertals developed cold adapted claviculo-humeral, brachial, and crural indices but also show regional variation in cold adaptation strategies among Neandertal populations across Europe and West Asia. Although evidence points toward these thermoregulatory adaptations in Neandertals, interpreting these traits as direct outcomes of climatic selection is complex due to the minimal impact of limb proportions on surface area and demonstrated influences of population history on patterns of body form.

This chapter provides a detailed review of the Neandertal facial skeleton with an emphasis on evolutionary interpretations drawn from comparisons to both extant modern humans and earlier fossil Homo. The spatial dynamics involved in the evolution of “midfacial prognathism” within the Neandertal lineage are discussed followed by comparative anatomical descriptions of the Neandertal supraorbital region, ocular orbits, nasal skeleton, infraorbital region, maxillary dental arcade/palate, and mandible. The chapter concludes with a review of unresolved debates regarding potential adaptive (e.g., biomechanical, climatic) and neutral (e.g., genetic drift) evolutionary forces that may have contributed to the appearance of Neandertal facial features.

The bones of the Neandertal shoulder are distinguished from those of most living humans by (among other things) their long and gracile clavicles and their broad scapulae with narrow glenoid fossae and dorsal sulci on their axillary borders. The adaptive and evolutionary significance of interspecific variation in shoulder morphology, however, is unclear. Some of the features that differentiate the shoulders of Neandertals and modern humans, such as the long clavicles of Neandertals, may reflect overall differences in somatic bauplan between species, in the context of morphological integration of the thorax, shoulder, and upper limb. Other features, such as the shape of the scapular glenoid fossa, may contain information about interspecific differences in habitual upper limb use. Resolving among different possible explanations of observed patterns of variation is central to efforts to understand the behavior and biology of the Neandertals.

This chapter reviews the fossil evidence for Neandertal pelvic morphology. Although the sample available is fairly small, it suggests that Neandertals share a set of features that differentiate them somewhat on average from modern humans. As noted by the first describers of the pelvis in Neandertals, this includes a long and thin superior pubic ramus, a broad overall breadth of the pelvis, and a general robusticity of the pelvis. The overall breadth of the pelvis and probably the length of the superior pubic ramus appear to reflect the primitive condition for hominins rather than derived features of Neandertals. It is likely that Neandertals gave birth with a similar degree of difficulty and a birth mechanism as is generally the case for modern humans. Obstetrics, locomotor constraints, and climatic adaptation are all important factors that need to be considered in an understanding of the pelvis in Neandertals.

The discovery and analysis of immature Neandertal remains have yielded significant insights into Neandertal growth and development, despite numerous historical challenges in the curation and study of these fossils. The relatively large number of immature Neandertal remains, attributed in part to their practice of intentional burial, has allowed for extensive ontogenetic studies. Early research focused on the timing of Neandertal trait emergence, and recent studies have expanded to include aspects such as birth, gestation, and growth rates. Notable differences between Neandertals and modern humans have been observed, particularly in craniofacial growth, brain development, and dental formation. Despite some evidence suggesting accelerated dental development in Neandertals, there is still considerable debate. Postcranial studies have highlighted distinctive features that emerge early in Neandertal growth, although discrepancies between dental and skeletal maturity remain. Future research is poised to benefit from integrated approaches that combine cranial, dental, and postcranial data and consider a wide range of comparative samples. Understanding Neandertal growth within a developmental context not only enhances our knowledge of Neandertals but also provides broader insights into human evolutionary biology.

Since the discovery of the first Neandertal fossils, the neurocranium has been of particular interest to specialists and the general public, particularly in relation to the question of what cognitive abilities can be inferred from the braincase. Here we present a detailed description and analysis of the neurocranial morphology of Neandertals and compare it with that of living humans and the fossil hominins that likely represent our last common ancestor. Our analyses show that the Neandertal neurocranium provides relatively few clues about the structural and functional characteristics of the brain it once contained. The unique morphology of the Neandertal braincase is best understood as a compromise between the spatial demands of a large brain and the biomechanical demands of a large and evolutionarily derived face.

This chapter deals with the institutional history of Nuer Christianity and examines how various interconnections that were made possible through people’s movement across the frontierlands contributed to the development of churches and the circulation of Christian knowledge. It starts in the early twentieth century with the coming of missionaries to southern Sudan and explores the introduction of Seventh-day Adventism in the 1970s and the consequent emergence of Messianic groups out of the Adventist church since the 1990s. The chapter demonstrates how claims of biblical authenticity (that is, of being the ’true church’) fuelled schisms and institutional fragmentation. The chapter is concerned with both the history and proliferation of Messianic institutions in Gambella, and the ways in which Messianics thought about the history and biblical indexicality of their churches, as institutions that traced their roots to the Holy Bible.

This chapter explores Nuer experiences of encountering the urban frontier and the Ethiopian state in the borderlands. It does so by tracing the history and evolution of Gambella town and Newland, the Nuer dominated peri-urban settlement at its eastern edges. Newland has long been a place that attracted people seeking modern education and links with new actors and institutions. Over the past two decades, this peri-urban settlement expanded significantly and emerged as an important node in global Nuer networks. The chapter highlights the salience of fears of manipulation, trickery, and embarrassment in people’s engagements with the urban frontier, and central role such sentiments played in motivating people’s quest for education, knowledge, and global connectivity in the urban environment. The attitudes concerning learning and modern education that this chapter explores are essential for understanding the religious dynamics described in the rest of the book.

While there were some aspects of Nuer ‘tradition’ or ‘culture’ that Messianics in Gambella proudly endorsed and celebrated as biblically authentic, others were rejected as ‘pagan’ or satanic. In this chapter, I turn to the relationship between Messianic Judaism and ‘Nuer customary law’, to explain these dynamics. The chapter traces the process through which the spiritual significance of cattle declined, under the influence of the secular state, and instead, under born-again Christian doctrines, the individual human (body and soul) emerged as the prime means of communicating with God. Cattle in its desacralised form, however, was still used by Messianics for bridewealth payments, and they insisted that their marriage practices were not only the most loyal to Nuer ‘tradition’ but also biblically authentic. The chapter offers new insights on the endurance of pre-Christian practices among African born-again Christians, showing how old ‘customs’ may be deemed relevant and meaningful even under a radically new regime of spiritual mediation.

This chapter ties together the arguments of the book and sketches out their broader implications. It addresses, in particular, three issues. The first is what Messianic claims regarding divine indexicality and authority may tell us about political culture and local perceptions of secular government authority in the South Sudan-Ethiopia borderlands. The second is whether the Messianic preoccupation with truth and self-awareness is a distinctively ‘modern’ disposition or an attitude that is historically and culturally informed and therefore also speaks to local notions of spiritual mediation. Finally, the chapter returns to Christian Zionism and Africa’s Messianic frontier and sketches out some of the ways in which the case of Gambella’s Messianic Jews may be indicative of processes and trends evident among African born-again Christians more broadly.