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The discovery of Homo floresiensis has done further damage to the credibility of the proponents of the "large brain" theory.
Although there was evidence that little people or pygmies were held in high esteem by their taller African brothers, so intent were Europeans on proving their superiority they ridiculed the notion.
The Flores discovery not only proves that pygmies could speak, something the Neanderthals could not do, but that they possesed tool making capabilities.
The ability to communicate ideas indicates that Pygmy society had the capability to attain a level of civilization much more sophisticated than anyting the Neanderthals could have produced, and probably did, hence the reverence they were afforded by early modern humans.
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