A Different Flesh by Harry Turtledove
"A Different Flesh" is a speculative fiction novel by Harry Turtledove that imagines an alternate history in which the Americas were populated by Homo erectus, referred to as "sims" by European explorers. This premise arises from a thought experiment by Stephen Jay Gould regarding how a distant human ancestor would be perceived if it coexisted with modern humans. In this alternate reality, the sims exist as hunter-gatherers but lack the advanced cognitive abilities of Homo sapiens, leading to a significantly different ecological and social landscape.
The novel explores themes of colonization, slavery, and the complexities of human identity and superiority. As Europeans settle the New World, they establish systems of agriculture that rely on the enslavement of the sims, which raises ethical questions about human rights and societal hierarchies. Additionally, the story examines how the existence of another intelligent species complicates traditional notions of race, as nonwhite humans in this alternate world perceive themselves as superior to the sims, thereby perpetuating cycles of oppression. With its blend of historical and social commentary, "A Different Flesh" invites readers to reflect on the implications of human diversity and the moral challenges inherent in societal power dynamics.
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Subject Terms
A Different Flesh
First published: 1988
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—alternate history
Time of work: The seventeenth century to the twentieth century
Locale: An alternate Earth
The Plot
In his preface to this novel, Harry Turtledove reveals that the idea for it came from an article by Stephen Jay Gould speculating about how humanity’s distant cousin, Australopithecus, would be treated if that species had survived. Turtledove decided to use a nearer cousin, Homo erectus, in his story. The short answer that he provides to the above question is “not very well.”
The story begins with an entry from a fictional reference work that establishes that the novel takes place in an alternate reality, with the difference that the New World, when discovered by Europeans, was populated by Homo erectus, dubbed “sims” by their discoverers. Living in bands of hunter-gatherers but lacking the neocortex, spoken language, and superior reasoning skills of Homo sapiens, sims were less efficient hunters than the denizens of the Old World. Consequently, species hunted to extinction in Europe and Asia still flourish in the New World. Among these are saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths.
Subsequent historical entries describe the settlement of the New World, the development of a rail system powered by woolly mammoths (later replaced by steam engines), the rise of plantation agriculture sustained through the enslavement of sims, and the development of a growing sims-rights movement. Each of these entries is followed by an expository episode that gives the details of the changes described.
The differences in this alternate reality, as compared to the known world, range from the obvious to the subtle. Because the Homo erectus population provides less resistance to colonization than did the actual Native Americans, the New World was colonized more quickly. Place names in the New World are all taken from the Old; the Mississippi River, for example, is called the New Nile. The North American government, lacking inspiration from the Iroquois Confederation, is patterned after Greek democracy and the centralized federal republic of ancient Rome.
The existence of sims makes it more difficult for Europeans to identify differences among humans. Slavery of nonwhite humans continues as an economic institution, and there are still those who, against all evidence to the contrary, impute inferior value to humans with darker skin pigmentation. The subtle difference from the reader’s reality is that nonwhite people know themselves to be superior to sims; therefore, they participate in the oppression of the less sophisticated life-form, and their self-respect, to some extent, rests on the knowledge that they are not on the bottom rung of the evolutionary ladder.