Before I read TFA, I had the same suspicion. This passage indicates that there is at least a cultural connection; that's probably enough: Two of Mungo Man’s ca

Before I read TFA, I had the same suspicion. This passage indicates that there is at least a cultural connection; that's probably enough: Two of Mungo Man’s canine teeth, in the lower jaw, were also missing, possibly the result of an adolescent initiation ceremony, and there were the remains of a circular fireplace found nearby. “It took me a long time to digest the implications,” Bowler said. Today, Aboriginal people still use smoke to cleanse the dead. “It’s the same ritual, and there it was 40,000 years ago.” Keeping the same customs for forty millennia is an amazing accomplishment.