Who were Cain and Abel?

Cain slaying Abel by Rubens

We should know that the Hebrew Bible [on which the Christian Old Testament is based] was never taken literally by the Jews.These are stories,parables,lessons which need constant study and deliberation and study..

So the story of Cain and Abel  may be interpreted in different ways.For sure though,jealousy between brothers is still raging through the human psyche… and it may simply be that and its consequences.

But today I read that it may be  the story of how Neanderthal man Abel who would have hunted for flesh was killed off by homo sapiens who developed methods of growing grain which enabled humans to settle build  villages and to eventually develop civilisation ranging  from handwriting and numbers to laws and taxation and of course,war.Ironically the home of civilisation is the Middle East.So Cain and Abel were from different species but both human.And the story may be about guilt,that we killed other humans and we remain aggressive and warlike.I shall put some links here.

http://www.science20.com/hawkins_science/blog/could_story_cain_abel_be_story_genocide_neanderthals