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Making sense of the chronology of Paleolithic cave painting from the perspective of material engagement theory

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Abstract

There exists a venerable tradition of interdisciplinary research into the origins and development of Paleolithic cave painting. In recent years this research has begun to be inflected by rapid advances in measurement techniques that are delivering chronological data with unprecedented accuracy. Patterns are emerging from the accumulating evidence whose precise interpretation demands corresponding advances in theory. It seems that cave painting went through several transitions, beginning with the creation of simple lines, dots and disks, followed by hand stencils, then by outlined figures, and finally by naturalistic figures. So far the most systematic evidence comes from Europe, although there are also indications that this sequence could be a universal pattern. The shamanic hypothesis provides a useful theoretical starting point because of its emphasis on the role of performance and phenomenology in the creative process. However, it still tends to reduce this sequence to mere stylistic and thematic changes that were external products of an already fully formed modern mind. Here I show how key insights from semiotics and material engagement theory can advance this explanatory framework to the extent that we become able to postdict the major transitions in the chronology of Paleolithic cave painting. An intriguing implication is that this is at the same time a chronology of cognitive changes, namely from a performative-phenomenological to a reflective-representational mind.

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Notes

  1. Throughout this article I have avoided the common terminology of cave ‘art’ in order not to give the impression that I am attributing our contemporary notion of art to Paleolithic people (Ingold 2000).

  2. I am not committed to taking a side in the contentious debate surrounding the taxonomy of human evolution. For the purposes of this article I base my classifications on the conservative estimates by Wood and Boyle (2016), although my arguments do not depend on this choice.

  3. Interestingly, this would make the shamanic hypothesis more consistent with a shamanic worldview, given that “the fundamental characteristic of many traditional societies, and in particular of those that practice shamanism, is fluidity” (Clottes 2016, p. 157).

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Acknowledgements

The ideas for this article first took shape during a research visit to the University of Wollongong enabled by a Vice-Chancellor’s International Scholar Award. I am particularly indebted to feedback provided by Zenobia Jacobs, Alex Mackay, and Sam Lin from the Centre for Archaeological Science, and by Daniel Hutto from the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry. I also thank Lambros Malafouris and Duilio Garofoli for their helpful discussions that allowed me to further sharpen my proposal. Finally, I thank Juan Manuel Arguelles for clarifying my understanding of Homo taxonomy. This work was supported by UNAM-DGAPA-PAPIIT project “Explorando los alcances de la auto-organización social: Desde la cultura hasta la célula” (IA104717).

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  1. Institute for Applied Mathematics and Systems Research (IIMAS), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, 04510, Mexico

    Tom Froese

  2. Center of the Sciences of Complexity (C3), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, 04510, Mexico

    Tom Froese

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Froese, T. Making sense of the chronology of Paleolithic cave painting from the perspective of material engagement theory. Phenom Cogn Sci 18, 91–112 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-017-9537-8

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