Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:09:05.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The eyes have it: human perception and anthropomorphic faces in world rock art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ben Watson
Ben Watson*
Affiliation:
Centre for Classics & Archaeology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Why do early artists draw eyes? The author argues that they reflect the evolution of the brain in its expressions of fear, love and behaviour, and invites us to apply this ethological approach more widely to the study of early symbolism.

Keywords

Palaeolithic arthomininsethologybehaviourfacial expression
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 327 , March 2011 , pp. 87 - 98
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aikens, N.E. 1998. Human cardiovascular response to the eye spot threat stimulus. Evolution and Cognition 4:1–12.Google Scholar
Alley, T.R. & Cunningham, M.R. 1991. Average faces are attractive, but very attractive faces are not average. Psychological Science 2:123–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alpert, B.O. 2009. The creative ice age brain: cave art in the light of neuroscience. Santa Fe (NM): Foundation 20-21.Google Scholar
Aronoff, A. & Barclay, A.M. 1988. The recognition of threatening facial stimuli. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54(4):647-55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Attneave, F. 1955. Symmetry, information and memory for patterns. American Journal of Psychology 68(2):209–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bahn, P.G. 1999. Face to face with the earliest art object, in Strecker, M. & Bahn, P.G. (ed.) Dating and the earliest known rock art: papers presented in symposia 1-3 of the SIARB Congress, Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 1997 (Oxbow Monographs in Archaeology 101): 75-7. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Barlow, H.B. & Reeves, B.C. 1979. The versatility and absolute efficiency of detecting mirror symmetry in random dot displays. Vision Research 19:783–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrowclough, D.A. 2004. How little does it take to represent a face? Archaeological Review from Cambridge 19(1):99–113.Google Scholar
Beck, D.M., Pinsk, M.A. & Kastner, S. 2005. Symmetry perception in humans and macaques. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 9(9):405–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bednarik, R.G. 1998. The australopithecine cobble from Makapansgat, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 53(167):4–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bentin, S., Allison, T., Puce, A., Perez, E. & Mccarthy, G. 1996. Electrophysiological studies of face perception in humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 8:551–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bern, C. & Herzog, A. 1994. Stimulus control of defensive behaviours of garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis): effects of eye-spots and movement. Journal of Comparative Psychology 108:353–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corballis, M.C. & Roldan, C.E. 1974. On the perception of symmetrical and repeated patterns. Perception and Psychophysics 16:136–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coss, R.G. 1965. Mood provoking visual stimuli: their origins and applications. Los Angeles (CA): University of California Press.Google Scholar
Coss, R.G. 1968. The ethological command in art. Leonardo 1:273–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coss, R.G. 1970. The perceptual aspects of eye-spot patterns and their relevance to gaze behaviour, in Hutt, C. & Hutt, S.J. (ed.) Behaviour studies in psychiatry: 121-47. London: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Coss, R.G. 1972. Eye-like schemata: their effect on behaviour. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Reading.Google Scholar
Coss, R.G. 1978. Perceptual determinants of gaze aversion by the lesser mouse lemur (Mirocepbus murinus): the role of two facing eyes. Behaviour 64:248–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coss, R.G. 2003. The role of evolved perceptual biases in art and design, in Voland, E. & Grammer, K. (ed.) Evolutionary aesthetics: 69–130. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, I.M. 1968. The art of the Wandjina. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Crawford, I.M. 1973. Wandjina paintings, in Berndt, R.M. & Philips, E.S. (ed.) The Australian Aboriginal heritage: an introduction through the arts: 108–117. Sydney: Australian Society for Education through the Arts, Ure Smith.Google Scholar
Dart, R. 1974. The waterworn australopithecine pebble of many faces from Makapansgat. South African Journal of Science 70:167–9.Google Scholar
David, B., Chant, N. & Flood, J. 1992. Jalijban 2 and the distribution of pecked faces in Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 32(1):61–77.Google Scholar
Deregowski, J. B. 1978. Role of symmetry in pattern reproduction. British Journal of Psychology 69:217–24.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Deregowski, J. B. 2007. About rock art, perception and the Bushmen of southern Africa, in Reddy, P. Chenna (ed.) Exploring the mind of ancient man: festschrift to Robert G. Bednarik: 88–100. New Delhi: Research India Press.Google Scholar
Dissanayake, E. 1998. Komar and Melamid discover Pleistocene taste. Philosophy and Literature 22(2):486-96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, W.C. 1977. Facial representations in Pilbara rock engravings, in Ucko, P.J. (ed.) Form in indigenous art: schematisation in the art of Aboriginal Australia and prehistoric Europe (Prehistory and Material Culture series 13): 277-85. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Doring, J. (ed.) 2000. Gwion Gwion: secret and sacred pathways of the Ngarinyin Aboriginal people of Australia. Koln: Konemann.Google Scholar
Dziurawiec, S. & Deregowski, J. B. 2002. The eyes have it: a perceptual investigation of eyespots. Perception 31:1313–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edwards, R. 1968. Prehistoric rock engravings at Thomas Reservoir, Cleland Hills, western central Australia. Records of the South Australian Museum 15(4):647-70.Google Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. 1975. Ethology: the biology of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Eisenman, R. & Gellens, H.K. 1968. Preference for complexity-simplicity and symmetry-asymmetry. Perceptual and Motor Skills 26:888–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekman, P. 1970. Universal facial expressions of emotion. California Mental Health Research Digest 8:151–8.Google Scholar
Ellsworth, P., Carlsmith, M. & Henson, A. 1972. The stare as a stimulus to flight in human subjects: a series of field experiments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 21:302–311.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, C.S., Wenderoth, P. & Cheng, K. 2000. Detection of bilateral symmetry in complex biological images. Perception 29:31–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fink, B., Neave, N., Manning, J.T. & Grammer, K. 2006. Facial symmetry and judgements of attractiveness, health and personality. Personality and Individual Differences 41(3):491-9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, E., Lester, V., Russo, R., Bowles, R.J., Puichler, A. & Dutton, K. 2000. Facial expressions of emotion: are angry faces detected more efficiently? Cognition and Emotion 14(1):61–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grammer, K. & Thornhill, R. 1994. Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness and sexual selection: the role of symmetry and averageness. Journal of Comparative Psychology 108(3):233-42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, B. & Hill, R. 1974. Indian petroglyphs of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle (WA): University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Hinde, R.A. 1982. Ethology. London: Fontana.Google Scholar
Hinton, H.E. 1974. Natural deception, in Gregory, R.L. & Gombrich, E.H. (ed.) Illusion in nature and art: 96–159. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Hodgson, D. & Helvenston, P.A. 2006. The emergence of the representation of animals in palaeoart: insights from evolution and the cognitive, limbic and visual systems of the human brain. Rock Art Research 23(1):3–40.Google Scholar
Hoffman, E.A. & Haxby, J.V. 2000. Distinct representations of eye gaze and identity in the distributed human neural system for face perception. Nature Neuroscience 3:80–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Homa, D., Haver, B. & Schwartz, T. 1976. Perceptibility of schematic face stimuli: evidence for a perceptual gestalt. Memory and Cognition 4(2):176-85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Humphrey, D. 2004. Symmetries in development: the eye is quicker than the hand, in Washburn, D.K. (ed.) Embedded symmetries: natural and cultural: 7–18. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, M.H. & Morton, J. 1991. Biology and cognitive development: the case of face recognition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kagan, J., Henker, B.A., Hen-Tov, A. & Levine, J. 1966. Infants' differential reactions to familiar and distorted faces. Child Development 37(3):519-32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanwisher, N. & Yovel, G. 2006. The fusiform face area: a cortical region specialized for the perception of faces. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B, Biological Sciences 361(1476):2109–2128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keil, M. S. 2009. I look in your eyes, honey: internal face features induce spatial frequency preference for human face processing. PLoS Computational Biology 5(3): e1000329. http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi. 1000329 (accessed 4 March 2010).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kellogg, R.M. 1969. Analyzing children's art. Palo Alto (CA): Mayfield.Google Scholar
Langlois, J.H. & Roggman, L.A. 1990. Attractive faces are only average. Psychological Science 1:115–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latto, R. 1995. The brain of the beholder, in Gregory, R.L., Harris, J., Heard, P. & Rose, D. (ed.) The artful eye: 66–94. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, G. 1992. The rock art of Easter Island: symbols of power, prayers to the gods. Los Angeles (CA): UCLA Institute of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Leen, D. 2009. A gallery of northwest petroglyphs: Shamanic art of the Pacific Northwest. http://www.danielleen.org/petroglyphs.html (accessed 4 March 2010).Google Scholar
Lorblanchet, M. 1989. From man to animal and sign in Palaeolithic art, in Morphy, H. (ed.) Animals into art (One World Archaeology 7): 109–143. London: Unwin Hyman.Google Scholar
Matsumoto, D. & Willingham, B. 2009. Spontaneous facial expressions of emotion and congenitally and noncongenitally blind individuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 96(1):1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mcdonald, J. 2005. Archaic faces to headdresses: the changing role of rock art across the arid zone, in Veth, P., Smith, M. & Hiscock, P. (ed.) Desert peoples: archaeological perspectives: 116-41. Malden (MA) & Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mealey, L., Bridgestock, R. & Townsend, G. 1999. Symmetry and perceived facial attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76:151–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Meltzoff, A.N. & Moore, M.K. 1983. Newborn infants imitate adult facial gestures. Child Development 54(3):702–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mowaljarlai, D. & Malnic, J. 1993. Yorro Yorro: spirit of the Kimberley. Broome: Magabala Books.Google Scholar
Nelson, C.A. 2001. The development and neural bases of face recognition. Infant and Child Development 10(3):3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noton, D. & Stark, L. 1971. Eye movements and visual perception. Scientific American 224:35–43.Google ScholarPubMed
Okladnikov, A.P. 1969. The petroglyphs of Siberia. Scientific American 221(2):74–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okladnikov, A.P. 1981. Art of the Amur: ancient art of the Russian Far East. New York: Harry N. Abrams; Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers.Google Scholar
Parker, D.M. & Deregowski, J.B. 1990. Perception and artistic style. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Pascalis, O., Haan, M. De & Nelson, C.A. 2002. Is face processing species-specific during the first year of life? Science 296:1321–3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Puce, A., Allison, T., Bentin, S., Gore, J.C. & Mccarthy, G. 1998. Temporal cortex activation in humans viewing eye and mouth movements. Journal of Neuroscience 18:2188–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramachandran, V.S. 2003. The neurological basis of artistic universals. Paper presented at the Euro-Edu Association Art and Cognition Online Virtual Conference, Nov 2002-Feb 2003. http://www.interdisciplines.org/artcog/papers/9 (accessed 4 March 2010).Google Scholar
Ramachandran, V.S. & Hirstein, W. 1999. The science of art: a neurological theory of aesthetic experience. Journal of Consciousness Studies 6(6/7):15–51.Google Scholar
Rhodes, G., Yoshikawa, S., Palermo, R., Simmons, L.W., Peters, M., Lee, K., Halberstadt, J. & Crawford, J.R. 2007. Perceived health contributes to the attractiveness of facial symmetry, averageness and sexual dimorphism. Perception 36(8):1244-52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ross, J. & Smith, M. 2009. An engraved archaic face in the north-eastern Simpson Desert. Australian Archaeology 69:68–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, E.S. 1943. Perceptual and sensory signs in instinctive behaviour. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 154:195–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solso, R.L. 2000. The cognitive neuroscience of art: a preliminary fMRI observation. Journal of Consciousness Studies 7:75–85.Google Scholar
Solso, R.L. 2001. Brain activities in a skilled versus a novice artist: an fMRI study. Leonardo 34:31–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sütterlin, C. 2003. From sign to schema to iconic representation: evolutionary aesthetics of pictorial art, in Voland, E. & Grammer, K. (ed.) Evolutionary aesthetics: 131-70. Berlin: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, K. 1996. Inferotemporal cortex and object vision. Annual Review of Neuroscience 19:109–139.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tinbergen, N. 1953. The herring gull's world: a study of the social behaviour of birds (New Naturalist monograph 9). London: Collins.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, N. & Perdeck, A.C. 1950. On the stimulus situation releasing the begging response in the newly hatched herring gull chick. Behaviour 3:1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tong, F., Nakayama, K., Moscovitch, M., Weinrib, O. & Kanwisher, N. 2000. Response properties of the human fusiform face area. Cognitive Neuropsychology 17:257–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tseveendorj, D., Tserendagva, Y. & Gunchinsuren, B. 2007. Some images of the Javkhlant Khairkhan petroglyphs (Mongolia). International Newsletter on Rock Art 47:15–20.Google Scholar
Ucko, P.J. & Rosenfeld, A. 1972. Anthropomorphic representations in Palaeolithic art, in Basch, M. Almagro & Garcia Guinea, M.A. (ed.) Santander Symposium: actas del Symposium Internacional de Arte Rupestre: Santander-Asturias, 14 al 20 septiembre 1970: 149–211. Santander & Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas.Google Scholar
Uduehi, J. 1995. A cross cultural assessment of the Maitland Graves Design Judgement Test using US and Nigerian subjects. Visual Arts Research 13:11–18.Google Scholar
Watson, B. 2009. Universal visions: neuroscience and recurrent characteristics of world palaeoart. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Wicker, B., Michel, F., Henaff, M. & Decety, J. 1998. Brain regions involved in the perception of gaze: a PET study. Neuroimage 8:22–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolf, J.M. & Friedman-Hill, S.R. 1992. On the role of symmetry in visual search. Psychological Science 3:194–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar