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Thinking with Animals in Upper Palaeolithic Rock Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2009

Georges Sauvet ,
Robert Layton ,
Tilman Lenssen-Erz ,
Paul Taçon  and
André Wlodarczyk
Georges Sauvet
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche et d'Etude de l'Art Préhistorique, UTAH (UMR 5608), Toulouse, France; Email: [email protected]
Robert Layton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Dawson Building, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK; Email: [email protected]
Tilman Lenssen-Erz
Affiliation:
African Research Unit, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Jennerstr. 8, 50823 Cologne, Germany; Email: [email protected]
Paul Taçon
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Queensland 4222, Australia; Email: [email protected]
André Wlodarczyk
Affiliation:
Centre de Linguistique théorique et appliqué, Maison de la Recherche (CELTA - EA 3553), Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris 4), 28, rue Serpente, 75006 Paris, France; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article develops a novel method for assessing the cultural context of rock art, and applies it to the rock art of the Upper Palaeolithic of France and Spain. The article relies on a generative approach, assuming that artists have the potential to choose which motifs to select from the repertoire or vocabulary of their artistic system, but that appropriate choices at any place are guided by the location of that site within the culturally-mediated geography of the region. Ethnographic studies of rock art depicting animal species produced in the contexts of totemism, shamanism and everyday life are used as reference points in an analytical framework, which is then applied to a number of ancient traditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , October 2009 , pp. 319 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2009

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