Early Humans: Culture Cave Art c. 15,000 BCE Chauvet & Lascaux Caves (France)
Feb 23, 2016
Early Humans:Culture
Cave Artc. 15,000 BCE
Chauvet & Lascaux Caves (France)
Artist’s “Canvas”
• People of prehistoric times were excellent big-game hunters consistently brought home food.
• Did not need to work very hard and had plenty of leisure time Art = FUN!
• Art during this time may have been a teaching tool for kids to learn lessons about the hunt.
Sympathetic Magic
• Sympathetic Magic making an image of something gives the artist power over whatever the image represents
• Drawing wounded/incomplete animals could create real wounded, dead, or weakened animals = EASY to hunt
Vision Quest
• Walls & floors of caves = boundaries between this world and the spirit-world
• Shaman communicates with and interprets the supernatural:– Dark, silence, isolation)– Hallucinogenic drugs– Pain (handprints on cave walls sometimes show
mutilated hand prints)
• Cave art = PORTAL to the supernatural world