Abrahamian, Levon H.

Adams, Kathleen M

Bahn, Paul G.

Black, Lydia T.

Davis, Whitney

Frost, Robin

Halverson, John

Layton, Robert

Lewis-Williams, David

Llamazares, Ana Maria

Maynard, Patrick

Stenhouse, David

English

The question of the  meaning  of Paleolithic cave art has been much discussed since the last century. Of all the theories proposed,  art for art\u27s sake  has had the least acceptance, while various hunting-magic explanations have enjoyed the most success, but all theories, including recent structuralist ones, have been found seriously flawed, and the present state of the question is evidently one of despair. This may be an indication that we have been asking the wrong questions and making the wrong assumptions. Particularly tenuous and suspect is the approach by analogy with modern hunter-gatherers with their long cultural traditions, for when we are dealing with the Paleolithic it is fundamental that we concern ourselves with beginnings. From this perspective, it is proposed that cave art has no  meaning  in any ordinary sense of the word, no religious, mythic, or metaphysical reference, no magical or practical purpose. It is to be understood, rather, as a reflection of an early stage of cognitive development, the beginnings of abstraction in the form of represented images. The activity would have been autotelic, a kind of play, specifically a free play of signifiers. Thus Paleolithic art may well have, in a fairly precise and instructive sense, art for art\u27s sake

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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works Faculty Publications 2-1987 "Art for Art's Sake in the Paleolithic" by J. Halverson and Comments and Reply John Halverson Levon H. Abrahamian Kathleen M. Adams Loyola University Chicago, kadams@luc.edu Paul G. Bahn Lydia T. Black See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/anthropology_facpubs  Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Halverson, John, Levon H. Abrahamian, Kathleen M. Adams, Paul G. Bahn, Lydia T. Black, Whitney Davis, Robin Frost, et al. 1987. "Art for Art's Sake in the Paleolithic [and Comments and Reply]". Current Anthropology. 28 (1): 63-89. Available at http://www.jstor.org.flagship.luc.edu/stable/2743113 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact ecommons@luc.edu. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. © University of Chicago Press, 1987. Authors John Halverson, Levon H. Abrahamian, Kathleen M. Adams, Paul G. Bahn, Lydia T. Black, Whitney Davis, Robin Frost, Robert Layton, David Lewis-Williams, Ana Maria Llamazares, Patrick Maynard, and David Stenhouse This article is available at Loyola eCommons: https://ecommons.luc.edu/anthropology_facpubs/3 This content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsThis content downloaded from 147.126.1.145 on Sat, 17 May 2014 22:56:25 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Art for Art\u27s Sake in the Paleolithic  by J. Halverson and Comments and Reply

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Art for Art\u27s Sake in the Paleolithic by J. Halverson and Comments and Reply

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