The Social Context for European Palaeolithic Art

Bibliographic Data

ID9339149
AuthorsC Gamble (0000-0002-2897-0485, University of Southampton, corresponding author)
Year1991
Volume57
Issue01
Pages3-15
Publication date1991-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueProceedings of the Prehistoric Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0079-497X • E-ISSN: 2050-2729
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0079497x00004849
OpenAlexW2313025491
LanguageEN
Citations received31
References cited42

My aim in this paper is to put the question, ‘Where was the centre of the Upper Palaeolithic world?’. I promise no answers and I will confine the discussion to Europe. The purpose behind raising such a seemingly irrelevant problem is that its investigation leads us directly into issues of palaeolithic society, the interpretation of art in such contexts and the often opposed views of how art contributed to adaptation and change. At the outset let me declare that I am not dealing with the origins of art and its association, or not, with language. Art for me is, however, a system of communication and includes a wide range of mediums and messages. As an act of social communication it is defined by style which, as Wiessner (1984, 191) argues, has its behavioural basis in a fundamental human cognitive process; personal and social identification through comparison. Consequently style is not just a means of transmitting information about identity but is an active tool used in building social strategies ( ibid. 194). It has a role in negotiation which, as I shall argue below, is the basis for defining palaeolithic society

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Identification (biology · Identity (music · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Negotiation · Process (computing · Social science · Sociology · Style (visual arts · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · Computer Science · History · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology

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