Number 93 : July 1998 |
Harking back to a comment in C90 (page 14), John Stubbings mentions cave paintings. These have been variously interpreted as evidence of creative urges; ritual magic; or religious worship. An argument against creative urges was put forward by Joseph Campbell in 'The Masks of God, vol. 1, Primitive Mythology', when he asks why anyone should crawl "on his belly through a tube forty or fifty yards long to relieve a creative urge". He refers specifically to the painting of the "Sorcerer of Trois Freres", a human like figure apparently wearing an animal head, in a particularly inaccessible part of a cave near Lascaux. Campbell assumes the artist was there voluntarily: but what if he had been incarcerated there for some ancient misdemeanour, or in hiding?
Taking advantage of the fact that no-one really knows why such paintings were created, can I suggest that they might have been part of the local university. Hunting was a matter of life or death; and there was no nearby hospital if you got it wrong. It would presumably be vital to be able to recognise the various animals and to hone your technique with diagrams rather than with two tons of bovine muscle bearing down on you. Perhaps the "Sorcerer of Trois Freres" was the tutor, rather than shaman or god; and the artist had failed his finals, during which the tutor dressed as a deer or ox so that the students could demonstrate their newly acquired skills in a role play exercise. Features of such paintings are their apparent haphazard fashion and the fact that the animals are drawn with more accuracy than the humans. The caves were in use over some twenty thousand years. It's hardly a mystery if they're 'exercise books' in something of a jumble, and wouldn't it make sense if the animals they were learning about were drawn with more accuracy than the humans, about whom they already knew. Where simple hand-prints occur these could be the equivalent of doodling in the margins.
What has all this got to do with Art : apart from my having used it as an excuse to jump on a hobby horse ? Well, I could ask, "Are cave paintings Art?" Undoubtedly, because nowadays they have no purpose. Something which has purpose is an artefact. What we have been discussing is whether they were Art when they were painted (you didn't know that, did you?). Of course, something which has purpose can be Art as well. The Art content is usually in inverse proportion to its amount of usefulness, yet we often place a higher value on it. This helps to answer John Stubbings question in C92 (p.10). Great Art is always 100% useless and can be identified the moment some nutter pays six million for it.
The Eye of a Needle: I cannot agree with Graham Dare (C92/20) that religion was the third use of man's brain. Doesn't the Bible itself say that Adam and Eve knew God and took instructions from Him, even though they disobeyed them.
Other decisions have to do with human self-preservation; or the provision of a sufficient surplus of food, wealth, or land to serve as insurance for future human self-preservation. Perhaps the highly subjective point at which this surplus becomes greed is the point at which the end can no longer justify the means. If we assume that a person's end is to share heaven in the presence of God then this will represent an extremely low point: a point at which someone might well give his entire wealth to a dying beggar; or a point at which camels could pass through the eye of a needle.
Monkey Business : I don't think that Rick Street (C92/22) gives sufficient weight to Natural Selection. Picking out each other's fleas is beneficial to all. I don't know whether this behaviour comes from their genes or from copying their mum; copying itself being a useful trait, and almost certainly inherited. The way is open for a monkey to have a go at picking fleas off other animals; but as soon as it tried this on a lion its breeding potential might become limited. Self-awareness is always an unnecessary assumption. I recently caught sight of the top of my head in a mirror. Perceiving a large bald patch my first reaction was, "Who the hell's that?". So you see you can't be all that sure about me !
Anthony Owens
Anthony : Not much to comment on this time. Evidently, speculation is king in the kingdom of cave painting, where so little is known ! I take your point about the eyes of needles. Without a heavenly (and infinite) rewards structure, much of true Christian altruism becomes too onerous, and a more "selfish" game-theoretic structure of ethics seems more appropriate. This doesn’t rule out altruism altogether because of the need to preserve societies for the mutual benefit of their members, apportion jobs efficiently, avoid rebellions etc.
Theo