Questions and answers about art and rock art (original) (raw)
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Considerations on the Art and Aesthetics of Rock Art
The term 'rock art' is often used to refer to painting and engraving on rock. Many researchers qualify the term, while others refuse to associate the word 'art' with such painting and engraving. In the anthropological discourse of rock art there is a noticeable reluctance to associate prehistoric visual expression with art. The bases for this reluctance vary from researcher to researcher, but published comments revolve around a few general conceptions about art and aesthetics. These conceptions are grounded in the beliefs that art is a modern construct of Western civilization and that aesthetic sensibility played an insignificant role in the production and reception of prehistoric painting and engraving on rock. These beliefs, however, are based on uninformed ideas about art and aesthetics. The term 'rock art' is not only useful, it is appropriate.
Rock Art Studies News of the World IV
2015
Este libro compila diversos trabajos sobre arte rupestre en el mundo, desde diversos enfoques teórico-metodológicos y presentando un corpus sugerente sobre los diversos motivos rupestres localizados en diversos sitios arqueológicos. Una lectura necesaria para todo aquel interesado en el tema de la gráfica rupestre.
Theoretical approaches to rock art studies
Rock Art Research, 2016
To date most of the work in rock art studies has been done by archaeologists and anthropologists and so rock art research has mostly adopted theory related to historical contextualisation. Without playing down the contribution of archaeology and anthropology, i examine the theoretical basis of historical approaches before going on to assessments of non-historical or universalist approaches (those of structuralism and, more recently, the 'phosphene' hypothesis-both in its shamanic and non-shamanic versions). Finally, i give an account of my own approach which is applicable not only to rock art but to art in general, and in that respect has relevance to the discipline of art history. Specifically this approach involves a combination of phenomenology, cognitive science and neurophysiology. phenomenology, or the analysis of phenomena, provides a philosophical framework for the discussion of rock art from the standpoint of visual perception. at the same time cognitive science (in the form of perceptual psychology) and neurophysiology (knowledge of the neural structures of visual perception) provide experimental support for phenomenological analysis. Without excluding other approaches, this one seeks to offer yet another basis for a universalist rather than a historically oriented line on rock art studies.
Atelier Research Center for Conceptual Anthropology, 2019
Introduction In 1983, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) commissioned a World Report on the State of Research in Rock Art: the paintings and engravings in caves and on rock surfaces. It was the first attempt at a worldview on the most ancient art. After ten years, in 1993, another State of Research in Rock Art was commissioned by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). In 2008, UNESCO commissioned another World Report on Rock Art to update the previous ones and to advise on the strategies for nomination of new rock art sites in the World Heritage List. Having been the author of these three reports, I had the opportunity to assess the enormous progress made by rock art studies in the last decades. From the first descriptive texts attempting inventories and dating to the elaborate studies on its contents and conceptual background, research on rock art is becoming a well-structured discipline. This paper presents the main evaluations from the three world reports. It is a short summary of some chapters of the book World Rock Art (E. Anati, 2015, Capodiponte, 5th revised edition, Atelier Edit), which presents a synthesis of the world reports. A new discipline is evolving, exploring the meaning of symbols, identifying the main types of syntaxes in rock art and looking at the future, analyzing what uses research in rock art might have and how rock art is contributing to world culture and to human sciences. The Australian Aborigines of Arnhem Land say that rock art tells us the story of ‘Dreamtime’. This is probably true for rock art everywhere. The Aborigines consider Dreamtime to be the time beyond our direct memory, the mythic age of creation. According to Aborigines, it includes true history. Recent events, like the arrival of newcomers or the events of the last few generations, are considered chronicles, rather than history. Rock art is the record of history beyonddirect memory, documenting whatever impressed and concerned the early ancestors. The pictographic and ideographic systems used in rock art are reminiscent of dreams. Written history came much later and concerns only a short time and a small part of humanity, the one that became urban and literate. The early systems of organized writing are just 5,000 years old, while the earliest figurative rock art is over 50,000 years old. Only 500 years ago, a large majority of humankind in five continents still used rock art as the main means of recording and this pattern had persisted for 50,000 years. A number of recurring elements, present in the rock art of all continents, indicate that the basic grammar and syntax respond to universal patterns of cognition, logic, and communication. Rock art appears as the expression of a primordial language of communication, with different dialects. It can be decoded and read disregarding the language in which one thinks and communicates. Theoretically, pictographic protoscript can be read and understood in any spoken and written language. Its reading requires, however, an acquaintance with its elementary associative and metaphorical systems. To reactivate the use of a method of pictographic and ideographic writing that can be read in any language in the world would open up a new horizon for human communication and may appear as a sort of utopia. And yet our cultural heritage is providing very old examples of successful attempts in communicating messages with figures and signs that can be understood in any language. The system applied by the rock art makers is simple and follows some elementary principles. The same kind of logic is widespread both geographically and chronologically, but each period and each culture have their own peculiarities. Such local features enable us to detect the common denominators. Could we reactivate primordial picture writing? How could linguists and epigraphers contribute to the progress of such a revolutionary concept? Rock art reveals the human capacities of abstraction, synthesis, and idealization. It describes economic and social activities, ideas, beliefs, and practices, providing unique insight into the intellectual life and cultural patterns of mankind. Long before the invention of methodical writing, rock art recorded the most ancient testimony of human imaginative and artistic creativity. It constitutes one of the most significant aspects of the commonheritage of humanity. Rock art may become a valuable source of touristic and economic development. For the administrators, these expected economic results are often more convincing than the cultural value of the sites. But it is an immense cultural heritage, a source of history, education, and scientific research.
Beyond Materiality:Sintaxis and relationality of rock art and some of the things we call nature
From the analysis of the spatial distribution of the rock art in three zones of the upper basin of the Aconcagua River in central Chile, please insert the phrase: we discuss the materialization of a particular settlement pattern th necessary and significant dialogue that is established between the engravings and certain elements of its surrounding environment. Dialogue which trespasses our classical notions of culture and nature to face us with a different reality, in which the meaning of rock art transcends the rock delete materiality of the rock to be inserted in a more complex totality, which seen from an Andean perspective corresponds to Uywaña.
Time and Mind, 2019
For a long time, art historians have developed a restrictive view of the phenomenon of art and have participated in the creation of a Eurocentric vision of global human history. Effectively, art history became a reflection of the wider framework of European cultural dominance, colonial exploitation and appropriation. A key notion in this respect is, for example, the idea of ‘primitive art’. One could argue that these configurations are still dominant within art history, so that the latter is regarded as being of limited value from the perspective of comparative social science disciplines, such as archaeology, rock art studies and social anthropology. However, recently, new developments within and from outside of the field have increasingly criticised and questioned the dominant orientation of art history. These include the challenge that is presented by indigenous artists, their voices and perspectives, an engagement with recent social theoretical debates (such as the ‘ontological turn’) and ongoing discussions about the fundamental character of (anthropological) inquiry itself and the similarities to writing and, more broadly, artistic creation. This paper explores how these diverse tendencies can be beneficial within the study of rock art and archaeology.
Rock Art Studies. News of the World V
Edited by Paul Bahn, Natalie Franklin, Matthias Strecker and Ekaterina Devlet, 2016
Este libro recopila varios artículos de diversos especialistas en el tema del arte rupestre. Se menciona sobre la importancia del registro, fechamiento e interpretación de los grafismos rupestres, abordados en ocasiones por áreas culturales y estilos de representación.