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Question: What is the significance of the cave art!? During Neolithic times!?
I know they helped us learn about them but what else!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


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Here's Emeri's source, with more info!. Apparently he prefers plagiarism to citing his source!.

http://en!.wikipedia!.org/wiki/Cave_painti!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Henri Breuil interpreted the paintings as being hunting magic, meant to increase the number of animals!. As there are some clay sculptures that seem to have been the targets of spears, this may partly be true, but does not explain the pictures of predators such as the lion or the bear!.

An alternative theory, developed by David Lewis-Williams and broadly based on ethnographic studies of contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, is that the paintings were made by Cro-Magnon shamans!. The shaman would retreat into the darkness of the caves, enter into a trance state and then paint images of their visions, perhaps with some notion of drawing power out of the cave walls themselves!. This goes some way toward explaining the remoteness of some of the paintings (which often occur in deep or small caves) and the variety of subject matter (from prey animals to predators and human hand-prints)!.

R!. Dale Guthrie has studied not only the most artistic and publicized paintings but also a variety of lower quality art and figurines, and he identifies a wide range of skill and ages among the artists!. He also points that the main themes in the paintings and other artifacts (powerful beasts, risky hunting scenes and the over-sexual representation of women in the Venus figurines) are to be expected in the fantasies of adolescent males, who made a big part of the human population at the time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nobody really knows its purpose!. The 'sympathetic magic' theory is the most popular!. The painters believed that painting would capture the spirits of the animals and ensure success in hunting them!.

It is sad to reflect that there are pictures on the walls of caves that are more skilled, refined and evocative than anything in today's modern exhibitions!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nobody can say really what they were for, but it is likely that they had some ritual significance, as much primitive art does!. I think though that cave art is generally associated with the paleolithic era!.Www@QuestionHome@Com