The Nature of Paleolithic Art

The Nature of Paleolithic Art
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Marking time

A Masterpiece

A different look at Paleolithic Art

Its the Story of "Us"

Finally, some common sense.

The Nature of Paleolithic Art
R. Dale Guthrie
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0226311260

Book Description

The cave paintings and other preserved remnants of Paleolithic peoples shed light on a world little known to us, one so deeply embedded in time that information about it seems unrecoverable. While art historians have wrestled with these images and objects, very few scientists have weighed in on Paleolithic art as artifacts of a complex, living society. R. Dale Guthrie is one of the first to do so, and his monumental volume The Nature of Paleolithic Art is a landmark study that will change the shape of our understanding of these marvelous images.

With a natural historian's keen eye for observation, and as one who has spent a lifetime using bones and other excavated materials to piece together past human behavior and environments, Guthrie demonstrates that Paleolithic art is a mode of expression we can comprehend to a remarkable degree and that the perspective of natural history is integral to that comprehension. He employs a mix of ethology, evolutionary biology, and human universals to access these distant cultures and their art and artifacts. Guthrie uses innovative forensic techniques to reveal new information; estimating, for example, the ages and sexes of some of the artists, he establishes that Paleolithic art was not just the creation of male shamans.

With more than 3,000 images, The Nature of Paleolithic Art offers the most comprehensive representation of Paleolithic art ever published and a radical (and controversial) new way of interpreting it. The variety and content of these images—most of which have never been available or easily accessible to nonspecialists or even researchers—will astonish you. This wonderfully written work of natural history, of observation and evidence, tells the great story of our deepest past.

Customer Reviews:

Marking time.......2007-06-04

Since the first finds of ancient cave art in Spain at the end of the 19th Century, researchers have sought to understand what prompted them. Various theories, from "hunting magic" to links to spirits have been put forward. Dale Guthrie, with many years experience in the field to draw upon, argues a new idea. Searching for "hidden meaning", he contends, is a false trail. Instead, he wants the art viewed as a window into the life of the times. What's important, he argues, is that the artworks represent what was significant to people living in ancient times. He considers those fabulous images as representations of rather mundane depictions of daily encounters. In this exhaustive study, Guthrie re-draws the art of the caves and inscribed on bone and horns, the tools, and some of the methods used.

He reminds us that most of the portrayed animal life wasn't a major part of the Paleolithic diet. Lions, bears and horses weren't consumed by those early peoples. Reindeer, easier to hunt and comprising much of the meal debris found, are far less common on the cave rocks. Cave art, he says, exhibits an unexpected unity of subject and presentation. As "unrealistic" portrayals, cave images show frequent exaggerations, which are common across many sites. This point, coupled with the hidden locations of so many rock art sites, instead of giving the art "hidden" purpose as well, suggests to Guthrie that the artists were just as likely people staying out sight. From this, he surmises that young people not occupied in hunting or other specialised tasks, may have been "dabbling" in making the images. He cites the number of small hand prints found on the walls as an indication of this claim. As he, and others have recognised, people went into the caves to make images, not to live in them. Caves are fine places to shelter, particularly during extended cold seasons. Passing the time by engaging in making graffiti may be our species' oldest form of alleviating boredom.

The author's surmise about young men being a significant portion of the cave artists leads him into further speculations about Paleolithic society in general. From the premise that those ancient people were physiologically much like ourselves, he assumes their mental capacity and social relations were much like modern humans, if a bit more primitive in technological abilities. Family relations were probably monogamous, he assumes - which departs from the numerous polygamous cultures that still exist today. The harsh environment forced people into small, intimate bands: "tribes" remained an innovation of the future. Conservation or almost any form of game animal management was impossible. Habitat relocation would be forced by the paucity of vegetable foods due to cold or varying conditions.

Guthrie's background is zoology, not graphics. That foundation gives him the basis for his fresh outlook on the subject. Yet, instead of offering a "coffee-table" volume of photographs, he has created his own images, all in sepia, to explain his ideas. Nearly every page contains these miniatures with explanatory text accompanying them. We must trust his abilities in conveying the images, and in some cases, what they actually represent. The minimal size of these graphics limits the available detail, and are indicators of his points, not evidence. It's a daunting task to keep track of his themes and how the images support them in many instances. However, since the images are the basis for his thinking, fewer of them and larger renditions would grant his ideas more credibility. Although his chapters are short and direct in making their points, bringing all the information together isn't a task for a novice in the subject. It's not an introductory text. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A Masterpiece.......2006-08-21

This book is an absolute tour de force and I was totally won over to Guthrie's premise at the end, after at first being a little skeptical. I will leave it to the experts to argue detail points, but I will assume that Guthrie's reproductions are accurate, and that his intellectual and philosophical underpinnings will stand firm in the storm. I don't see how it is possible to fault Guthrie's profound analysis and interpretations of Paleolithic art, all written in a graceful and delightfully friendly style. What a wonderful, insightful book. My eyes filled with tears of gratitude as I finished the last sentence and closed the cover. A masterpiece.

A different look at Paleolithic Art.......2006-06-20

Suppose you were a student in an art appreciation class and your professor assigned a critique of Paleolithic art, that is, the art produced between about 40000 and 10000 years ago Where would you start? Perhaps by looking at some of the finest cave paintings, which, without a doubt, are the work of talented artists. This is the approach taken by many of the specialists on Paleolithic art. It is not R. Dale Guthrie's approach in his book "The Nature of Paleolithic Art".

Guthrie has looked at all of the art, the best and the worst, and comes to a startling new conclusion as to its origin. He is uniquely qualified for such a study.

First he has probably seen more Paleolithic art than any other specialist. And much of the art consists of images that would never appear in a coffee table book on Paleolithic art.

Guthrie is an artist himself. He shows that some of the Paleolithic artists lacked a sense of perspective or other talents that today separate a doodler from a true artist. Guthrie becomes almost wistful when he talks about the art that nobody has seen and will never see. What about clothing, women's art, story telling, tattooing, any art done at non-permanent sites using non-permanent materials? All gone. In other words, what remains is only a very small select sample, and as Guthrie concludes, most of it done by teenagers exploring caves and taking risks just as teenagers do today.

Guthrie is an avid hunter and as a hunter in Alaska he has studied in a very practical way the behavior of big game animals. He knows, for example, what it is like to return to a kill and find that a grizzly bear has claimed it - the same scenario illustrated in one of the Paleolithic drawings. Would anyone but a hunter have interpreted this image in this way? I suspect not.

As a student of mammalian behavior and vertebrate paleontology, Guthrie can speak with authority on the probable behavior of the extinct mammals that were subjects of much of the art. He shows that Paleolithic men (boys really) knew as much or more about the behavior of the large mammals they hunted as any modern expert.

Guthrie's conclusions are radical, yet at the same time refreshing because they paint a picture of human beings 30000 years ago that were in many ways like us, with similar urges, thoughts and behavioral characteristics that persist in us, despite our thick cultural patina, even to this day. Another reviewer (see review by Paul Matheus at Amazon.com) concludes that Guthrie's book is really "About Us". I could not agree more, but in some startling ways those people of 300 centuries ago were also different from us. For example, Guthrie finds no drawings that depict battles and war, scenes quite common in later art, down to the present. It's something to think about.

Read this book. It will become a classic. It is much more than a book about Paleolithic Art and yet it is a book that all artists should read. I recently heard of one artist who read the book and declared that it "was the most important book he had ever read."

Its the Story of "Us".......2006-06-13

Every once in a while, a book comes along with the potential to change the way we fundamentally view ourselves as humans and our place in the natural world. Guthrie has written just such a book. Drawing upon forty-plus years as a biologist, observer, and synthesizer of patterns in nature and in human culture, Guthrie weaves a profound thesis about the latter stages of human evolution, starting about 40,000 years ago (the upper Paleolithic). Don't be misled by the title--while Paleolithic art is the thread that binds this work, it spins a story about who we are and where we came from, behaviorally and culturally. It is our natural history. It is the story of Us (especially if your ancestry stems from Europe).

The scholarly study of Paleolithic art has a passionate history, and Guthrie has dared to enter hallowed ground. Indeed, almost all previous opuses on the subject have invoked spiritual and supernatural (Guthrie uses the term "magico-religious") explanation for why humans painted figures on rocks, engraved images of animals on their hunting tools, or carved figurines depicting voluptuous women. Most people, even most specialized scholars, have argued that these Paleolithic creations reflect supernatural belief systems, and are the works of shamans and the like. For the most part, as Guthrie points out, these scholars were prehistorians with little or no grounding in natural history, the biological sciences or hunting culture. So, it is not hard to see why they interpreted the images in a spiritual, supernatural context.

Guthrie de-mystifies and de-mythifyies the art. But while he shows that Paleolithic people were keen and spirited (that's "spirited" not "spiritual") observers of nature, to say he sees the art simply as good recordings of ancient natural history would be to sell him short. Our evolution is shaped in large part by selective pressures incurred as hunters of large and often dangerous game. But that part of the story isn't new. What Guthrie does is show how this hunting legacy manifests itself in human culture and art, both prehistoric and modern. In this light, Paleolithic art takes on a completely different meaning, one not based on magico-religious spiritualism, but rather one that reflects an affirmation of our hunting legacy--ranging from fear of dangerous animals to the glory that is integral to hunting them (whether one likes that truth or not, politically).

The art reflects people--mostly young males--at different stages of artistic development, hunting experience, and sexual prowess. Stories are told in the art, but they hark more to eager guys telling tall tales around the fire than to shaman performing ritual and ceremony. Critics are already pooh-poohing this read of the art as missing the bigger (e.g. deeper and spiritual) picture. In actuality, Guthrie's thesis is the deeper and more profound take on the arts' meaning--because it is grounded in something real and testable. Just because modern society and many academicians shun the values associated with lust and the thrill of the hunt does not deny the power of these emotions in our evolution.

Again, the story is about Us at a different time when we interfaced with the world in a different way. It is the time before "human domestication" and extreme division of labor in human societies, which began at the end of the Paleolithic (~10,000 years ago). Much of our belief in supernatural rather than natural explanations of the world stems from this domestication, as we lost touch with aspects of ecology that were not part of our task in the labor force. Indeed, a large part of Guthrie's effort goes into helping the reader understand the Paleolithic world--to see it with eyes less encumbered by our modern take on nature and humans. That said, this book is anything but a post-modern, back-to-nature sermon on our place in the natural world. Guthrie is grounded in solid data and scientific hypothesis testing, salted with creative and artistic reasoning. He has no hidden agendas. He is an artist and hunter himself. A simple glance at the table of contents is a nice introduction to Guthrie's approach.

Anyone who routinely browses the science section at bookstores knows that about a dozen new books are published each year with a jingly new take on this or that aspect of evolution or natural history--typically by the same familiar suite of authors pitching a somewhat different twist to an old story. This is not one of those books. It should be heavily-used in university curricula, in both the biological and social sciences. But any person-- academic or otherwise-- will feel a clearer, and I dare say prouder, conviction of who they are and where they came from after reading this book.

Finally, some common sense........2006-06-08

I have never been convinced that cave art was purely for shamanistic ritual, yet this seemed to be the accepted dogma within the academic community. At least, it was until this book came along.

Guthrie writes in easy prose yet with a comprehensive knowledge, finally popping the bubble that cave paintings were all about magic and spirituality. Using his expertise in hunting, human evolution, forensics, and art, Guthrie gives a convincing overview of how we should look at cave paintings. When he starts analyzing the age and sex of an artist, for example, it is almost as fascinating to follow the logic of his evidence as it is to see the conclusions that he draws.

All the same, it is his conclusions that make this an important book for anyone interested in paleolithic art. At last, we can move on from the idea that this enormous period of creativity was dictated by supernatural tribal rituals. Instead Guthrie proves conclusively that prehistoric art was sometimes irreverant, sometimes experimental, and driven by the same creative spirit that drives artists of today.

An Interdisciplinary Study of Sport As a Symbolic Hunt: A Theory of the Origin and Nature of Sport Based on Paleolithic Hunting

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An Interdisciplinary Study of Sport As a Symbolic Hunt: A Theory of the Origin and Nature of Sport Based on Paleolithic Hunting
Douglas M. Carroll
Manufacturer: Edwin Mellen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0773476857

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The Nature Of Paleolithic Art
R. Dale Guthrie
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OP1R7G

Book Description

Inside this tender little book, lay all the thank-yous you's like to say to her, and all those you know she deserves. Sometimes you think of it but feel to shy, sometimes you don't think of it until it's too late. Open this book and share the gratitude you feel toward her for being in your life and making hers a part of yours.

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While I'm Dead...Feed The Dog is one of the first novels to include an integrated music soundtrack on CD. The bonus audio CD includes all originally scored music that helps to set the tone and atmosphere of the book.

Customer Reviews:

Mesmeric.......2004-06-25

Very few books are as riveting as this satiric masterpiece. Through the mad romp of the book's hero Ric Browde through St Louis, While I'm Dead...Feed the Dog lampoons the sacred cows of American society - religion, the press, politicians and even rock and roll. A must read

Great Read!.......2004-05-27

While I'm Dead...Feed The Dog is a black comedy fiction work that is accompanied by an originally scored music CD Soundtrack featuring never before released material. Written by songwriter/music producer and eight time platinum and eleven time gold awards winner Ric Browde, the novel explores teenage angst, love & sex and rock 'n roll in the '70s. Browde, who has sold over twenty million albums has worked with such artists as Poison, Joan Jett and Ted Nugent. From narcoleptic nuns, nymphomaniacs, the Mafia, a huckster televangelist, dying Latin teachers, corrupt school administrators, inept policemen, unscrupulous lawyers, buffoon reporters, half -- witted rock and roll musicians, transsexual record company presidents, drug addicted disc jockeys, greedy family members and the lovely Nina Pennington, this novel is a must for anyone who lived or wanted to live in the '70s as a teenager.

A Satirical Classic.......2004-05-25

Ric Thibault will emerge as the funniest most poignient ad insightful character in modern literature

Funny and insightful.......2004-05-22

It's not often that humor is so well done and, yet, makes points that are insightful without being preachy. Ric Browde is clearly intelligent and takes on religion, the media, law enforcement, relationships, the music biz and more in a satiric send up that is simply outstanding.

Ric is funny and you can't help but laugh. However, I was compelled to pay attention to the points being made because they were good ones. Through humor Ric gets you to think about things which is always good.

This is a good book with a soundtrack too. The song "I'm stupid and so are you" is hilarious and along with the rest of the CD that accompanies the book it highlights the story being told and makes you enjoy the process all the more.

Addictive.......2004-05-09

I wish my teenage years had been as exciting as Ric Thibault's, the hero of this fantastically funny novel! This book is like a drug - once you start reading you're hooked... Hope there is more forthcoming from this new author.

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A Slice of American Culture.......2003-10-31

In seven chapters, a foreword, and and afterword, Dr. Lohof gives us a glimpse of the everyday as it was in American. It's a snapshot, covering a given time frame. Some observers believe one can get a more objective view if they are removed from a given culture. His foreword was written in Islamabad, thus, he possibily achieved some of the desired objectivity such observers desire.

Chapter one starts with advertising, in particular, the well-known advertising campaign of the Marlboro Man (as in cigarettes). Chapter two looks at the ups and downs of celebrites, Bert Bacharach is the focus here. Chapters three and four view gasoline stations and hamburger stands respectively. The remaining chapters examine other segments of popular culture.

The afterword makes an argument for the study of popular culture. It is considered by the author to be a social utility. As one views popular culture, a window on perception is exposed.

Book Description

Failing at school, disadvantaged in a changing labour market, and characterized by policy-makers as thugs, young men are said by some to be experiencing a crisis of masculinity. In Redundant Masculinities? Linda McDowell, known for her path-breaking work on gender relations and identities, investigates this crisis as it relates to young working-class men in the West.The book focuses on a case study of young, white, male school leavers, based in the contrasting British cities of Cambridge and Sheffield. Drawing on a range of disciplinary approaches as well as interviews with the young men over the course of 18 months, it looks at the level of anxiety unskilled school leavers suffer about their sense of themselves as men and as wage earners. McDowell 's analysis brings together arguments about the social construction of identities and about economic restructuring to reveal that the so-called 'crisis of masculinity ' is not what it seems.

The Working People of Paris, 1871-1914 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)

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The Working People of Paris, 1871-1914 (The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science)
Lenard Berlanstein
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Waterfront Revolts: New York and London Dockworkers, 1946-61 (Working Class in American History)

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Waterfront Revolts: New York and London Dockworkers, 1946-61 (Working Class in American History)
Colin J. Davis
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0252028783

Book Description

During the decade that followed the end of World War II, American and English dockworkers undertook a series of militant revolts against their employers, their governments, and even their union leaderships. In this in-depth comparative study, Colin Davis draws on a wide range of sources to explore the upheavals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Davis examines the dynamics of work and work stoppage along the two pivotal waterfronts, showing how issues of race, organized crime, union affiliation, working conditions, and Cold War politics shaped waterfront uprisings and the state's response to them. He explores other key differences between American and British labor, such as the cultural forces that led to the emergence of rank-and-file dockworkers' movements, degree of governmental oversight, methods of obtaining work, and specifics of ethnic and racial identification.

Book Description

One aspect of how the Industrial Revolution dramatically changed the world was the rise of the sweatshop. While sweatshops provided jobs, workers toiled long hours in dangerous, unhealthy conditions. This book examines the daily lives of sweatshop workers and related issues, including the efforts made to reform substandard conditions.

Abolitionists and Working-Class Problems in the Age of Industrialization

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Abolitionists and Working-Class Problems in the Age of Industrialization
Betty Fladeland
Manufacturer: Louisiana State Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Aristocracy of Labour (Cambridge Studies in Sociology)

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The Aristocracy of Labour (Cambridge Studies in Sociology)
Gavin MacKenzie
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Between Craft and Class: Skilled Workers and Factory Politics in the United States and Britain, 1890-1922

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Between Craft and Class: Skilled Workers and Factory Politics in the United States and Britain, 1890-1922
Jeffrey Haydu
Manufacturer: Univ of California Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Between Craft and Class provides an incisive new look at workers' responses to the momentous economic changes surrounding them in the early years of the twentieth century. In this work, Haydu focuses on the reaction of skilled metal workers to new production methods that threatened time-honored craft traditions. He finds that the workers' responses to industrial change varied--some defended the status quo, while others agreed to trade customary rules for economic rewards. Under some conditions class protest arose, as workers of diverse skills and trades joined to demand a greater voice in the management of industry. Between Craft and Class explores how broadly based movements for workers' control developed during this critical period, and why they ultimately failed.
Comparing workers in the United States and Britain, Haydu's scholarship is distinguished by extensive primary source research and provocative theoretical insights. In its scope and depth, this book will revise current notions of craft politics and working-class radicalism during this period.

British Labor and the American Civil War

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An Excellent Analysis of the Civil War's British Front

British Labor and the American Civil War
Philip Sheldon Foner
Manufacturer: Holmes & Meier Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

An Excellent Analysis of the Civil War's British Front.......2001-09-16

"British Labor and the American Civil War" is an excellent review of the evidence suggesting how British cotton mill workers perceived the U.S. Civil War. Dr. Foner's research confirms that the typical British laborer saw the U.S. Civil War as their own: the industrial managers would support the South, but they would support the North. The mill workers believed that slavery was a threat to free labor and stood by the North. The United States, in comparison to Britain, was a land where the working class had political influence. Despite hardships caused by the lack of Southern cotton, they maintained their support for the Union until victory.

Dr. Foner demonstrates excellent research skills and provides thorough footnotes. Thankfully, he provides a few images of original source material, which is very useful in understanding historical context. My only complaint was the lack of photographs, illustations and maps. I would have enjoyed understanding the geography better through maps, and I would have appreciated either photographs of illustrations from the period to gain a better appreciation of the events.

This book is highly recommended for individuals interested in the U.S. Civil War, British History, and Labor History.

Colonial laws as examined by a committee of the House of Commons in the year 1836: exhibiting some of the principal discrepancies between those laws, and the Imperial Act of Abolition.
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Colonial laws as examined by a committee of the House of Commons in the year 1836: exhibiting some of the principal discrepancies between those laws, and the Imperial Act of Abolition.
the Condition of the Apprentices Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Working of the Apprenticeship System in the Colonies
Manufacturer: Cornell University Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1429711698
Release Date: 1837-01-01

Product Description

This volume is produced from digital images from the Cornell University Library Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection

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