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New neighbours: interaction and image-making during the West European Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2019

David Lewis-Williams
Affiliation:
Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
Francesco d'Errico
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington DC
Lucinda Backwell
Affiliation:
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
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Summary

Abstract

The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Western Europe presents evidence for two species of Homo living side by side. The anatomically archaic species, the Neanderthals, borrowed certain practices from their Homo sapiens neighbours, but did not borrow others. It is hypothesised that the reason for their selectivity was their type of consciousness. While Homo sapiens people had higher-order consciousness, Neanderthals had a form of primary consciousness that did not permit them long-term symbolic memory or the ability to conceive of a spirit world. Coping with the shifting nature of higher-order consciousness, anatomically modern people necessarily divided the spectrum of mental states into evaluated segments. In this way, social discrimination and religion originated in tandem. Image-making in subterranean caverns was both a religious ritual and an instrument for social discrimination.

Résumé

La transition Paléolithique moyen – Paléolithique supérieur en Europe occidentale se caractérise par la présence de deux espèces d’Homo vivant l'une à côté de l'autre. L'espèce anatomiquement archaïque, l'homme de Néandertal, a emprunté certaines pratiques de son voisin l’Homo sapiens, mais n'en a pas emprunté d'autres. Nous proposons comme hypothèse que la raison de cet emprunt sélectif réside dans le type de conscience dont étaient pourvus les néanderthaliens. Alors que l’Homo sapiens avait une conscience d'ordre supérieure, l'homme de Néandertal avait une forme de conscience primaire qui ne lui offrait pas une mémoire symbolique à long terme ni la capacité de concevoir un monde spirituel. Faisant face à la nature changeante d'une conscience d'ordre supérieur, les hommes anatomiquement modernes divisaient inévitablement l’éventail des états mentaux en segments évalués. En suivant ce model, la stratification sociale et la religion sont apparues ensemble. La production d'images dans la les grottes profondes était à la fois l'expression d'un rituel religieux et un moyen de différenciation sociale.

Introduction

The West European Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition (c. 35 000–40 000 BP) is richly evidenced. During that time, Homo neanderthalensis groups, makers of the longenduring Mousterian technocomplex, lived in proximity to in-coming Aurignacian Homo sapiens communities. The Neanderthals took over some practices from the new arrivals to create the Châtelperronian technocomplex. Nevertheless, by the end of the period, the Neanderthals were extinct. During contact times H. sapiens produced an efflorescence of cave and portable imagery and sometimes elaborately furnished graves.

Type
Chapter
Information
From Tools to Symbols
From Early Hominids to Modern Humans
, pp. 372 - 388
Publisher: Wits University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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