Author: Norbert Aujoulat
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500051351
Category : Art, Prehistoric
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
On 12 September 1940, four teenagers accidentally stumbled across a hole in the hillside overlooking the village of Montignac, France.This opening the entrance to the Lascaux Cave and its network of chambers brought to light stunning 17,000- year-old paintings that vividly depicted a whole host of animals and figures.The discovery was to become one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. By the 1950s, however, the sheer number of visitors to the cave was causing the paintings to deteriorate, forcing the Ministry of Cultural Affairs finally to close it to the public in 1963. A key figure at Frances National Centre for Prehistory, Norbert Aujoulat has been fascinated by the Lascaux Cave ever since his first visit back in 1970 and has spent several years researching its ancient art. In successive chapters, he takes us on a thorough exploration of the historic site, detailing the geological and archaeological background of the area and guiding us through the individual chambers and paintings from their very beginnings right up to the present day. By capturing the beauty and essence of these world-renowned masterpieces, this richly illustrated and extensive study enables each and every one of us to experience the magical atmosphere of Lascaux for ourselves.
Author: Wolfgang Leidhold
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000730506
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
In a wide arc from the Paleolithic to the present day, this book explores the changing structure of human experience and its impact on the dynamics of cultures, civilizations, and political ideas. The main thesis is a paradigm shift: the structure of human experience is not a universal constant but changes over time. Looking at the entire range of human history, there are a total of nine transformations, beginning with conscious perception and imagination in the Paleolithic and ending, for the time being, in modern times with the discovery of the unconscious. In between, this book explores six more transformations that took place in different regions and at different times, which include a sense of order, self-reflection, the eye of reason, spiritual experience, as well as the experience of creativity and of consciousness. As such, The History of Experience presents both a cross-cultural and comparative theory of experience and cultural dynamics, and an exploration of rich materials from East and West. This book is of great use to upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in the relationship between history, human experience, culture, and political order.
Author: Bruce Rimell
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1326621270
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 202
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Book Description
The alleged 'death' of painting has shaped the recent course of art, but the model of the human mind upon which it rests is no longer considered accurate. Cognitive science has shown that the mind is not a blank slate but content-rich, and as such humans bear an array of innate expectations of reality and non-reality, which apply to painting as well as other human behaviours such as religion or music. This creative thesis takes in a series of case studies tracing the prehistory of painting in light of these cognitive propensities, from the beginnings of human culture, to Bushman rock art and the experiences of painters today, to uncover a perennial function for painting which cannot die: the ubiquitous sensation of an 'otherworld' beyond the canvas or rock face. This approach to painting demands its rehabilitation as a humanising self-expression in a world increasingly estranged from art, abandoning artistic ideology in favour of an image-based communion with human nature.
Author: Keith Tester
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317002970
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267
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Book Description
In the light of globalization's failure provide the universal panacea expected by some of its more enthusiastic proponents, and the current status of neo-liberalism in Europe, a search has begun for alternative visions of the future; alternatives to the free market and to rampant capitalism. Indeed, although these alternatives may not be conceived of in terms of being a 'perfect order', there does appear to be a trend towards 'utopian thinking', as people - including scholars and intellectuals - search for inspiration and visions of better futures. If, as this search continues, it transpires that politics has little to offer, then what might social theory have to contribute to the imagination of these futures? Does social theory matter at all? What resources can it offer this project of rethinking the future? Without being tied to any single political platform, Utopia: Social Theory and the Future explores some of these questions, offering a timely and sustained attempt to make social theory relevant through explorations of its resources and possibilities for utopian imaginations. It is often claimed that utopian thought has no legitimate place whatsoever in sociological thinking, yet utopianism has remained part and parcel of social theory for centuries. As such, in addition to considering the role of social theory in the imagination of alternative futures, this volume reflects on how social theory may assist us in understanding and appreciating utopia or utopianism as a special topic of interest, a special subject matter, a special analytical focus or a special normative dimension of sociological thinking. Bringing together the latest work from a leading team of social theorists, this volume will be of interest to sociologists, social and political theorists, anthropologists and philosophers.
Author: Vicki Cummings
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199551227
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1361
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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive review of hunter-gatherer studies, undertaking detailed regional and thematic case-studies that span the archaeology, history and anthropology of hunter gatherers, concluding with an in-depth review of the main opportunities, research questions, and moral obligations that lie ahead.
Author: Jean Clottes
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022618806X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 214
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Book Description
The noted archaeologist explores the varieties of prehistoric cave art across the world and offers surprising insights into its purpose and meaning. What drew our Stone Age ancestors into caves to paint in charcoal and red hematite, to watch the likenesses of lions, bison, horses, and aurochs as they flickered by firelight? Was it a creative impulse, a spiritual dawn, a shamanistic conception of the world? In this book, Jean Clottes, one of the most renowned figures in the study of cave paintings, pursues an answer to the “why” of Paleolithic art. Discussing sites and surveys across the world, Clottes offers personal reflections on how we have viewed these paintings in the past, what we learn from looking at them across geographies, and what these paintings may have meant—and what function they may have served—for their artists. Steeped in Clottes’s shamanistic theories of cave painting, What Is Paleolithic Art? travels from well-known Ice Age sites like Chauvet, Altamira, and Lascaux to visits with contemporary aboriginal artists, evoking a continuum between the cave paintings of our prehistoric past and the living rock art of today. Clottes’s work lifts us from the darkness of our Paleolithic origins to reveal surprising insights into how we think, why we create, why we believe, and who we are
Author: Anne Eastham
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 178969910X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
This book considers the nature of the interaction between birds and hunter-gatherers in Western Europe. It examines aspects of avian behaviour and the qualities targeted at different periods by hunter-gatherers, who recognised the utility of the diversity of avian groups in various applications of daily life and thought.
Author: A. Horvath
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137277866
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 174
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Book Description
Looking at the relationship between modernity and the rise of charismatic leaders, Agnes Horvath uses 'threshold' situations to trace the conditions out of which political regimes developed. The focus on rationalism and structure has led to a systematic neglect of uncertain liminal moments, which gave new direction to societies and cultures.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Conservation of natural resources
Languages : en
Pages : 516
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Book Description
Author: Arpad Szakolczai
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315445905
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391
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Book Description
The book starts by discussing the significance of walking for the experience of being human, including a comparative study of the language and cultures of walking. It then reviews in detail, relying on archaeology, two turning points of human history: the emergence of cave art sanctuaries and a new cultural practice of long-distance ‘pilgrimages’, implying a descent into such caves, thus literally the ‘void’; and the abandonment of walking culture through settlement at the end of the Ice Age, around the time when the visiting of cave sanctuaries also stopped. The rise of philosophy and Christianity is then presented as two returns to walking. The book closes by looking at the ambivalent relationship of contemporary modernity to walking, where its radical abandonment is combined with attempts at returns. The book ventures an unprecedented genealogy of walking culture, bringing together archaeological studies distant in both time and place, and having a special focus on the significance of the rise of representative art for human history. Our genealogy helped to identify settlement not as the glorious origin of civilisation, but rather as a source of an extremely problematic development. The findings of the book should be relevant for social scientists, as well as those interested in walking and its cultural and civilisational significance, or in the direction and meaning of human history.
