Barbara Ehrenreich's article titled "'Humans Were Not Centre Stage': How Ancient Cave Art Puts Us in Our Place" is an incredibly in-depth comparison of who and what is depicted in cave paintings over time. This shift shows a derivation from a nature and animal-focused perspective to a man-centered one.
"In our self-obsessed age, the anonymous, mysterious cave art of our ancient ancestors is exhilarating" Barbara Ehrenreich, author, states.
Walls and ceilings of caves have been decorated by paintings for centuries as a form of expression, communication, and recording. Brightly colored paintings of bison, aurochs and lions and beautiful scenes of nature adorn stone cavern walls.
"This struck me with unexpected force, no doubt because of my own particular historical situation, almost 20,000 years after the creation of the cave art in question" Ehrenreich writes and further explains how self-centered society is in today's age. Selfies have become extremely normalized as ways to capture an image of oneself. Narcissism has been deemed as a sense of self-confidence as opposed to blatant insecurity.
“The essential role played by animals evidently explains the small number of representations of human beings. In the Paleolithic world, humans were not at the centre of the stage" Jean Clottes says, world-class paleoarcheologist.
Paleolithic paintings were largely created with religious intent for perhaps a ceremony or other incantation. The painted animals were "meant to magically attract the actual animals they represented, the better for humans to hunt and eat them," Ehrenreich states, "the cave art suggests that humans once had better ways to spend their time."
Caves not only acted as storage spaces for precious artwork, but they also served as gathering places for individuals for potential rituals or other meetings. "[T]he decorated cave a kind of cathedral within which humans communed with a higher power" (Ehrenreich).
Link to the article: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/dec/12/humans-were-not-centre-stage-ancient-cave-art-painting-lascaux-chauvet-altamira
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