Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit: The Origin of Creativity and Belief

by David S. Whitley

The magnificent prehistoric art discovered in caves throughout France and Spain raises many questions about early human culture. What do these superbly rendered paintings of horses, bison, and enigmatic human figures and symbols mean? How can we explain the sudden flourishing of artistic creativity at such a high level? And in what ways does this artwork reflect the underlying belief system, worldview, and life of the people who created it?In this fascinating discussion of ancient art and religion, Dr. David S. Whitley―one of the world's leading experts on cave paintings―guides the reader in an exploration of these intriguing questions, while sharing his firsthand experiences in visiting these exquisite, breathtaking sites.To grasp what drove these ancient artists to create these masterpieces, and to understand the origin of myth and religion, as Whitley explains, is to appreciate what makes us human. Moreover, he broadens our understanding of the genesis of creativity and myth by proposing a radically new and original theory that weds two seemingly warring camps from separate disciplines.On the one hand, archaeologists specializing in prehistoric cave paintings have argued that the visionary rituals of shamans led to the creation of this expressive art. They consider shamanism to be the earliest known form of religion. By contrast, evolutionary psychologists view the emergence of religious beliefs as a normal expression of the human mind. In their eyes, the wild and ecstatic trances of shamans were a form of aberrant behavior. Far from being typical representatives of ancient religion, shamans were exceptions to the normal rule of early religion.Whitley resolves the controversy by interweaving the archaeological evidence with the latest findings of cutting-edge neuroscience. He thereby rewrites our understanding of shamanism and its connection with artistic creativity, myth, and religion.Combining a colorful narrative describing Whitley's personal explorations at key archaeological sites with robust scientific research, Cave Paintings and the Human Spirit makes for engrossing reading. It provides a profound and poignant perspective on what it means to be human.

Genres: Nonfiction, Prehistory, Art, History, Archaeology

322 pages, Hardcover

First published August 26, 2008

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't a book about Chauvet Cave. This is a book about Whitley's experience of visiting Chauvet Cave. It's extended bragging about his access and friendship with prominent scholars.

Do yourself a favor: watch the documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreams instead.

[Kris Worsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is fascinating and wide-ranging discussion of cave art, and a great introduction to the subject. David Whitely's own work as an archaeologist offers an authoritative viewpoint to the discussion, although the tone of the book is certainly accessibly, and frequently conversational, though no less serious for it. He offers a view of the exploration of cave art, introducing many of the players of modern archaeology in this area, to demonstrate the story of human innovation, discovery and scandal, which opens up into a dramatic soap opera. In addition, we hear many of the author's own personal views on the origins of cave art, and some in-depth discussion (which I did not always follow in full) of the scientific approaches to dating artefacts and paintings.

In many places, David Whitely provides a balanced discussion, never more so in reflecting on scholarly disagreements within the field, although in places does not fully acknowledge his own prejudices. His overall conclusion that cave art has its origins in shamanistic visions, as resulting from the mental illness of shaman's is well discussed - he mentions his own bias of inheritance in the discussion of transferring art between American and European cultures, as a note of caution, and yet in the discussion of mental illness, uses his own experiences as proof that a shaman could be both active and productive whilst being mentally unwell. A similar note of caution would have helped to provide some balance to the discussion here, in case the author be guilty of the common fault of seeing himself in the art, allowing this to cloud the interpretation.

The argument, nevertheless, is well made, and the scope of the book is large, with the multiple disciplined approach to the subject offering a perfect intelligent but accessible understanding of cave art and late-20th century archaeological scholarship in this area.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly provocative, clearly written book. The first half deals with the discovery, dating and contents of the Paleolithic Caves and other art work in Europe, the second half deals with the origin of religion, nature of Shamanism, and the mental health of Shamans.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a generally good book that makes connections between shamanism and paleolithic art, though the title implies somewhat more of this than is discussed in the book. It's not till the final chapters that the origin of creativity and belief is really discussed, and then huge assumptions are made based on personal bias (which he does admit) and modern, anecdotal anthropological evidence. I really did like the book overall, but I have some major gripes with it. First, the looooooong section on the legal struggles of an archaeologist who specializes in dating prehistoric rock art is unnecessary and really drags on and on. I understand what the author was trying to do: shed light into all angles of the debate around prehistoric rock art dating techniques and why, despite the dark shadow cast by the litigation, the technique is sound. But this could have been done without all the sordid details. Second, the book really doesn't discuss Chauvet or Lascaux nearly as much as it does Coa, Portugal, and the Mojave (which is more than 20,000 years younger than the European art). Chauvet and Lascaux are cave paintings, Coa and the Mojave are open air pertoglyphs. Again, the title is misleading. Finally, the assumptions presented as fact that early shamans all suffered from mood disorders is based entirely on 4 or 5 anthropological records from the last two centuries. My problem here is that the art in question was created 35,000 years ago. Thirty-five-thousand. How can the accounts of modern peoples, no matter the culture, be considered static enough to have spanned that distance in time? The book should have separated the two threads - 1: cave art and the idea that it was created by shamans, and 2: that modern shamans may suffer from mood disorders. Then ask the question if there is a connection and perhaps let the (by now well informed) reader decide, rather than asserting something we will never know for sure as true: that paleolithic cave art was created by the first shamans, who all suffered from mood disorders, at the same time as shamanism (ie: the first religion) was beginning to appear.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's too much blah, blah, blah, much of it repetitive and, though written for laymen, still structured and written too much like academic work. I found that I had to skip long parenthesis that were nothing more than the author's self-justifications and/or protracted descriptions of irrelevant details (why do I care that his friend the archeologist looks like a poet? Or that he sat in an Italian cafe to discuss the theories he's already expounded on for several chapters?)

The chapter about shamanism as a psychological disorder was interesting, but also repetitive, and coming under the heading "creativity" it defaulted finally to the simplistic and long-debunked idea that creativity and madness (or pyschological disorder) are correlated. I had to let out a dismayed "oh no" at the outdated idea, although the author tries to prove this point with "studies" which are anecdotal at best.

Finally, the fact that shamanism could be the cause of psychological disorder and not the other way around is never raised or considered by the author (as, similarly, neither is the idea that a creative life which often involves lack of recognition and ostracization from society could be the cause of depression, and reason for the correlation, and not the other way around).

In short, the author seemed rather short sighted and didn't have much new to offer on the subject of creativity.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting and pretty easy to understand exploration of the cave art in Chauvet, France. It uses some scientific jargon, but much less than most books on the subject, and Whitley puts a lot of personal touches and narrative into the book that make it more engaging than a lot of other pieces I've read. There's a long, only mildly relevant tangent in the middle of the book about controversial dating techniques. You can skim it and not miss any of the important parts of Whitley's argument.