Walking in the Shoes of the Ancients

To and understand and appreciate the creative achievements of people who lived in times radically different than our own, we have to attempt to "walk in their shoes." That means we have to try and imagine ourselves living in situations similar to theirs. If we look back from our culture and compare what they did and how they did it to what and how we do things, we will not get what their lives were like and we will end up with our own judgments and projections. Keep in mind that whatever we say, it is primarily conjecture.

Two subtle statements from our Janson text can be used to warn us of the dangers of assumptions about other cultures that come from our way of being with the world, instead of seeing the world from the other culture’s perspective.

"At Lascaux, as at Chauvet, bison, deer, horses, and cattle race across walls and ceilings. Some of them are outlined in black, others are filled in with bright earth colors, but all show the same uncanny sense of life."

History of Art

"There is growing agreement that cave paintings must embody a very early form of religion. If so, the creatures found in them have a spiritual meaning that makes them the distant ancestors of the animal divinities and their half-human, half-animal cousins we shall meet throughout the Near East and the Aegean. Indeed, how else are we to account for these later deities? Such an approach accords with animism-the belief that nature is filled with spirits-which was found the world over in the indigenous societies that survived intact until recently."

History of Art

The first quote says the paintings show an "uncanny sense of life," as though surprising from such "primitive" people. The second quote refers to animism as a "belief" common to these early people as evidenced by other indigenous people who share similar "beliefs." Another implied assumption is that religion is about belief, an assumption that drives most of the conflict in our modern culture.

So let’s walk in their shoes (moccasins, sandals, animal skins?).

These early humans were much more intimately connected to life and nature than we can claim to be. It was unlikely they ever considered themselves apart from or "above" the world and the other creatures they shared the world with. There had to be a deep respect and regard for those creatures capable of killing them and those they depended on for food and clothing, fuel and shelter. Animism wasn’t, perhaps, a "belief" but rather their actual experience. The "belief" that nature is filled with spirits may really be a truism, then and now. All life is imbued with spirit or life force that is gone at death. At the moment of death the body is still there but it is now unanimated. The anima or spirit is gone. We sometimes say the soul has left the body. Is this different? People who live close to nature, close to death (all of us though we pretend we don’t) can see the spirit leaving the body of the animal or human. It would have been natural and logical for these ancient people to call on the spirits of these animals through their art to help them animate their hunting powers. People who live close to nature also recognize the different qualities of different beings and learn from them. A man or woman can see and respect the farsightedness of the soaring eagle and call up and extend their own capacities for vision, inspired by their brother Eagle. Are these primitive imaginings or real experiences?

Being "pre-literate," with less "intellectual" capacity (less abstract, symbolic thought), life and death were more directly experienced and directly expressed; much more so than we (who are more civilized and educated) experience it. We seem more intent on denying and destroying and "transcending" nature than experiencing it. Perhaps if we embraced our inescapable relationship with nature, we would also see and experience the spirits that animate every living thing and "animism" would not be a "belief," but rather a reality, as it was for the ancients. Perhaps then life and religion would be about the direct experience of the mysterious and unknowable rather than beliefs and theories about the mysterious and unknowable. Then the sense of life in these paintings would not be "uncanny" but rather to be expected.

We who are so civilized tend to view our ancestors as more "animalistic" and less evolved. Perhaps they were more animalistic (full of the anima) and more connected to and involved with their brother and sister creatures, the animals and also the plants. Perhaps we, with all our theories and sophisticated ideas and beliefs, are less evolved? It is not surprising that the observational skills of these ancestors were acute and true and that their art work was filled with the power of life.

And then again, are we really so different?

Janson writes:

"Earlier Stone Age people were content to collect pebbles in whose natural shape they saw some special quality."

People in every era of time love to collect pebbles, stones, shells, etc., especially if the shapes remind them of an animal or something familiar. Michelangelo picked his marble blocks for carving by assessing the shapes within. Not too long ago there was a cultural craze for "pet rocks." Are we still in the stone age?

We may be technologically more astute; our "tools" may be more complicated, but the people of the Paleolithic were not very different in their concerns, expressions and even beliefs. The hunters of the stone age may have carved an animal and rubbed it for luck in the hunt, while Alex Rodriquez of the Yankees loosens and tightens his batting gloves between each pitch, Karl Malone bounces the basketball a set number of times before each free throw and some people still carry a lucky "rabbit’s foot" all for luck in their "hunt." Every religion has specific rituals that give comfort in the face of a mysterious and uncertain world.

Our premise, approach and assumption as regards art and history is that we are on the "advanced" end of a linear time line wherein one culture learns and improves on the previous cultures. We look to see how an artist or period has been influenced by those who went before.

There is evidence for this. However, history and art do not always follow this linear premise. There are works of art created in Paleolithic and Neolithic times that are as sophisticated and aesthetically beautiful as those created in the 20^th century.

Vogelherd cave Ivory Horse, 28,000 BC

Humans, despite all the "advances" we have made in our tool making, have not changed much at all. Yes, we can kill millions of our fellows at once instead of one at a time, and yes, we can travel at extreme speeds and yes, we can send messages across the globe in seconds. But we still have not solved the problems of greed, hunger, or how to get along with each other when our beliefs differ. Our wars are worse than ever and we are perhaps closer to ending our sojourn here than ever before. Are we any closer to answering the basic questions of why we are here, where we come from or where we are going?

So, in light of this, let’s look at art, its value, meaning and quality, in relative to the culture that produced it, the human condition and the timeless concerns that all humans share, rather than through value judgments and hierarchical criticism (as though one culture is more advanced than a previous culture.)

Especially now, let’s suspend judgments as we seem to be entering a post-literate society that communicates more visually, more like pre-literate societies. The Standard of Ur (c. 2600 BC) illustrates through pictures an important military victory of the time. Today, our video games illustrate real and imaginary military victories through pictures. Yes, they are computer generated and animated, but it’s the same story.

The Standard of Ur

Video game image

And in Ancient Egypt we have pictures of Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of the underworld while today we have spider man and cat woman.

Anubis from Ancient Egypt

Cat Woman on XBOX from 21^st Century US

Earlier we mentioned "animism." The strongest thread running through the art of the ancients is the subject of animals. So let’s talk about animals. We mentioned the importance of animals in these peoples’ lives. Imagine the part played by animals and how the different animals were viewed and used.

Let’s start with the animals painted in Chavet way back in 28,000 BC. And the paintings in the Lascaux caves from 15,000 BC. Bison, deer, horses and cattle are painted running, standing and sometimes wounded and dying. In the earlier paintings there were also lions, panthers, and bear. The people of the old stone age were nomadic and their lives depended on following the herds of herbivorous animals. These herd animals were killed for meat, clothing, water containers, shelter, and bones were used for weapons, other tools, and also carved images of the animals themselves. These animals were central to their lives and also central to their art. (Andy Warhol painted soup and soda cans, which are central to our lives today). Their art, the animals, the places they lived and painted were all connected and was the fabric of their lives at that time. Were there "artists, "hunters," "skinners," "butchers?" Or did each person participate in multiple occupations? It is likely then, as now, that different individuals had different inclinations and different capabilities. (Slackers probably didn’t last long. Even the most ambitious didn’t live long in those days!). It was also likely that each had to assume multiple functions in the clan/tribe. Did these people domesticate animals yet? Did they gentle and ride horses?

The horse carved from mammoth ivory from the Vogeherd cave shown above illustrates how connected the people were to horses and how gracefully they depicted them.

The Great Serpent Mound, created by the people living in North America around 1070 AD, also tells us how intimately these people were connected to the earth they lived on. Why was this created? To invoke the power of the snake? To express an understanding that all life gets "swallowed" by the earth sooner or later? Or perhaps a few folk had nothing much to do on a summer afternoon, kind of like what we might do building a sand castle?

It seems those cultures more exposed to the earth’s elements, those more tribal, nomadic peoples who followed the animal herds along with the other predators like lions, panthers, bears, painted and carved the animals as they saw and experienced them. Cultures that developed agriculture and animal husbandry; cultures that stayed put and developed what we call "civilizations," often depicted animals with human characteristics and humans with animal characteristics. It was as though humans, through their association with animals and their need to control them either for protection or food, tried to absorb the animal qualities. (perhaps these qualities are inherent in the human animal?) They also projected human qualities onto the animals. (Perhaps to feel safer and more in control of them, perhaps because domesticated or entrapped animals also took on human characteristics?)

What do you think? I have a brother-in-law who said he likes to eat red meat because it makes him feel powerful and it helped with his football game. There is also a global black market for powdered rhinoceros horn because men believe it enhances their sexual powers.

Have you ever looked at someone and seen a likeness to a particular animal? My wife is very raven-like and people have told me I am bear-like.

The idea of animal totems stems from our animal qualities and our inherent connection to animal powers. Is seeking the guidance of the creatures we share this earth with a "primitive" characteristic? Or a good idea? Are we not the "new kid on the block" species? Couldn’t we use some help? What are your animal totems? Why not carve and erect a totem pole in your front yard!

Do we anthropomorphize (give human characteristics to) those creatures we cannot control?

Some animals also became symbols of male and female fertility and sexual power. The golden ram, pg 26, standing by a tree from Ur is perhaps an expression of male potency. Bulls and rams became artistic expressions of male sexual power and authority. One bull or ram impregnated many cows and sheep and many an ancient (and modern) king or leader liked to think of themselves in this way.

Later, we will visit satyrs and Pan in Greece, goat men (or gods) who reveled in their sexuality, symbols and deities of potency and fertility, important aspects of life in any time period. Later, in Medieval times, the fun loving, promiscuous, sexual appetites of Pan was expressed as a negative, sinful thing and evolved into images of the devil we are now familiar with.

Aphrodite and Pan

Pan, goat-footed, is trying to embrace the nude goddess who has removed her left sandal with which she teasingly threatens to strike him.

Hellenistic period, ca. 100 BCE, found in Delos.
National Museum, Athens, Greece.

And the "animalistic" qualities of man were demonized and viewed as "temptations," leading us away from our transcendent destination. As in Martin Schongauer’s, The Temptation of St. Anthony, below. C. 1480-90

Animism, the animal qualities of life, once directly experienced as reality, received a lot of bad press as culture and religion strove to "transcend" earthly life, to the point that animals were said to be soulless creatures, victims of blind desires. Cats were regarded as demons.

Humans, by necessity, once sought to embrace the powers of the animals, and then made every endeavor to deny, condemn and repress their animal nature.

What do you think about this? Remember our beliefs about rhino horns. Did you know that you can buy herbal pills to enhance your sexual potency at your local GNC vitamin shop? It is called Ephinedra, also known as Horny Goat Weed!

ARTS 1: Art History and Art Appreciation

• Looking at and responding to Art
• Prehistoric Art in Europe and North America
• Ancient Near Eastern Art

ASSIGNMENTS FOR LESSON ONE:

• Read lectures on:
  • Our Relationship To Art
    • The Questions of Art
    • The Elements of Art
    • The Relevance of Art and Art History
    • Ways to Look and Write About Art
  • Walking in the Shoes of the Ancients
• Read, In the History of Art, The Western Tradition,
  • Introduction
  • The Ancient World
  • Chapter 1: Prehistoric Art in Europe and North America
  • Chapter 2: Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Websites to Visit:
  • The Cave of Lascaux: This is a great, interactive site.
  • Paleolithic (Old Stone Age)
  • The Cave at Chauvet
  • The Woman of Willendorf
  • The Mound Builders of NA
  • Stonehenge
  • Catal Huyuk
  • Nebuchadnezzar
  • Ziggurats

Threaded Discussion Question: Complete and respond to classmates:

In our modern culture, we watch TV shows and movies about spirits, ghosts, exorcisms, mummies and a variety of other ideas about life after death.

• Look carefully at the cave paintings of animals in your textbook and on the websites. What do you think our Paleolithic ancestors believed about "the spirit" in humans, animals and plants? What makes you think what you do?
• From the paintings, what was our ancestors relationships with the animals depicted?
• What is your (our) relationship to animals; their bodies and their spirits, today?
• Does "Animism" exist in our culture today? Give examples.
• As an artist, how would you express modern animistic beliefs? (pretend you are in your cave room and are recording your experiences and beliefs on the walls)

Remember to express your ideas as "your" ideas and not as truths or dictates for everyone else (even if you believe they are). Listen to and respect others' ideas and then yours will also be given due respect. We are exploring art and spiritual experience, not advancing any absolute certainties or religious doctrine.