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Updated 3.3.2014

On the Origins of the Arts

Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture

May-June 2012

The human urge to create art appears magnificently in the Paleolithic paintings from roughly 30,000 years ago at Chauvet Cave, in southern France. Here, the Panel of the Horses.
A bison, shown in twisted perspective; the doubling of the hindquarters and the extra legs may depict the animal running, or two bison side by side.
The Lion Panel, with bison (the lions’ likely prey), a young mammoth, and rhinoceros
Red bear
One rhinoceros from a group of 17

"On the Origins of the Arts" was reprinted from The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson. Copyright © 2012 by Edward O. Wilson. With the permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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The text excerpted here was posted with permission of W.W. Norton, but that permission has since expired and the text has been taken down. 

Read a Harvard Magazine profile of E.O. Wilson here.

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Click here for the May-June 2012 issue table of contents

Sub topics
Humanities & Arts
Science & Technology
Faculty & Research
Arts & Culture

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