Faculty & Community | 4.27.2012

Updated 3.3.2014

On the Origins of the Arts

Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture

From The May-June 2012 Issue

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

Dear Reader:

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.

Thank you for visiting.

Published in the print edition of the May-June 2012 issue, in the Features section, under the headline, “On the Origins of the Arts ”.

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