Features
On the Origins of the Arts
Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the evolution of culture
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.
Photographs courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs, Rhône-Alpes region/Regional Department of Archaeology
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.
Photographs courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs, Rhône-Alpes region/Regional Department of Archaeology
The Lion Panel, with bison (the lions’ likely prey), a young mammoth, and rhinoceros
Photographs courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs, Rhône-Alpes region/Regional Department of Archaeology
Red bear
Photographs by Jean Clottes/courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs, Rhône-Alpes region/Regional Department of Archaeology
One rhinoceros from a group of 17
Photographs by Jean Clottes/courtesy of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Regional Direction for Cultural Affairs, Rhône-Alpes region/Regional Department of Archaeology
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.
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