Meaningful Magic

Religion transforms impracticality into reward. In ur-religion, the purpose of designating shaman to explore the black depths of caves is for tribal benefit. The paintings were the shaman's metaphysical communication in a sacred area. Through the cost of preparing paint with mystical properties and the act of spiritually touching the cave, the shaman receives and shares blessings not available or that surpassed any sensation experienced in the tangible realm. By communicating with another realm in the cave, Paleolithic beings use newfound power to influence and hopefully enhance society outside the cave.

 

The prehistoric "Sistine Chapel" does not recall scenes from scripture or even significant events for future reflection, but provides a surface to create socialization that transcends dimension. There are no depictions of landscape, but floating paintings of animals, creating otherworldly sensation. Before reading the essay, I thought that possibly the act of nominating an artist (or shaman) to delineate animals on cave walls made the images mystical: promoting the images and creators to gods. The art works and their 'canvas' had spiritual properties, and required an equally religious being to enter. That would have meant that few people were allowed to paint, much like priests who are trained to fulfill rites and ceremonies in accurate and precise ways, according to ethereal rules.

 

While reading notes accompanying Lascoux images, I didn't realize the highly spiritual significance of each marking until after reading Paleolithic Art and Religion. At first I thought the animals painted are representations of real creatures that were chiefly hunted and important to prehistoric being survival, therefore elevated to their minds to be somehow more valuable and worthy of devotion. The sapiens study and render prey permanently on cave walls for memorial and storytelling purposes. Ideas and myths were valuable (beneficial for trading purposes), and art rendered them in a beautiful way (aesthetically beneficial). Possibly, the animals had mystical attributes. They were different from humans and in response to the difference, early man thought about why they could not grow horns, like the Megaceros. The paintings depicted what could only happen in the alternate domain of darkness.

 

The primary element of religion is to benefit from impractical means, interpret unexplainable change, and possess the means of returning communication back to the unseen. In a hallucinogenic state, the shaman changes, represented by anthropomorphic, spiritual stroke, and handprint images found on the cave walls. From a scientific standpoint, the shaman might have hallucinated from lack of oxygen in order to dream or enter a trance-like state (alter their nervous systems). Also, by depicting daylight dwelling animals in the caves, shaman could have been interacting with the supernatural about the lighted world. The shaman "creates" life with his markings. And by that way, shaman became closer to gods.

 

Questions to consider:

 

By the same way that paint had spiritual properties, did the torch that brought light into the darkness have powers?

Who decided what, where, and when to draw in a cave? The tribe? The sole priority of the shaman?