- Alternative Approaches to Animal Artwork: A Relational Ecology approach to Upper Palaeolithic Human-Animal relationships, with focus on the Non-Human, and Human-Non-Human Hybrid Cave Paintings from Les Trois Freres
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Abstract:
- This paper explores the famous Upper Palaeolithic cave art from Les Trois Frères from a new theoretical framework: relational ecology. Rather than approaching the artwork from an anthropocentric stance, the methodology of this paper will re-examine the engravings and suggest that the depictions of the non-humans are ones of the specific individuals encountered by the hunter-gatherers in the landscape. This will be developed further using both archaeological and ethnographical evidence to explore how the depicted non-humans would have been encountered in the landscapes, and how these encounters would have formed meaningful relationships between the different beings. The paper then explores the human-non-human hybrid depictions, with the results of this analysis suggesting that they are visual representations of the connections between humans and non-humans, blurring the boundaries between the western dichotomy of human and non-human. Overall, the Magdalenian non-human depictions in Les Trois Frères are meaningful images, forming a reminder of the various emotions and experiences of the meetings between the species. The main implication of these findings is the application of new theoretical archaeological techniques to evidence which has been examined for c.100 years; by undertaking this analysis, an informed conclusion is reached which contributes to the analysis of Upper Palaeolithic cave art in Europe.