In a collaborative (subscription seeking) arrangement with the Paris Review, Slate has just published a riveting piece on “America’s Ancient Cave Art” by John Jeremiah Sullivan. Many of these Cumberland and Tennessee Valley caves have been only recently discovered and their locations are largely secret. Except for a small group of Southeastern archaeologists, their existence [...]
Tags:Adena·Altamira·altered states of consciousness·Appalachia·ASC·cave art·cave cosmology·cave rituals·cave symbolism·Chauvet·Cherokee·Cumberland·David Lewis-Willliams·entoptic images·entoptics·form constants·hallucinations·Hopewell·Jan Simek·John Jeremiah Sullivan·Lascaux·Mayan·Mississippian cultures·Mound Builders·Natchez·Paleolithic·petroglyphs·rock art·San rock art·Southern Death Cult·Southestern Ceremonial Complex·Tennessee
Cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams has long argued that the spectacular Paleolithic paintings in European caves such Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira were created by early shamans who were experiencing altered states of consciousness (“ASC”). Because Paleolithic rock art around the world displays the same types of symbols or form constants, which Lewis-Williams calls “entoptics,” he contends [...]
Tags:Alan Piper·Altamira·altered states of consciousness·ASC·auroch·Brian Akers·bull·Carl Ruck·Chauvet·cognitive archaeology·David Lewis-Williams·entoptic forms·entoptics·fungi·Juan Ruiz·Lascaux·mushrooms·Paleolithic·Psilocybe·psychotropics·rock art·Selva Pascuala·Spain
Over at Seed, Holly Capelo provides a helpful survey of the various ways in which the famous Upper Paleolithic cave paintings — found primarily in France and Spain — have been interpreted over the last several decades. The occasion for her survey, which strangely omits mention of David Lewis-Williams’ contention that the paintings were the [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·archaeoastronomy·aurochs·bovids·bull mythology·cave paintings·cyclical time·David Lewis-Williams·entoptic images·Hall of Bulls·Holly Capelo·Lascaux·linear time·lunar time·Magdalenian·Michael Rappengluck·Occams razor·paleolithic graffiti·parsimony·seasonal hunting·star time·Taurus constellation·time-keeping system·Upper Paleolithic
How we perceive the external world is a fascinating subject that has long attracted the attention of great thinkers from Kant to Nietzsche. Kant knew that we possessed some sort of interior filter that enables us to perceive the world and Nietzsche knew that this filtered perception was always an interpretation of the world. Modern [...]
Tags:aesthetics·Altamira·altered states of consciousness·American Indian·Ansel Adams·cave paintings·color symbolism·dichromatic·Edge of Perception·Edward Curtis·exteriority·external world·Greg Boustad·interiority·internal world·Kant·Lascaux·Luke Jerram·Nietzsche·perception·perspective·plant acoustics·scientific constructions·scientific perceptions·sensory perception·the art of science·tobacco·tobacco shamanism
