ART AS INFORMATION - EXPLAINING UPPER PALEOLITHIC ART IN WESTERN-EUROPE

Citation
Cm. Barton et al., ART AS INFORMATION - EXPLAINING UPPER PALEOLITHIC ART IN WESTERN-EUROPE, World archaeology, 26(2), 1994, pp. 185-207
Citations number
93
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Archaeology,Archaeology
Journal title
ISSN journal
0043-8243
Volume
26
Issue
2
Year of publication
1994
Pages
185 - 207
Database
ISI
SICI code
0043-8243(1994)26:2<185:AAI-EU>2.0.ZU;2-I
Abstract
Proceeding from the information exchange theory of style, we argue tha t the changing temporal and spatial distributions of mobile and pariet al art in Paleolithic Europe are related aspects of a single evolution ary process: alternating selective pressures differentially favoring t he expression of assertive and emblemic style over the 30-7 kyr BP int erval. These pressures result from demographic and social change acros s the European subcontinent in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene . We develop a model of cultural selection for symbolic behavior manif est as art that proceeds from and parallels natural selection in neo-D arwinian evolutionary theory.