Learning from Arts and Crafts in the Pleistocene

Abstract

CLOTTES J. (dir.) 2012.-L'art pléistocène dans le monde / Pleistocene art of the world / Arte pleistoceno en el mundo Actes du Congrès IFRAO, Tarascon-sur-Ariège, septembre 2010-Symposium « Signes, symboles, mythes et idéologie… » Abstract In Palaeolithic research, art is often seen to address meaning and identity whilst craft (usually stone tools) responds to function and planning. We argue, however, that specialists can benefit by dropping this distinction. Using examples from ethnography and experiment we shall show that craft was also rich with meaning in the Pleistocene. There are parallels in the way materials are handled and transformed, the way individuals learn techniques and pass them on, in which expertise is supported at a community level, and in the symbolic and linguistic cultural elements that underpin these activities.