Imagination, Symbolic Cognition, and Human Evolution: The Early Arts Facilitated Group Survival

Abstract

The deep past of human evolution is murky. Archaeological and fossil evidence from Africa provides critical estimates for dates of past landmark events, but there are gaps in the timeline. They can be filled from combined data on climate conditions, physiological traits, inferred brain and cognitive capacities, and comparative biology. It is argued here that evolutionary survival pressures recruiting the functions of symbolic cognition and the imagination contributed to the rise of the earliest arts. Practical survival preceded symbolic art expressions; utilitarian application of ochre sparked imaginative expansion into body paintings displays. Fire hearths for communal cooking, warmth, and tool making provided space for sharing experiences, real and imagined, and allowed the initiation of storytelling and theater-like acting. Inherited physiological traits were tapped by evolutionary forces in symbolic displays of bonding and solidarity through vocal chorusing and rhythmically moving group kinetic formations. The evolutionary drivers behind the earliest arts were enhancement of survival through symbolic expressions of social cohesion and group effort.