XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: commodorejohn@gmail.com   
      
   On Mon, 12 Jan 2026 20:52:04 +0000   
   Richard Kettlewell  wrote:   
      
   > > > > Alas without detailed records we may find old THINGS, but what   
   > > > > they MEANT, their context, is forever lost. That's just half a   
   > > > > view of 'history'.   
   > > >    
   > > > "It's a ritual object."     
   > >   
   > > I've heard some fascinating explanations for the petroglyphs in the   
   > > US west. My personal explanation is the tribe sent bored teenagers   
   > > up to a lookout where lacking cellphones they chipped away at the   
   > > rocks.     
   >    
   > You may not be that far off. Have a read of _The Nature Of Paelolithic   
   > Art_ (R. Dale Guthrie) - it’s not short but if you’re interested in   
   > that sort of thing, it’d be time well spent.   
      
   Oh, now *that* looks like a good read. Many thanks, will definitely   
   have to give it a look. I like his attitude, from the introduction;   
   I've long been of the opinion that paleoarcheology is as susceptible as   
   any field to the human tendency to view other places and times through   
   the lens of the observer's own preconceptions, and that the common view   
   of prehistoric society as a scattering of isolated tribes organized in   
   an authoritarian brute hierarchy probably says as much or more about   
   what vices people today want to excuse as Just Human Nature and/or   
   believe that they personally have Evolved Beyond as it does about any   
   realities of the ancient world.   
      
   And the corresponding assumption that the beginnings of art *must* have   
   had a ritual function, and that ritual itself must've been administered   
   by a Designated Authority, are pretty telling. The second at least is a   
   *possibility* whose reality is simply inconclusive because the evidence   
   is so scarce this far on, but the first should be *obvious* nonsense to   
   anyone who's ever amused themselves by doodling on a Post-It, let alone   
   people with a deep passion for creative expression.   
      
   (I strongly suspect that this belief correlates nicely with the type of   
   people who think of art as an object of Social Utility, the production   
   of which is best left to Qualified Practicioners who can fulfill the   
   needs of Society - as defined, inevitably, by the people who hold these   
   opinions, and their proxies - without introducing any pesky *personal*   
   quirks or Irregular Points Of View...)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)