The Ancient Imagination:
Paleolithic Art, pt. 6

February 9, 2007

In preparation for the arrival of Aurora, Emily had her phalanx of Dr. Sears books. I can see them from where I write: The Pregnancy Book, The Breastfeeding Book, The Baby Book.. and there is one more whose title I can't read. My reading in preparation for Aurora was not quite so obvious.. If I had to point to the book that has inspired me as a father, it would be The Nature of Paleolithic Art.

The chapter on the evolution of art in the Paleolithic presents an argument for the value of play. Why do human children spend so much time goofing off and doing unimportant things? I remember the hours upon hours spent playing baseball or organizing baseball cards.. and I guess if a couple of months ago I had been asked about the value of all this time, I would have said that it was a product of leisure.. and although I enjoyed every moment of those pursuits, I would not be sure that early humans could have afforded to devote so much time to play.. what with survival looming large.

Guthrie points out that human play was a necessary element in the rearing of human beings that could survive:

Versatile lifeways seem to require a mode of learning that allows individuals to build on a genetically given behavioral base. The raven's genetic program itself has to do with refinement, flexibility, and opportunism. A red poll, on the other hand, keeps closer to a strict agenda. Bent on one main pursuit, it must find and eat birch seeds that have dropped in the snow... A raven's day is not so closely defined. Most primates, likewise, have a rather open-ended day. [377]

In other words, human beings were good survivors because they were able to adapt and respond to opportunities and changes. The life skills necessary for that kind of adaptation are built through long periods of play time among the young.

How has evolution encouraged the acquisition of this practical skill of playing? It has made play enjoyable! That struck me like a flash. As Guthrie notes: "We learn and innovate best when we experience the added zest of delight, not from grim time-punch determination" (377). I won't deny that there are some "lessons" that are not fun.. like learning multiplication tables.. but even there, I remember how much better I did at that task when it was a competition. If there is any big idea that could frame our education of Aurora it would be just this: let learning be a delight.

I also took from Guthrie some ideas about the kind of environment we to build for Aurora.. an environment that would nurture maximum creativity and mental flexibility:

...creativity does not necessarily benefit from high adrenaline. Rather, perceptive breakthroughs seem to occur more often during quasi-meditative states associated with walking, relaxing, reading, and sometimes even sleeping. [390]

I remember when I was younger how long I could lay on my bed and just stare at the ceiling.. seeing shapes and figures arise out of the speckling. What a perfect use of my time! It was more beneficial than being put to work at something useful. Those moments of unstructured time are like oxygen for the mind. When it comes to raising Aurora above all I want to give her that kind of mental space.. and not constant activity. I think this also means having a home that is free from distractions and voices.. like television.

This childrearing philosophy could go by a number of names. You could call it the "Paleolithic Method".. but you could just as well call it "Romantic Childrearing". Guthrie notes how "play" was an invisible concept in the work of philosophers such as Locke, Leibniz, Hobbes, and Hume (394). But if you want a different take on childhood just turn to Romantic poetry.. say Wordsworth. When Guthrie defines creativity as "coming up with something new" he has stepped into the world of S.T. Coleridge, who fought against the notion that the mind was a data processing unit and not an imaginative creator of new ideas. Human beings are meant to be imaginative creators.. innovators.. artists. (Guthrie seems to acknowledge the rightness of Romantic conceptions when he cites a statement from Rousseau's Emile (398) with approval.)

Now we can return to Guthrie's main topic: the art left behind on cave walls by Paleolithic human beings. Here in as clear a form as possible is evidence that human beings are innate creators. This world of color and sound that surrounds us in the modern world is not some frilly invention that became possible when human beings had more time on their hands.. and fewer worries about survival.. it is the continuing result of the way evolution framed us as human beings within a lifeway that demanded powerful creativity.