The origin of art

Sometimes I wonder why someone did something at the first time. Everything in our life has its purpose. So, why did an ancient man decide to paint something on the wall of his cave? Did he have a lot of free time? Or was there something that encouraged him to do that?

In the Paleolithic age, people didn’t have a lot of free time. They had to fight for their survival. In that time they realized that they are not just like animals. They can work; exactly this ability makes difference between a human and an animal. Working, a human can produce something new. He can create clothes for himself, he can create utensils for eating, he can create fire. Now many animals can create fire? Maybe only dragons if they really existed.

It made a human to think about his role in the life. He wanted to take his place in the world. It is the reason why one of the first images of the Paleolithic age is a palm print. This print tells us “I was here”. It looks pretty much like first graffiti in New York. The palm print in a cave and graffiti in New York have the same aims. But we call the first one as the art, and the second one – vandalism. I think the difference between these two pictures is its historical importance. The palm print shows us the time when people lived in this cave and it shows the stage of human evolution.

One more meaning of art for ancient people is the allegation of the source of procreation – motherhood. We all will die no matter of a cause. No one is going to live forever. Ancient people understood that. A woman in the Paleolithic age was in the likeness of God. She was the one who can bring a new life to the world. The human race would die if there weren’t women. It’s the reason why at that time there was the matriarchy instead of the patriarchy.

One more aim of the ancient art had a magical component. Depicting of a wounded animal meant “good luck” in a hunt. The Paleolithic age is the Ice age. It was hard to find an animal for a meal. So, hunters made kind of a ritual before the hunt. They depicted a wounded animal what they wanted to kill. It meant that they can kill this animal in real life.