La symbolique de la grotte Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc sous le regard de l'anthropologie

Abstract

From a contemporary point of view, the "art" displayed in the Chauvet Cave presents a series of enigmas, which anthropology may help to elucidate by studying the recurrent symbolic patterns that relate to different objects or signs in circumpolar societies sharing the same way of life as the Aurignacian human groups. This scientific approach seems particularly effective when it comes to interpreting the significance of several pieces of evidence found at the site of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc: the bear, whose presence is striking as much by its parietal representations as by the physical tracks left in the cave by the animal, the pictorial opposition between the bear and lion and, finally, the feminine figures in the depths of the cave. These various elements seem to evoke significant cultural themes common to most of the hunter-gatherer societies of the Boreal region, and which reveal their specific conception of cosmic organization.