Palaeolithic Religion and the Principle of Social Evolution

Abstract

'N THE archaeological record of Europe the upper palaeolithic hunting culture begins with the arrival of modern man during the last glaciation. .It replaced the far simpler Mousterian culture of the Neanderthal aborlginals, and in a few restricted areas in south-west Europe> where conditions were most favourable to a hunting life, it produced the earliest known monuments of mural art in caves and rock-shelters. These first paintings and engravings are of the greatest value for the spiritual history of mankind. But their interpretation in the light of the traditions of recently surviving hunting peoples meets with special difficulties. It can only be conclusive where works of art identical in style and content with the ancient works can be related to the rituals and beliefs and to thesocial structure of a modern group with the same technology and conditions of life as the ancient hunters, a combination of factors found only in the case of the who flourished in the rich game-lands of South Africa until they were exterminated in the I860'S. Unfortunately what is known of their rituals and beliefs is based in the main on the statements of a few survivors of those massacres, whereas the Austratians, whose traditions are far more fully documented, lack preciselzr what is essential to establish the antiquity of those traditions: a form of art comparable to the life-like imagery in the European caves. The surviving Bushman records are, however, richer than is commonly believed, and for the problem to be considered in this paper a brief article entitled A Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen which J. M. Orpen published in July I874 in the Cape Monthly Magazine has proved especially revealing. It contains eight stories a young Bushman named Qing told Orpen in explanation of the paintings in the rock-shelter sanctuaries of his own recently exterminated tribe. Of those paintings Orpen wrote that they were not always fit for publication )', but he did at least reproduce some details including men wearing antelope masks and others with large tails. They are men who have died and now live in rivers, where they tame elands and snakes, Qing said, adding that they were spoilt at the same time as the elands and by the dance of which yoll have seen paintings. It was a circlllar dance of