Abstract
Footprints and handprints clearly indicate that adolescents took part in the cave rituals of Upper Paleolithic Europe. We argue that the cave paintings were created by transegalitarian hunter–gatherers. To better understand the significance of adolescent involvement in cave rituals, we undertook a study of maturation events involving rituals among ethnographic transegalitarian hunter–gatherers. Our results show that the costs associated with all of these events increase as social complexity increases and as the rank of individuals within communities increases. Furthermore, on the basis of the comparative ethnographic evidence and archaeological parameters pertaining to the different types of ritual events, we argue that the presence of adolescents in Upper Paleolithic caves suggests the initiation of elite children to secret societies.
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