Totems

“’It is the figurative representations of this plant or animal [on ceremonial objects]…which have the greatest sanctity’, because it is these which provide the tangible expression of the group’s place in society. ’personified and represented to the imagination under the visible form of the [picture of the] animal or vegetable which serves as a totem.’” 

            Totems presence as art is reflected in this statement of Durkheim’s relayed through Layton.  This quote illustrates the importance of artistic totemic representations for small-scale societies that follow totemic religious beliefs.  The symbolism that is present in totemic depictions of animals or plants is a more than just a painting or drawing that is both representative and abstract.  The totem is representative of the people, and their ancestral patterns, that associate with that symbol.  These religious beliefs all have the underlying presence of the group’s ancestry.  It is the connection to the groups past.  It defines how the world unfolded its mysteries to the group defining certain principal and practices to live in a truly positive manner.   

            Totemic religious beliefs play a massive role in small-scale societies; it delineates kinship patterns, a process for resolving disputes between groups, and subsistence patterns. Kinship patterns are reflected in totemic religious views.  One group is expected to produce a husband or wife for the other.  This is the basis for the ancestral patterns that are associated with totemic beliefs.  Once a member from a related group joins another through marriage, they, and all future family members, depending on whether they are male or female, are now a part of that group, or destined to be attached to another associated group.  Totemic beliefs also transcend religion into the realm of law and order.  Totemic beliefs can also develop into a basis for handling disputes between group members.  They involve processes for handling a wide-range of issues, like “property” disputes, issues involving the mate of another group member, or witchcraft.  Symbolic totemic representations can also be related to subsistence.  They can be related to a resource that a group exploits seasonally.  Clearly totemic symbolism is not limited to this concept, there are plenty of other reasons a specific representation is used, and they vary from culture to culture, but it can be related to a specific subsistence pattern.  The presence of symbolism in totemic representations stretches far beyond my analysis, but these are just a few reasons to show how far beyond mere artistic symbolism totemic representation extend.  It is a religious system that encompasses many aspects of life.   

Aborigines Make Death Special

           This film showed exactly why Aboriginal Australians are so rich for study.  The complexity of the their culture provides rich insight into how previous hunter gatherer groups may have lived.  The interconnectivity of their law, totems, myths, painting, song, dance, rituals, religion, and how these aspects of their culture vary regionally from a connected group in one region to another group in another region, these similarities are the main reasons why it is so complex and difficult to gain a true holistic understanding of Australian aboriginal culture.  The film did such a beautiful job of displaying the vast cultural richness of the Australian aborigines.  Most of the aspects of the aboriginal religion are connected to totemic representations of ancestral kinship patterns (excuse me while offensively generalize about aboriginal religious belief, they would put me under spear-fire if my generalizations reached their ears).  In the build up to the funeral, there were methodical, meticulous efforts made in preparation for the event.  Over the course of these preparations, the religious songs of the ancestors of the deceased were sung, the dances celebrating that ancestral lineage were celebrated, paintings were drawn for the coffin, the sand sculpture was made, food and subsistence items were gathered, the right number of people with the correct status had to be present, and the bodies of the group were painting towards to culmination of the ritual.  All of these artistic acts and processes of making sure the ritual was properly realized; are acts of making special.

            The preparation of the aboriginal funeral rites is a long daunting process.  The proper hollow log must be chosen for the coffin, certain songs and stories must told and sung, certain dances must take place amongst the correct number and status of people, the correct sand sculpture must be made, and the deceased person’s ancestral lineage must paid homage to with the right people present.  All of these acts define making something special and represent ceremonial art.  The songs, dance, and stories are art; and the painting of the coffin and bodies of those participating in the ceremony are definitely artistic expression, making the impact and importance of these ceremonies all the more impactful.  The symbolic and abstract nature of the painting of the coffin is the most dramatic example of making special.  A specific, boring, plain piece of wood, although of a specific type, is selected for the ceremony.  Then over the course of the days leading up to burying of the dead, the coffin is painted methodically in a specific manner, with specific symbols representing that person lineage so that they can become part of the spiritual realm in which their ancestors reside and still live through the songs, stories, dances, and totemic landmarks that make up the aboriginal culture and life.

Sand Sculpture

A Painting of a Fish

Some Aborigines with Ceremonial Attire

More Interpreting

            Anyone reading my blog the last couple of weeks has already noticed that I have basically been toying around with the idea of interpreting the cave paintings and prehistoric art; so this post may seem a bit repetitive.  When discussing the study and interpretation of prehistoric art it undoubtedly revolves around two fields of study and analysis, ethological and archaeological.  It is necessary to make the statement however that these two fields of study should be highly interdependent on one another, especially regarding the potential interpretations of the artworks of an extinct culture.  In order to fully understand the culture producing these works of art, one must engage in all activities surrounding the methodological collection of data and the ethological interpretations of that data.  One cannot possibly “make sense” of all the potential interpretations of these artworks unless fully understanding all of the data surrounding that presuppose that analysis.  Ethological data referring the to composition, juxtaposition similarities, size of the works, choice of animals used, and the relationship of the works to unidentified markings all include the potential for ethological interpretation.  However, all of these activities involve the collection of data.  Archaeological data would include: the frequency of certain animals used, the artifacts/ecofacts present in the caves, and once again the general composition of the piece.  All of these aspects are just data until one tries to make sense out of them, which requires ethological interpretation.  One of the common interpretations of prehistoric art, particularly cave paintings, is often they served a spiritual purpose.

            Due to the lack of a written language, it is not out of the ordinary to speculate that these works of art were used in a spiritual, mythical capacity.  From my own armchair perspective, this interpretation seems legitimate.  You can almost picture a group of people ritualistically surrounding the artwork in the great hall of bulls while elders speak a great tale as torchlight flickers along the works, breathing life into them.  But, in this same analysis, there can also be totemic interpretation arising from this manner of thought.  A work of lions and rhinos juxtaposed together can be seen as a totemic relationship between groups identifying with the totem of the lion or the rhino.  Now, what exactly these totems represent is highly uncertain, and I won’t begin to insult the proponents of this theory with my simplistic analysis, but, through this example, it is easy to discern how similar theories can develop and how not one can ever be definitive due to the death of the culture that has produced them.  The one interpretation that we know is undoubtedly true is that the production of these artworks was highly important to the culture that created them.

Speculative Interpretations

            “Their work portrays the animals that their culture valued, not so much in a practical way—or else there would have been more fish, which were an important part of their diet—but in an aesthetic or mythological or spiritual way.” (17)

            There are many theories for explaining the meaning behind the Cave Paintings in the Dordogne Valley.  As we have been reading, they range from the most simplistic (the paintings represent the world that the people of this region and time period were apart of) to the most unsubstantiated due to the culture being extinct (mythological, totemic, spiritual, magical, etc).  Our ethological interpretations of the paintings can never be fully proven without a living member of the culture; speculation is all the remains.  When archaeological evidence is difficult to interpret, there is often a jump to this realm of thought, in the context of the cave paintings in the Dordogne Valley, it is more than warranted. 

            My personal opinion on the art works is that they must have had some mythological, spiritual, or totemic purposes.  Raphael’s theory of the painting being related to clan structures and separations also seems reasonable but there still must be some mythological/spiritual/totemic explanation for the symbolism of why a clan would identify with a specific animal.  The selection of which animals the artists used in their works is also very intriguing.  They generally seem to be Bison, Mammoth, Horses, and Rhinos; essentially they are animals that they were able to hunt and that would have produced massive amounts of meat and tools for a group (I’m not sure if they did hunt them, tried to find info on it, and couldn’t find any).  According to “The Cave Painters”, the mega-fauna mentioned weren’t a massive portion of their diet. These animals are also very powerful animals with massive potential for danger if a group were to hunt them.  Horses were not domesticated at this point, so it is not unreasonable to assume that they could have been hunted. 

            Whether or not prehistoric groups in this region hunted these animals is irrelevant though because it is not significant of the potential symbolism attached to a particular animal.  The most logical application of the paintings seems to be the mythological or spiritual purpose of the art works.  The recent discovery of children’s artistic and overall presence within the caves where the artwork was housed shows that these artistic practices are definitely transmitted to the next generation, as opposed to being the work of just few people over the course of time.  It also shows the cultural importance of continuing the painting process because children were encouraged to participate in abstract artistic expression, which could have further bonded a group and reinforced cultural values through representation of their mythological or spiritual system.  Totemic representation could be involved in the symbolism of the animals.

            Obviously there is no definitive conclusion to be drawn from these artworks.  All that can be definitively interpreted is that clearly the paintings served a purpose that would reinforce the culture the group/groups producing these paintings.  It’s enjoyable to speculate just what is the exact meaning of these artworks, just as it is when viewing art in today’s society.

Sources

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/30/world/europe/prehistoric-cave-art/index.html