Down to the last detail: How our ancestors with autistic traits led a revolution in Ice Age art

University of York ^ | Tuesday, May 15, 2018 | Department of Archaeology

[SunkenCiv]

The ability to focus on detail, a common trait among people with autism, allowed realism to flourish in Ice Age art, according to researchers at the University of York. Around 30,000 years ago realistic art suddenly flourished in Europe. Extremely accurate depictions of bears, bison, horses and lions decorate the walls of Ice Age archaeological sites such as Chauvet Cave in southern France. Why our ice age ancestors created exceptionally realistic art rather than the very simple or stylised art of earlier modern humans has long perplexed researchers. Many have argued that psychotropic drugs were behind the detailed illustrations. The popular idea that drugs might make people better at art led to a number of ethically-dubious studies in the 60s where participants were given art materials and LSD. The authors of the new study discount that theory, arguing instead that individuals with "detail focus", a trait linked to autism, kicked off an artistic movement that led to the proliferation of realistic cave drawings across Europe. Lead author of the paper, Dr Penny Spikins from the Department of Archaeology at the University of York, said: "Detail focus is what determines whether you can draw realistically; you need it in order to be a talented realistic artist. This trait is found very commonly in people with autism and rarely occurs in people without it. "We looked at the evidence from studies attempting to identify a link between artistic talent and drug use, and found that drugs can only serve to disinhibit individuals with a pre-existing ability. The idea that people with a high degree of detail focus, many of which may have had autism, set a trend for extreme realism in ice age art is a more convincing explanation."

[entropy12]

LOL LMAO ROFL !!!

[bk1000]

Perhaps “blame” isn’t the best word here. I am often guilty of poor word selection. Autism was attributed in the first sentence:

“The ability to focus on detail, a common trait among people with autism, allowed realism to flourish in Ice Age art,...”

[COBOL2Java]

Monomaniacal focus has a definite place in society and is very useful, just not in social situations, not at all. In times past such individuals were merely eccentric and were by and large accepted as such, but now it’s been pathologized and drugged. Can’t have any variance from the perceived “norm,” which is hilarious coming from people who reject “normative” anything.

Well put. In today's anti-religious culture, belief in a traditional, non-new-age deity is certainly not "normative".

[entropy12]

I wish I can borrow my dog’s immune system. She has never even caught a cold in 14 years. And she runs around outside strip naked in cold weather.

[COBOL2Java]

As I said on another post, a great deal depend on one’s defintion of “autism”. A better more generic term might be “monomaniacal focus” as someone else had said.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Yeah, it’s funny, they, at the same time enforce ahyper-rigid adhearance to their social language, but promote only the most destructive, self-destructive, forms of eccentricity. It was how the bisexual Emma Gonzales and her cohort could bully the, until his horrible crime, harmless Nicholas Cruz, and be lauded as heroes.

[SunkenCiv]

The Neandertal Enigma
by James Shreeve
in local libraries

"Frayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]

[SunkenCiv]

You know, I like to throw in more red meat sometimes.

Welcome to the Dreamtime.

The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
by Princeton University psychologist Julian Jaynes
Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books (1976, 2000)
http://www.julianjaynes.org/bicameralmind.php

[sparklite2]

Ice Ages might explain the presence of homosexual genes, too.
When it was too cold to leave the cave and find Irene, Ogg stayed in the cave and buggered Bob until they found the cold didn’t have to be an excuse.

[mairdie]

Thanks for the thread.

[Wuli]

This is what I hate about “archeology” today. They find the erroneous need to explain motives and causes behind things for which the motives and causes are clearly unknowable. To claim the ice age cave dwellers were “autistic” is beyond dumb and stupid. Call it a “crime” to archeology.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure, thanks for all those YouTube vids.