ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE ARTISTIC MIND: FROM EVOLUTIONARY AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

While crafts such as stone toolmaking date back 2.5–3.4 million years, the earliest undisputed evidence of human-created art comes from the Upper Paleolithic, 12,000–50,000 years ago. Since then, Homo sapiens have continuously created various forms of art. Although the evolutionary rationale behind crafting is straightforward, art’s justification in the general evolutionary context is not, leading to continuing research investigating why art arose without an obvious function aiding adaptation. Our previous research comparing the drawing behaviors of chimpanzees and human children suggested that representational drawing is inspired by likening (pareidolia) against the backdrop of language acquisition. Past studies on children’s drawings have shown that children’s pictures are representational schemas that reflect and transmit their knowledge of objects and incorporate it from others, moderated by cultural differences. After reviewing the cognitive foundation of artistic expression from the perspective of evolution and development, we will discuss how representational art has affected human evolution as a cognitive niche and consider how cognitive psychology can approach the archaeology of art.