Publication Date

1933

Abstract

When man first struck stone with other stone in conscious effort to change its shape, he first gave expression to the creative impulse that was instinct within him. During the ages that followed he, forced by necessity, directed that impulse into purely utilitarian channels. His need were food and shelter and he was so preoccupied with obtaining them and with devising objects which would help in their attainment that he had no time or need for anything else…. When his material comforts were assured; when he had a satisfactory, well concealed cave to live in, a sufficiency of meat on hand for a day or two, and a sufficiency of spear heads with which to gain more meat when it is necessary, he had time on his hands for a space. The creative urge was too strong to permit him to sit with idle hands, so he drew toward him his flaking tools and pile of points and fingered through them. One had a jag on its side. He flaked it off. The resultant perfect symmetry pleased him and he went through the whole pile, smoothing them and making them perfect. To grind off a roughness that wouldn’t chip, he scratched a straight line on the floor of the cave. The line was somehow incomplete and to satisfy his innate sense of the fitness of things, he crossed it with another. The result was so satisfying that he made a whole series of the figures. To demonstrate their completeness to a passing friend, he sketched a circle round them, touching the end of each arm. From then on, the process of development was simple and it wasn’t many generations before he was drawing full figures of animals on the walls of his home.

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Edgar Lee Hewett

Second Committee Member

Lansing B. Bloom

Third Committee Member

Clyde Kay Kluckhohn

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