Geometry.Net - Science Books: Cave Biology

The cave paintings and other preserved remnants of Paleolithic peoples shed light on a world little known to us, one so deeply embedded in time that information about it seems unrecoverable. While art historians have wrestled with these images and objects, very few scientists have weighed in on Paleolithic art as artifacts of a complex, living society. R. Dale Guthrie is one of the first to do so, and his monumental volume The Nature of Paleolithic Art is a landmark study that will change the shape of our understanding of these marvelous images.

With a natural historian's keen eye for observation, and as one who has spent a lifetime using bones and other excavated materials to piece together past human behavior and environments, Guthrie demonstrates that Paleolithic art is a mode of expression we can comprehend to a remarkable degree and that the perspective of natural history is integral to that comprehension. He employs a mix of ethology, evolutionary biology, and human universals to access these distant cultures and their art and artifacts. Guthrie uses innovative forensic techniques to reveal new information; estimating, for example, the ages and sexes of some of the artists, he establishes that Paleolithic art was not just the creation of male shamans.

With more than 3,000 images, The Nature of Paleolithic Art offers the most comprehensive representation of Paleolithic art ever published and a radical (and controversial) new way of interpreting it. The variety and content of these images—most of which have never been available or easily accessible to nonspecialists or even researchers—will astonish you. This wonderfully written work of natural history, of observation and evidence, tells the great story of our deepest past.

Anthropology and natural history as documented in graffiti
The review title seems to basically sum up the book. The author makes the quite reasonable assumption that only a tiny fraction of paleolithic art has survived the tens of thousands of years of time between then and now. Furthermore, it's not even a representative sample. Only certain types of art could have survived, and generally only in specific places. So he argues that while the art does tell us something about the people and their time, we need to use our understanding of anthropology and natural history and human nature to put it into proper context.

I do wish he would have included at least a few photographs. The book is full of his drawings, but it would be nice to be working from more direct sources. The author explains this lack by stating that line drawings and etchings don't photograph well, and that is true. But regardless, some photos would have been nice.

However, the real interest in the book is not the art itself, but what the art might be able to teach us about how these people lived and what their environment was like. The author assumes that they were people, very much like us, and that what we see is not the works of their great masters, but more the casual doodling and carving of everyday people (mostly young men).

Where I went to college, we had a tradition of exploring the odd nooks and crannies of the buildings, going into the tunnels and above the false ceilings and such. And when you found a place like that, well you "tagged" it. You maybe made a little drawing or wrote your name and date. These people didn't have written languages or dates, but they could and did make drawings. I find his thesis claiming that most cave art was made by casual explorers to be very compelling.

Sheer joy in the glorious experience called life
A few months ago I came face-to-face with some beautiful drawings in a cave in France (Font de Gaume) which were made by people very like me, but they were made 40,000 years ago.This experience was riveting, especially when I learned that such drawings were to be found in hundreds of caves from Portugal to Russia, that they were mostly all of the same realistic type, and mostly of animals that were to be found in that area at that time.I was puzzled that the drawings over such large distances could be so similar, because communication over such distances was clearly impossible at that time.

This and other questions are answered by The Nature of Paleolithic Art, by R. Dale Guthrie.This is one of the best books I have ever read!It should perhaps be retitled something like The Nature of Mankind and its relationship to Paleolithic art, to better indicate the breadth of the author's concerns. There are many things to love about this book, including the obvious such as the drawings, and his unabashedly scholarly vocabulary combined with really graceful prose.But I also loved the author's gleeful unapologetic male heterosexuality; the deep-rooted optimism he has for our species; his conclusion that our species' amazing creativity stems from our playfulness; his straightforward explanation of evolution, not as a grand scheme, but as merely the result of the creatures who survive; and finally his sheer joy in participating with all other creatures in the glorious experience called life. Everybody should read this book.

Marking time
Since the first finds of ancient cave art in Spain at the end of the 19th Century, researchers have sought to understand what prompted them.Various theories, from "hunting magic" to links to spirits have been put forward.Dale Guthrie, with many years experience in the field to draw upon, argues a new idea.Searching for "hidden meaning", he contends, is a false trail.Instead, he wants the art viewed as a window into the life of the times.What's important, he argues, is that the artworks represent what was significant to people living in ancient times.He considers those fabulous images as representations of rather mundane depictions of daily encounters.In this exhaustive study, Guthrie re-draws the art of the caves and inscribed on bone and horns, the tools, and some of the methods used.

He reminds us that most of the portrayed animal life wasn't a major part of the Paleolithic diet.Lions, bears and horses weren't consumed by those early peoples.Reindeer, easier to hunt and comprising much of the meal debris found, are far less common on the cave rocks.Cave art, he says, exhibits an unexpected unity of subject and presentation.As "unrealistic" portrayals, cave images show frequent exaggerations, which are common across many sites.This point, coupled with the hidden locations of so many rock art sites, instead of giving the art "hidden" purpose as well, suggests to Guthrie that the artists were just as likely people staying out sight.From this, he surmises that young people not occupied in hunting or other specialised tasks, may have been "dabbling" in making the images.He cites the number of small hand prints found on the walls as an indication of this claim.As he, and others have recognised, people went into the caves to make images, not to live in them.Caves are fine places to shelter, particularly during extended cold seasons.Passing the time by engaging in making graffiti may be our species' oldest form of alleviating boredom.

The author's surmise about young men being a significant portion of the cave artists leads him into further speculations about Paleolithic society in general.From the premise that those ancient people were physiologically much like ourselves, he assumes their mental capacity and social relations were much like modern humans, if a bit more primitive in technological abilities.Family relations were probably monogamous, he assumes - which departs from the numerous polygamous cultures that still exist today.The harsh environment forced people into small, intimate bands: "tribes" remained an innovation of the future.Conservation or almost any form of game animal management was impossible.Habitat relocation would be forced by the paucity of vegetable foods due to cold or varying conditions.

Guthrie's background is zoology, not graphics.That foundation gives him the basis for his fresh outlook on the subject.Yet, instead of offering a "coffee-table" volume of photographs, he has created his own images, all in sepia, to explain his ideas.Nearly every page contains these miniatures with explanatory text accompanying them.We must trust his abilities in conveying the images, and in some cases, what they actually represent.The minimal size of these graphics limits the available detail, and are indicators of his points, not evidence.It's a daunting task to keep track of his themes and how the images support them in many instances.However, since the images are the basis for his thinking, fewer of them and larger renditions would grant his ideas more credibility.Although his chapters are short and direct in making their points, bringing all the information together isn't a task for a novice in the subject.It's not an introductory text.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A Masterpiece
This book is an absolute tour de force and I was totally won over to Guthrie's premise at the end, after at first being a little skeptical. I will leave it to the experts to argue detail points, but I will assume that Guthrie's reproductions are accurate, and that his intellectual and philosophical underpinnings will stand firm in the storm. I don't see how it is possible to fault Guthrie's profound analysis and interpretations of Paleolithic art, all written in a graceful and delightfully friendly style. What a wonderful, insightful book. My eyes filled with tears of gratitude as I finished the last sentence and closed the cover. A masterpiece.

A different look at Paleolithic Art
Suppose you were astudent in an art appreciation class and your professor assigneda critique of Paleolithic art, that is, the art produced between about 40000 and 10000 years agoWhere would you start?Perhaps by looking at some of the finest cave paintings, which, without a doubt, are the work of talented artists.This is the approach taken by many of the specialists on Paleolithic art.It is not R. Dale Guthrie's approach in his book "The Nature of Paleolithic Art".

Guthrie has looked at all of the art, the best and the worst, and comes to a startling new conclusion as to its origin.He is uniquely qualified for such a study.

First he has probably seen more Paleolithic art than any other specialist. And much of the art consists of images that would never appear in a coffee table book on Paleolithic art.

Guthrie is an artist himself.He shows that some of the Paleolithic artists lacked a sense of perspective or other talents that today separate a doodler from a true artist. Guthrie becomes almost wistful when he talks about the art that nobody has seen and will never see.What about clothing, women's art, story telling, tattooing, any art done at non-permanent sites using non-permanent materials?All gone. In other words, what remains is only a very small select sample, and as Guthrie concludes, most of it done by teenagers exploring caves and taking risks just as teenagers do today.

Guthrie is an avid hunter and as a hunter in Alaska he has studied in a very practical way the behavior of big game animals.He knows, for example, what it is like to return to a kill and find that a grizzly bear has claimed it - the same scenario illustratedin one of the Paleolithic drawings.Would anyone but a hunter have interpreted this image in this way?I suspect not.

As a student of mammalian behavior and vertebrate paleontology, Guthrie can speak with authority on the probable behavior of the extinct mammals that were subjects of much of the art.He shows that Paleolithic men (boys really) knew as much or more about the behavior of the large mammals they hunted as any modern expert.

Guthrie's conclusions are radical, yet at the same time refreshing because they paint a picture of human beings 30000 years ago that were in many ways like us, with similar urges, thoughts and behavioral characteristics that persist in us, despite our thick cultural patina, even to this day. Another reviewer (see review by Paul Matheus at Amazon.com) concludes that Guthrie's book is really "About Us". I could not agree more, but in some startling ways those people of 300 centuries ago were also different from us.For example, Guthrie finds no drawings that depict battles and war, scenes quite common in later art, down to the present.It's something to think about.

Read this book.It will become a classic.It is much more than a book about Paleolithic Art and yet it is a book that all artists should read.I recently heard of one artist who read the book and declared that it "was the most important book he had ever read." ... Read more

41. Kretschmarr Cave Mold Beetle: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 2 Pages (2000) list price: US$2.90 -- used & new: US$2.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OXW Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 515 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

42. Tooth Cave Pseudoscorpion: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 2 Pages (2000) list price: US$2.90 -- used & new: US$2.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OP0 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 558 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

43. Coffin Cave Mold Beetle: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 3 Pages (2000) list price: US$3.90 -- used & new: US$3.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OXM Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 776 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

44. Tooth Cave Spider: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 2 Pages (2000) list price: US$2.90 -- used & new: US$2.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4ONW Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 558 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

45. Squirrel Chimney Cave Shrimp: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 2 Pages (2000) list price: US$2.90 -- used & new: US$2.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OTG Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 515 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

46. Cave Crayfish: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 3 Pages (2000) list price: US$3.90 -- used & new: US$3.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OU0 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 825 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

47. Bone Cave Harvestman: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 3 Pages (2000) list price: US$3.90 -- used & new: US$3.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OOQ Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 957 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

48. Tooth Cave Ground Beetle: An entry from Gale's <i>Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America</i>
	Digital: 2 Pages (2000) list price: US$1.90 -- used & new: US$1.90 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B001OM4OWS Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is an article from Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species: North America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 481 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Presents extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service. Arranged taxonomically, entries include introductory information, a summary section detailing information on each species and a concluding summary of recovery efforts. ... Read more

49. A morphometric analysis of the Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton from the Moh Khiew Cave in Thailand [An article from: HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology] by H. Matsumura, S. Pookajorn
	Digital: Pages list price: US$5.95 -- used & new: US$5.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: B000RR78FG Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This digital document is a journal article from HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Description: Few Late Pleistocene human remains have been found in Southeast Asia and the morphological features of the people of that age are still largely unknown due to the virtual lack of human remains in the area. Recent excavations at the Moh Khiew Cave in Thailand resulted in the discovery of a Late Pleistocene human skeleton in a relatively good state of preservation. An AMS radiocarbon date on the charcoal sample gathered from the burial gave a result of 25,800+/-600BP, implying that the inhabitants of Moh Khiew Cave resided in a part of Sundaland during the last glacial age. In debates on the population history of Southeast Asia, it has been repeatedly advocated that Southeast Asia was occupied by indigenous people akin to present-day Australo-Melanesians prior to an expansion of migrants from Northeast Asia into this area. Morphometric analyses were undertaken to test the validity of this hypothesis. In the present study, cranial and dental measurements recorded from the Moh Khiew remains are compared with those of early and modern samples from Southeast Asia and Australia. These comparisons demonstrate that the Moh Khiew specimen resembles the Late Pleistocene series from Coobool Creek, Australia in both cranial and dental measurements. These results suggest that the Moh Khiew skeleton, as well as other fossil remains from the Tabon, Niah and Gua Gunung sites, represents a member of the Sundaland population during the Late Pleistocene, who may share common ancestry with the present-day Australian Aborigines and Melanesians. ... Read more

50. The Walls of Plato's Cave: The Science and Philosophy of (Avebury Series in Philosophy) by John R. Smythies
	Hardcover: 251 Pages (1994-10) list price: US$73.95 Isbn: 185628882X Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description This treatise presents a new scientific theory of the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain. It is based on a comprehensive review of neuroscience, cognitive science, introspectionist psychology, clinical neurology, philosophy and the cosmology of space and time. The theory was adumbrated by More, Priestly, Borad, Price and Russell. It links these philosophical suggestions with recent developments in physics - Kaluza's theory of electromagnetism and Linde's theory of consciousness. Topics covered include scientific and philosophical aspects of perception, contrasting the Representative Theory with Direct Realism; the body-image of neurology; the binding problems in neuroscience; theories of mind/brain relation; and how the brain mechanisms that are involved in generating phenomenal consciousness actually work. The basic concept deals with the geometrical and topological relations between phenomenal space and physical space using higher-dimensional geometry and tensor field theory. Experiments to test the theory are suggested. ... Read more

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Home - Science - Cave Biology (Books)

53. Antifeedant Effects of Diethyl Toluamide and Neem Oil on Native Cave Weta, Cockroaches and Amphipods (DOC Science Internal S.) by P.G. McGregor, P. G. Peterson, etc.
	Paperback: 14 Pages (2004-02) Isbn: 047822544X Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

52. Cave Life by Christiane Gunzi
	Turtleback: 29 Pages (2002-02) list price: US$12.37 Isbn: 060617799X Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan
Editorial Review Product Description Part of a series of photographic information books which take a close-up look at the world around us, this book examines the plants and animals in caves, studying the inhabitants of this environment in detail, explaining how and why they have adapted to their surroundings. There are captions on specific features and helpful annotation pointing out unusual detail. The integrated text and photographs show the reader how to look closer and find out even more about all kinds of things in the natural world - from a frog's legs to a dragonfly's eyes. ... Read more

54. The Myotragus balearicus: Paleopathology and the palynological analysis of the soil of the deposit; two studies ... Cave of Muleta, Soller, Mallorca, Spain, 1962-68, by William H Waldren
	Unknown Binding: Pages (1968) Asin: B0007IVPAY Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

57. The Observer's Book of Birds (Observers)
	Hardcover: 192 Pages (1996-04-25) -- used & new: US$70.14 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1854710087 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

58. The Observer's Book of Insects (Observers) by E.F. Linssen, John Clegg
	Hardcover: 192 Pages (1996-04-25) -- used & new: US$7.95 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1854710486 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

59. The Observer's Book of Wild Flowers (Observers)
	Hardcover: 192 Pages (1996-04-25) -- used & new: US$5.00 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 1854710834 Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan

60. The Observer's Book of Pond Life (Observers) by John Clegg
	Hardcover: 192 Pages (1996-04-25) -- used & new: US$36.48 (price subject to change: see help) Asin: 185471063X Canada \| United Kingdom \| Germany \| France \| Japan