Sex and violence in rock art

摘要

It is an odd fact that the art of the last Ice Age (the Upper Palaeolithic) is characterized by its numerous stylized or naturalistic animal images, and yet its study has rarely involved animal ethologists, apart from an occasional article by specialists in bison or big cats, or by a veterinarian keen to argue that some of the depicted animals were dead or dying. A palaeobiologist has now carried out a long, in-depth study of this art, and the result is The Nature of Paleolithic Art, a massive and unusual book whose witty title succinctly expresses its approach.