Prehistoric Art

Prehistoric Art

Meaning behind Prehistoric Art
The purpose of prehistoric art is one of the most debated subjects within the world of art. As time goes on new theories emerge, but so far nothing has been proven to be fact. Three of the main ideas include decoration, social function, and mystical reasons.
Subject matter is very important when discussing the artwork. The repetition of subject matter may be significant in understanding the culture and the true purpose of the artwork. The most common subject is said to be large wild animals. This creates the notion that these animals are one of the most important things in society at that time.
One of the first theories was that the prehistoric man created art for decorative purposes. This theory is possible because of human nature. It can be seen throughout history that there is a need for both self-decoration and the decoration of structures. So it would not be unreasonable to assume that these paintings and reliefs represent where decorative art originated.
A second theory is that these paintings had a deeper purpose socially within each tribe.   Perhaps the illustrations were messages written from one person in the tribe to another.
“ ‘Art for art’s sake’ may theoretically have occurred in any culture, but in most cases individual artistic interpretation as related to some more widespread system of thought and had messages to convey- signatures, ownership, warnings, exhortations, demarcations, commemorations, narratives, myths, and metaphors. The function of most prehistoric art was probably to affect the knowledge or behavior of the people who could read those messages” (Bahn xvii).
So early man used these drawings and symbols to advise others in their tribe, with what may be the very earliest form of written communication.
Another aspect to examine closer is that only members of the same tribe would know how to read these symbols. It is similar to the many languages the world has adapted over the...