paleolithic painters

From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 21:09:40 MDT

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    At 04:13 PM 5/24/03 -0400, gts wrote:

    >The skill of some paleolithic painters
    >was actually quite amazing. I know I could never paint as well as some of
    >them. The paintings are a reminder to me that paleolithic peoples were not
    >so very different from us.

    Maybe the reverse is the case. It's been shown by Allan W. Snyde that
    autistic savants paint representationally in very similar ways to ancient
    animal art, ways that sophisticated adults lose, unless we go through
    extensive `de-programming' to recover a kind of innocent eye.

    Cf. http://www.centreforthemind.com/

    Of course it might be that the ancients allocated this role to their
    occasional autistic members, as shamanic jobs are often given to
    schizophrenics, etc.

    Damien Broderick

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