Bernabé Mallo
Doctor en Filosofía por la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)
Investigador
en neurofilosofía, evolución humana y origen del arte. / PhD in
Philosophy – University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)
Researcher in neurophilosophy, human evolution, and the origins of art.
A review of Jean Clottes' article (2003): From «Art for Art's Sake» to Shamanism: The Interpretation of Prehistoric Art
Introduction: the enigma of the deep caves
Why did our Palaeolithic ancestors venture into the depths of the earth, into dark and narrow galleries, to paint and engrave animals that could barely be seen? What drove them to leave their mark in places where torchlight barely illuminated the rock, far from settlements and from everyday view? The question of the meaning of prehistoric art has fascinated researchers for over a century, and the answers have been as varied as the currents of thought that generated them.
Jean Clottes, one of the world's most distinguished prehistorians, former General Curator of Heritage at the French Ministry of Culture and scientific director of the Chauvet cave studies, published in 2003 an article in La revue pour l'histoire du CNRS that offers a masterful overview of the history of interpretations of Palaeolithic art . In it, Clottes not only reviews the main theories that have succeeded one another since the 19th century —art for art's sake, totemism, sympathetic magic, structuralism— but also presents the hypothesis that he himself has defended together with South African anthropologist David Lewis-Williams: shamanism as an explanatory framework for understanding cave art .
The article, despite its brevity, condenses decades of reflection and fieldwork. Clottes warns us from the outset of the difficulties of interpreting a "fossil" art, whose ultimate meaning is inaccessible to us . However, far from the pessimism of those who recommend abandoning all research on meaning, Clottes argues that it is possible to reach a certain degree of understanding using three types of arguments: those that come from the art itself, those that derive from its archaeological context, and those that rely on ethnological comparisons with recent traditional societies that practise or practised rock art .
The insufficiency of the modern gaze: "art for art's sake" and its limits
The first attempt to explain Palaeolithic art, following the discovery of decorated objects in the second half of the 19th century, was the theory of "art for art's sake" . Engravings and sculptures would have no other purpose than to adorn weapons and tools, for the sheer pleasure of doing so. This interpretation, however, reflected more the conceptions of the time —the militant anti-clericalism of some prehistorians and the idea of the "noble savage" living in a world of abundance— than a rigorous approach to the Palaeolithic phenomenon.
Clottes points out that this theory was abandoned because it could not account for the paintings and engravings located in the deep galleries, far from settlements and from view . If art had been merely entertainment or ornamentation, why would it have been produced in such inaccessible and dark places? The theory of "art for art's sake" also clashed with ethnological evidence: in traditional societies, the concept of "art" as a disinterested and autonomous activity was absent. Images were produced within the framework of the community and for a specific purpose, not for the pleasure of the author or the satisfaction of personal desires.
Magic and totemism: art as an instrument of survival
At the end of the 19th century and during the first half of the 20th, the dominant interpretation was sympathetic magic, developed by Salomon Reinach and popularised by Abbé Breuil and Count Bégouën . This theory was based on the belief that there was a direct relationship between the image and the subject represented: by acting on the image, one acted on the real animal. Magical practices would have had three main purposes: to ensure success in hunting, to promote the fertility of useful species, and to destroy dangerous animals .
The hunting magic hypothesis seemed to explain well the presence of wounded animals or those pierced by arrows, as well as the location of figures in remote and often difficult-to-access places. However, Clottes points out the contradictions of this theory. Animals marked with wounds are rare, explicit mating scenes are scarce, and the remains of hunted animals in settlements do not correspond to the most represented species on cave walls . As Claude Lévi-Strauss noted, some animals were "good to eat" and others "good to think with", forming part of a "bestiary" linked to socio-religious traditions . Moreover, sympathetic magic could not explain the presence of negative hands, caricatured human figures, or, above all, composite creatures, those monstrous beings that do not exist in nature and whose destruction or multiplication would make no sense.
Totemism, which proposes a privileged relationship between a human group and an animal or plant species that characterises and venerates it, was another brief attempt . However, it was criticised because some animals appeared to be struck by weapons, which was incompatible with the respect due to the totem, and because the mixtures of species in each cave did not correspond to the homogeneity that might be expected from clan emblems .
Structuralism: art as a binary system
The second half of the 20th century was marked by structuralism, whose main exponents in the study of Palaeolithic art were Annette Laming-Emperaire and André Leroi-Gourhan . In contrast to ethnological comparativism, the structuralists proposed a return to the cave and to the works, seeking in their distribution and associations the principles of a symbolic grammar.
Leroi-Gourhan, through statistical analyses, concluded that bison and horses formed the basis of the bestiary and preferentially occupied the central panels, while complementary animals (ibex, deer) occupied a secondary place and formidable animals (lions, bears) were relegated to the depths. Geometric signs would participate in this symbolism in a binary system where animals and signs would have a masculine or feminine value, opposite and complementary .
Clottes points out that, despite their failure as attempts at global interpretation, structuralist theories have profoundly influenced research. The importance of the cave in choices and meanings can no longer be questioned; the distribution of drawings according to relief and topography has become a fundamental element of modern studies . However, criticisms have also been forceful: the sexual typology of animals and signs was considered too subjective, and the schemes proposed by Leroi-Gourhan proved inapplicable to many caves discovered subsequently .
Shamanism: the hypothesis that integrates art, mind and landscape
The most recent hypothesis, and the one that Clottes defends together with Lewis-Williams, is that of Palaeolithic shamanism . This interpretation is based on the idea that shamanic religions, which cover the entire north of the planet and part of the Americas, are the religions par excellence of hunter-gatherer peoples . Their antiquity and cosmological character make them an appropriate framework for understanding Palaeolithic art.
Shamanism is characterised by a conception of a complex cosmos where at least two worlds coexist, and by the belief that some people can, through trance, enter into contact with the spirit world to heal the sick, maintain natural balance, or ensure success in hunting . The shaman acts as a mediator between the real world and that of the spirits, often with the help of animal auxiliaries.
Clottes and Lewis-Williams establish an analogy between the underground journey to the depths of the caves and the shamanic journey to the spirit world . The Palaeolithic people, by venturing into the depths, were deliberately venturing into the supernatural world. The underground environment, with its darkness and silence, favoured the appearance of altered states of consciousness and hallucinations . The parietal representations would be, in this framework, the materialisation of shamanic visions.
Clottes identifies several elements of rock art that support this hypothesis. Animals, often represented without ground lines or respect for gravity, float on the walls like visions during trance. Geometric signs, points, lines, zigzags or grids, resemble those perceived in the different phases of shamanic trance . Composite beings, animals and humans mixed together, are part of this world of visions.
But perhaps one of the most powerful arguments is the relationship with natural reliefs. If one's mind is full of images of animals, a hollow in the rock highlighted by shadows will evoke the rump of a horse or the back of a bison. How could one not believe then that the animal spirits, encountered in visions, are there, half-released from the rock by the magic of the flickering torchlight, and ready to disappear back into it? In a few strokes, the artists perpetuated their power.
Cracks and hollows offered escapes to the depths of the rock, where spirits dwelled. Bones stuck into walls, finger marks and negative hands would be different ways of establishing direct contact with the forces underlying the rock, perhaps by uninitiated individuals who participated in the ritual . Negative hands, by merging with the wall, established a metaphorical connection with the spirit world.
The shamanic hypothesis, as Clottes acknowledges, has been widely criticised. The impossibility of knowing the meanings, the lack of formal proof, the vanity of ethnological comparisons, and the overly important role attributed to trance have all been questioned . However, Clottes argues that the shamanic hypothesis, building on previous knowledge, is currently the one that best explains the available data on the art of caves and objects of the Upper Palaeolithic .
Connection with research on the origin of art (S/Y/C)
The journey that Clottes traces through the history of interpretations of Palaeolithic art resonates deeply with the research we have been developing on the S/Y/C model of neuronal functioning and the Law of Biological Coherence (Mallo, 2023, 2025, 2026a, 2026b). Each of the theories reviewed by Clottes illuminates a different aspect of the function of art, but the shamanic hypothesis is the one that comes closest to an integrative understanding that connects art with mind, body, and cosmos.
The S (Survival) dimension manifests in all the interpretations that see in art a tool for survival, whether through hunting magic (to ensure food) or fertility magic (to guarantee the reproduction of species). Art, in this sense, is an extension of the homeostatic function: it not only helps to survive physically, but also allows people to process and share experiences, regulate emotions, and build group identity.
The Y (Symbolon) dimension is central in structuralism and, above all, in the shamanic hypothesis. Animals and geometric signs are not mere representations of reality, but symbols that refer to a system of shared meaning. Symbolon is the bridge between the internal world and the social world, between the shaman's visions and the community that interprets them. The cave, with its topography and reliefs, becomes a symbolic support where meaning is embodied in the rock.
The C (Wholeness) dimension manifests in the very structure of the caves and in the need to close a journey, to complete a ritual. The entrance to the cave, the descent into the depths, and the return to the light form a journey that seeks a totality, a coherence. Cave art, by integrating with the topography of the cave, is not a collection of isolated figures, but part of a whole that only acquires full meaning in its context.
Surgical Philosophy invites us to make a precise analytical cut in Clottes' article. It is not about choosing one of the theories as definitive, but about recognising that each has contributed to delimiting the field of the possible. Palaeolithic art, like art in general, is a complex phenomenon that is not exhausted in a single function or meaning. The shamanic hypothesis has the virtue of integrating the psychophysiological dimension (trance, hallucination) with the cultural and symbolic dimension, and with the ecological and social context. And it is precisely this integration that makes it the most fertile explanatory framework for our research.
Final considerations: interpretation as an open process
Jean Clottes' article reminds us that the interpretation of Palaeolithic art is a task that requires humility and, at the same time, audacity. Humility to recognise the limits of our knowledge, the unbridgeable distance that separates us from the minds that created those works, and the provisional character of all our hypotheses. Audacity to not renounce understanding, to dare to formulate questions and propose interpretive frameworks that make sense of the available data.
Clottes shows us that the history of interpretations of prehistoric art is not a history of linear progress, but of successive paradigm shifts, each of which has illuminated some aspects of the phenomenon while leaving others in the shadows. "Art for art's sake", sympathetic magic, structuralism, and shamanism are not so much false theories as partial perspectives, which have enriched our understanding as analytical techniques and ethnological knowledge have advanced.
The shamanic hypothesis, defended by Clottes and Lewis-Williams, represents perhaps the most ambitious attempt to integrate the different levels of analysis: the neuropsychological, the ethnological, the archaeological, and the symbolic. Its main contribution has been to restore to Palaeolithic art its dimension of embodied practice, of lived experience, of encounter between the human mind and the forces of the world.
And it is precisely this dimension that connects Palaeolithic art with contemporary art, and with our research on the origin of art in the Homo species. Art, from its earliest manifestations in the depths of the caves, has not only been a way of representing the world, but also a way of transforming it, of establishing a dialogue with the sacred, of exploring the limits of human experience.
References
Clottes, J. (2003). De « l'art pour l'art » au chamanisme : l'interprétation de l'art préhistorique. La revue pour l'histoire du CNRS, (8). https://doi.org/10.4000/histoire-cnrs.553
Mallo, B. (2023). La construcción neuro-simbólica. Una aproximación al funcionamiento del cerebro desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar [Doctoral thesis, University of the Basque Country - Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea]. ADDI Repository. http://hdl.handle.net/10810/62701
Mallo, B. (2025). Arte y biología: Una aproximación neurofilosófica al origen de la experiencia estética. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0E8Y5WZMK
Mallo, B. (2025). Art and biology: A neurophilosophical approach to the origin of aesthetic experience. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0E8Y6C2XN
Mallo, B. (2026a). De la filosofía quirúrgica a la ley de coherencia biológica S/Y/C: Hacia una investigación sobre el origen del arte en la especie Homo. https://isbn.bibna.gub.uy/catalogo.php?mode=detalle&nt=57196
Mallo, B. (2026a). De la filosofía quirúrgica a la ley de coherencia biológica S/Y/C: Hacia una investigación sobre el origen del arte en la especie Homo [Kindle edition]. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYGTJD5C
Mallo, B. (2026b). From surgical philosophy to the law of biological coherence S/Y/C: Toward a study of the origin of art in the Homo lineage. https://isbn.bibna.gub.uy/catalogo.php?mode=detalle&nt=57197
Autor / Author
Bernabé Mallo
Doctor en Filosofía – Universidad del País Vasco / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)
Investigador independiente en neurofilosofía, evolución humana y origen del arte.
Bernabé Mallo
PhD in Philosophy – University of the Basque Country / Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU)
Independent researcher in neurophilosophy, human evolution, and the origin of art.
Enlaces / Links
Página de autor Amazon / Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/bernabemallo
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9002-9728
Plataforma EHUenRed / Link EHUenRed: https://www.ehu.eus/es/web/masterrak-eta-graduondokoak/red-latinoamericana-de-posgrados
Canal YouTube / Channel YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@neuroideas815
Canal YouTube / Channel YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBsf6OZ482NjST6QA-hvYtQ
Publicaciones y proyectos en desarrollo / Publications and projects:
https://www.amazon.com/author/bernabemallo
https://ehuenred.theglocal.network/ideas/el-origen-del-arte-en-el-cerebro-de-makapansgat-al-moma-del-primate-al-sapiens