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on page 93:
QUOTE FROM HANCOCK: [about the paleolithic
cave paintings in France and Spain and the
San Bushmen in South Africa:]
| . . . In the end the researchers found only
one [theme] that could be said
to be universal: |
[Hancock quotes David Lewis-Williams, professor
at the University of Witwaterstrand, THE MIND IN THE CAVE, pg. 213],
|
*We looked at art that goes back to the dawn
of humanity and found it had one common feature:
animal-human hybrids . . . Werewolves and
vampires are as old as art, in other words.
These composite beings, from a world between
humans and animals, are a common theme from
the beginning of painting.*
|
[Hancock continues]
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*The French prehistorian Jean Clottes agrees
that the *belief in therianthropic beings*
is not only conclusively demonstrated in
the oldest cave art, but is *attested in
the whole world in all periods*
|
In his view, therefore, it must form * part of the universals of the human mind* [in personal conversation with Graham Hancock].
. . .
|
*...If the belief in therianthropes is one
of the universals of the human mind, when
what we should be asking is WHY is it universal?
Since our minds are supposedly the products
of Darwinian evolution.*
|
[Hancock premise - homo sapiens' brain got
its present form a hundred thousand years
ago],
|
*...it is axiomatic that any forms of behavior
that endure in human culture for thousands
of years must have proved themselves useful
for the long-term survival of our species.
We therefore need to figure out why it was
useful for our ancestors to be so passionately
interested in non existent man/animal hybrids
that they made them the subjects of their
very first artistic endeavors - at Chauvet,
Fumane, Hohlenstein-Stadel, and Apollo II
Cave - and continued to represent them, in
one form or another, for tens of thousands
of years.*
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SAVAGE FOOTNOTE:
The South African government issued hunting
permits [for real!] for San bushmen up to
1927. They had been exterminated by then.
White people used the limbs and heads for
hunting trophies.
Editorial Note.
Therianthropy. From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia • Therianthropy (from n.
therianthrope and adj. therianthropic, part
man and part beast, from the Greek therion,
meaning "wild animal" or "beast",
and anthropos, meaning "man") refers
to the metamorphosis of humans into animals
[1] Therianthropes have long existed in mythology,
appearing in ancient cave drawings
[2] such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères.
The term therianthropy was used to refer
to animal transformation folklore of Asia
and Europe as early as 190
[3] Therianthropy was also used to describe
spiritual belief in animal transformation
in 1915[4] and one source[5] raises the possibility
the term may have been used in the 16th century
in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.Therianthropy.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia • Therianthropy
(from n. therianthrope and adj. therianthropic,
part man and part beast, from the Greek therion,
meaning "wild animal" or "beast",
and anthropos, meaning "man") refers
to the metamorphosis of humans into animals
[1] Therianthropes have long existed in mythology,
appearing in ancient cave drawings
[2] such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères.
The term therianthropy was used to refer
to animal transformation folklore of Asia
and Europe as early as 190
[3] Therianthropy was also used to describe
spiritual belief in animal transformation
in 1915[4] and one source[5] raises the possibility
the term may have been used in the 16th century
in criminal trials of suspected werewolves.
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