2 The Meaning of Understanding
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world around them. They could not fail to notice and exploit the cycles
of nature. Day changed into night, then back to day again. The seasons
succeeded one another inexorably through the course of a year. The exception
appeared to be humans themselves, who aged or died through misadventure
or disease and were lost forever. How could this be? Perhaps death was not
the end, but just a doorway into a different cycle. Perhaps we do not entirely
die, and some part of our essence remains.
Of course, what we have described above is conjecture. However, we do
know that primitive people were already interested in their surroundings.
Figure 2.1 displays rock art from the Lascaux Caves in France, depicting
aurochs, horses and deer. It is estimated to be up to 20,000 years old.
The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France contains rock paintings
dating to about 30,000 years ago of a variety of animals. Australian Aboriginal
rock art has been found in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and the Olary
district of South Australia, and the oldest is about 35,000 years old. It depicts
extinct megafauna, e.g. Genyornis newtoni, a flightless bird over two metres
tall, and Thylacoleo, a formidable marsupial carnivore.
Since humans were alive, they interpreted everything around them as also
being animated. Unable to understand natural bodies and their behaviour,
they attributed to them a divine nature. Their description of the world was
Fig. 2.1 Cave paintings of aurochs, horses and deer from Lascaux caves (Montignac,
Dordogne, France). Image, courtesy of Prof saxx (Creative Commons: https://com
mons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux_painting.jpg (accessed 2020/8/11))
25
world around them. They could not fail to notice and exploit the cycles
of nature. Day changed into night, then back to day again. The seasons
succeeded one another inexorably through the course of a year. The exception
appeared to be humans themselves, who aged or died through misadventure
or disease and were lost forever. How could this be? Perhaps death was not
the end, but just a doorway into a different cycle. Perhaps we do not entirely
die, and some part of our essence remains.
Of course, what we have described above is conjecture. However, we do
know that primitive people were already interested in their surroundings.
Figure 2.1 displays rock art from the Lascaux Caves in France, depicting
aurochs, horses and deer. It is estimated to be up to 20,000 years old.
The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France contains rock paintings
dating to about 30,000 years ago of a variety of animals. Australian Aboriginal
rock art has been found in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and the Olary
district of South Australia, and the oldest is about 35,000 years old. It depicts
extinct megafauna, e.g. Genyornis newtoni, a flightless bird over two metres
tall, and Thylacoleo, a formidable marsupial carnivore.
Since humans were alive, they interpreted everything around them as also
being animated. Unable to understand natural bodies and their behaviour,
they attributed to them a divine nature. Their description of the world was
Fig. 2.1 Cave paintings of aurochs, horses and deer from Lascaux caves (Montignac,
Dordogne, France). Image, courtesy of Prof saxx (Creative Commons: https://com
mons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lascaux_painting.jpg (accessed 2020/8/11))