Reference Garrod, Fay, Lee, Oberlander and Macleod2007 Gombrich Reference Gombrich1960 Healey et al. Reference Fay, Garrod and Roberts2008 Fischer Reference Fischer1961 Garrod et al. Reference Henshilwood, d'Errico, Yates, Jacobs, Tribolo, Duller and Wintle2002), and image-making is likely to have played an important role in the evolution of human cognition and sociality (Renfrew and Morley Reference Renfrew and Morley2009).Ī central set of questions across several fields – in particular art history, anthropology, archaeology and the evolution of graphical communication systems – concerns the relation between styles of pictorial representation and characteristics of the social and demographic contexts in which they are produced (Boas Reference Boas1927 Conkey and Hastorf Reference Conkey and Hastorf1990 Dressler and Robbins Reference Dressler and Robbins1975 Fay et al. Humans have made use of pictorial representations since before the Upper Palaeolithic (Bahn Reference Bahn2016 Henshilwood et al. At the social level, pictorial representations are an effective tool of social coordination, a powerful means to disseminate ideas within a community, transmit them from generation to generation, and create shared worldviews this makes them ideal vehicles to disseminate ideologies, both religious and secular (Collins Reference Collins2016 Donald Reference Donald, Renfrew and Morley2009 Mithen Reference Mithen, Renfrew and Morley2009). They are sometimes easier to remember than words (Madigan Reference Madigan and Yuille2014 Scaife and Rogers Reference Scaife and Rogers1996) and, unlike spoken words, they are durable material objects that can reach different audiences and thereby influence minds and affect behaviours in different times and places (Donald Reference Donald and Turner2006 Gell Reference Gell1998). Pictorial representations are also effective attention-catching devices, especially when depictive and decorative techniques enhance their aesthetic appeal (Donald Reference Donald, Renfrew and Morley2009 Gell Reference Gell and Coote1992). They are highly versatile: they can visualise simple physical objects as well as very complex and abstract concepts and situations as such, at the individual level, they are external cognitive tools that help elaborate, manipulate, store and retrieve ideas that would be difficult for the mind alone to handle, such as beliefs about supernatural agents (Mithen Reference Mithen, Renfrew and Scarre1998, Reference Mithen2004, Reference Mithen, Renfrew and Morley2009). Pictorial representations are tangible expressions of ideas, mental models and ways of understanding the world. We find them in visual art, pictographic writing systems, road signs, graphic design, book illustrations, comics and animations, just to mention a few examples (Drucker and McVarish Reference Drucker and McVarish2009 Harthan Reference Harthan1997 Hockney and Gayford Reference Hockney and Gayford2016 Sabin Reference Sabin2001). Pictorial representations are ubiquitous in human culture. We discuss the implications of this finding for understanding the history and anthropology of art, and the parallels with sociolinguistics and language evolution. These results indicate that intergroup contact is likely to be an important factor in the cultural evolution of pictorial representation, because the need to communicate with outsiders ensures that some figurativeness is retained over time. We use data from experimental microsocieties to show that drawings produced by groups in contact tended to become more figurative and transparent to outsiders, whereas in isolated groups drawings tended to become abstract and opaque.
Here we show that pictorial styles can be shaped by intergroup contact. varying from detailed depictions of subjects to stylised abstract forms. In particular, they can differ in figurativeness, i.e. However, styles of pictorial representation vary greatly between cultures and historical periods. Cultures around the world have made images to convey information about living kinds, objects and ideas for at least 75,000 years, in forms as diverse as cave paintings, religious icons and emojis.
Pictorial representation is a key human behaviour.
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