De l’iconographie d’un art rupestre à son interpretation anthropologique

Abstract

We examine the hypothesis according to which the iconographic structure of Rock Art differs significantly, in terms of frequencies of the animal motifs and distribution among sites, as a function of the socio-economic organization and of the type of beliefs. African, Australian and European data coming from hunter-gatherer and pastoralist societies will be used. The situation of Palaeolithic Rock Art in Western Europe will be particularly discussed as well as the possibility of correlating the structure of Rock Art with a totemic organization or with shamanic practices.