Biography

What processes were involved in the evolution of the modern human brain and cognition? How can we study such processes? The material culture studied by archaeologists to understand the cognition and mind of early humans are the art objects left by people of early cultures. Some of the earliest examples of art belong to the European Upper Palaeolithic- a culture spanning between 30,000 to 10,000 years. The human subject in this art has been a controversial topic due to its supposed poor quality of execution and has led to numerous debates about the dichotomy observed in the graphical depiction of animal vs. human subject. Human figure is one of the fundamental subjects in modern society as it is one of the first figures drawn by children. Therefore what can we learn about the perceptual processes of the Palaeolithic people with regards to the human form. Was this schemata stable for the entire Upper Palaeolithic as proposed for the animal figure or did it change from phase to another?