Neanderthal had no art, what can this tell us about their societal structure?

Question

Was each family ruled by a 'big man'? Were males other than the 'big man' allowed to father children?

Answer 1

Neanderthal was too busy trying to survive in the cold northern hemisphere to be bothered with art. They would have been nomadic tribes and had to follow the herds of animals who also had to keep on the move, Larger families would not have been an option for these people but yet, the cave drawings around france could easily have been created by neanderthal when they laid up to rest, while his woman gave birth, and drawing on the walls of the caves would have been a way of passing a bit of time. I believe also that we probably murdered the males and captured the women and bred with them.Thats how I see it anyway,

Answer 2

Artists tend to be rebels...  Art in our society might be an indication of our species ability to adapt to new environments...  Our bodies and minds seem very capable of changing to every enviroment.  

The same way that our arts range from music, dance, visual, sports, etc....  if we did not have these forms of thinking, we might not have been able to adapt to the constant changes on Earth.   Perhaps that is why Neanderthal-man never made it past the Ice-Age...it was just not capable of adapting...  

And perhaps our ability to adapt became internalized within our art (and need for art)...

But like Jon said, your guess is as good as ours...

Answer 3

The fact that we do not have any proven examples of Neanderthal art today does not mean that they had no art. The statement "Neanderthal had no art" is not based on any factual evidence (it is what we call negative evidence, and is not used to make logical arguments). They could have made art on perishable media, like hides or bark, instead of ceramics and stone, and then it would not have survived for us to see today.  

I am not sure how the two parts of the question go together - art (or lack thereof) has nothing to do with 'Big Men' ot other leaders. We do not know much about social structure in the Palaeolithic. Sounds like homework to me...

Answer 4

I do not think we could know that much about Neanderthals. They have found burial sites, though, which indicates something. Your interpretation here, may be as good as anothers.

Answer 5

How do we know that the cave art all over Europe wasn't drawn by a Neanderthal?  The truth is, we don't.  I really don't believe they were all that much different from ourselves, although DNA now suggests they didn't have the genes needed for speech.  If they could not verbally communicate, it explains why we took over.

Answer 6

Culturally, Neanderthals are closely associated with a stone-tool tradition known as the Mousterian of the middle Paleolithic. They were proficient hunters. As in most cold environments, plant foods were probably relatively scarce and consumed only seasonally. Purported evidence of aesthetic behaviors and of religious beliefs among Neanderthals remains relatively scant and controversial, leading many experts to question the extent of their linguistic capabilities. Controversy also persists regarding the fate of Neanderthals, with opinion divided between those who argue that they became extinct and were replaced by modern H. sapiens and those who argue that their anatomical distinctions were diluted through gene flow  with other H. sapiens. Tests conducted on surviving Neanderthal DNA have shown little similarity to the DNA of modern humans.

Answer 7

We don't really know if they had art or not.  There may have been flowers found in one burial, and they may have made a flute out of bear femur.  Also, their art may not have been of the sort that lasts.  Maybe they sang, or wore flowers, or made things that just haven't survived.  We don't know.

It seems unlikely that Neanderthals would have such a societal structure.  We're very close to them, and most of our societies don't.  It's entirely possible, though.  Or, heck, maybe they had different kinds of families in different societies like we do.

Answer 8

i wonder if in 35,000 years time people will think that humans lost the ability to create art in the late 20th century because all the future archaeologists could find were unmade beds and cows cut in half.

Answer 9

It would be hard to extrapolate that information, given the available data.