Wollisho Memory

There is being and nothingness. Science, in its etiological vocation, requires history. Time and space rule knowledge. History is linked to time. We are actors in the great cosmic scheme, the universal design that Australian Aboriginal artists represent in the dreamed landscape of their paintings.

The Cave and the Cathedral explores the connections we can make between the past and the customs that survive among Aboriginal peoples today. In the coded words of the Eskimos of Greenland, a shaman is "one who is half hidden," who lives in the shadows and initiates young tribe members. The shaman consults with deceased elders and understands the underworld. Shamans are solitary... They are craftsmen and women, artists making statuettes and masks. In a new explanatory theory of rock art and the myth of emergence, animals and humans originally lived underground and came out into the open air through a cave. The cave, similar to a cathedral, is a temple whose layout respects the rules of a primitive religion. It is an area of initiation confirmed by the marks left on the walls by the hands of children, particularly in the caves of Gargas and Cosquer and the traces left by their footsteps. (Consult in this regard on the website of the Multidisciplinary Open Archive the overview by Romain Pigeaud from the Department of Prehistory of the National Museum of Natural History: The rituals of decorated caves. Dreams of prehistorians, archaeological realities). These impressions of hands on the walls are, in fact, proof of a language and a tradition of touch found today among Australian Aborigines.

The temperament of the Aboriginals of the Western Desert had a predilection for a sensitivity of touch, a hapticity or physical quality different from the visual sensation of sight. I had observed this haptic quality in connection with the artwork and in much of the way of life, for when telling of a ceremonial object, a man would feel the incised scoring in the stone or wood and move his hand along the lines and across the object;... (Geoffrey Bardon and James Bardon, Papunya, The Miegunyah Press, reprinted 2009, p.42)

In the Gargas cave, the representations of hands and fingers have been scrupulously counted to decipher their mystery. Still, the spontaneous explanation given by two aborigines of the hand in the niche catches my attention. An African San tribesman from Kalahari and an Australian Aborigine looked at the hand. Both men, from societies that live oceans apart, gave the same interpretation: This hand represents people reaching for the world beyond. Both men said the deepest part of the cave is the end of our world. The hand is reaching for what lies beyond the cave, beyond our world, and is found in the realm of the dead and the ever-after (The Cave and the Cathedral, p.120-121). How did prehistoric humans move through the dark labyrinth of caves? It was the sound of their own voice that guided their steps. With their technical means (working tools, color pigments), manual execution, vocal expression, and  hearing ability, cave artists had the power to create. In his article The timeless wisdom of Kenko, Lance Morrow also refers to the symbolic importance of the inner ear for our sense of balance. The choice of the right locations was made largely for the sound value.

Iégor Reznikoff highlights the resonance of the walls (Reznikoff, I. & Dauvois, M. (1988). "The sound dimension of decorated caves". Bulletin de la Société Préhistoire Française 85 ( 8), 238-246). He compares the representation of signs and animals and the resonance curve. A remarkable discovery in the study is the relationship between painted red dots in narrow galleries, where one has to crawl, and the maxima of resonance of these galleries. While progressing in the dark gallery, crawling and making vocal sounds, the whole gallery suddenly resonates: you put the light on, and a red dot is on the gallery wall. A simple low hm at the right pitch is sufficient because of the strong resonance. Then, it may be like a play; owing to the pleasure of having twenty meters or more of the cave that strongly resonates, one repeats the sound: the whole body vibrates or co-vibrates with the gallery. It is like an identification, a deep communion with the Earth (Iegor Reznikoff, "On Primitive Elements of Musical Meaning", JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning 3, Fall 2004/Winter 2005 [http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/showArticle.php?artID =3.2], sec.2.8).

On veut attacher à la pensée primitive une dimension métaphysique. Sur la base des technologies modernes et de l'interprétation statistique des données numériques, on attribue à ces œuvres d'une époque reculée le rang honorifique de traité de la nature, apogée culturelle. Aujoud'hui, les mathématiques règnent rigoureusement sur notre entendement sans plus accréditer ni l'intuition ni les processus sensoriels. De la représentation majoritaire des animaux dans l'art pariétal et leur classification, on a conclu à la suprématie du bovin (bison essentiellement notamment en France et en Espagne) et du cheval dans la psyché des peuples anciens. L'intellect de l'homme moderne n'admet aujourd'hui que la raison. L'anthropologie psychoanalytique tente de puiser dans la psychologie moderne les réponses aux questions et énigmes des peuples anciens, comme si l'humanité toute entière était pareille à un enfant qui apprit à entendre et reconnaître les sons, à  faire vibrer ses cordes vocales pour les faire chanter ou communiquer dans ses échanges avec soi et les autres, à maîtriser ses capacités motrices et à parfaire éventuellement  la relation quintessentielle entre la main et le cerveau. Et que l'on reparle de l' évolution psychique et de l'origine des facultés humaines...Dans la grotte de Gargas, les représentations des mains et des doigts ont été scrupuleusement dénombrées dans le but de décrypter leur mystère, mais c'est l'explication spontanée que donnent deux aborigènes de la main dans la niche, qui retient mon attention. They brought in an African San tribesman from Kalahari and also an Australian aborigine to look at the hand. Both men, from societies that live oceans apart, gave the same explanation: This hand, as they interpreted it according to their own traditions, was a representation of people reaching for the world beyond. The deepest part of the cave is the end of our world, both men said. The hand is reaching for what lies beyond the cave, beyond our world, and is found in the realm of the dead and the ever-after. (The Cave and the Cathedral, p.120-121)
Comment l' homme de la préhistoire se déplaça-t-il dans le sombre labyrinthe des grottes ornées ? C’est le son de sa voix qui guida ses pas. C'est parce qu'il s'en donna les moyens techniques (outils de travail, pigments de couleur), et qu'une relation inédite s'instaura entre ses facultés de penser, d'exécution manuelle, d'expression vocale et d'écoute des sons produits que l’artiste de la préhistoire eut le pouvoir de créer.

Le choix des emplacements de figures a été fait en grande partie pour la valeur sonore de ces emplacements (Reznikoff, I. & Dauvois, M. (1988). “La dimension sonore des grottes ornées”. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 85 (8), 238-246). Les sons ont-ils influencé la psyché de l'homme ancien ? Iégor Reznikoff met en lumière la résonance des parois.  Mais il va plus loin en donnant les preuves de l'utilisation par l'homme préhistorique de cette propriété à des fins rituelles et artistiques et en présentant une corrélation entre les représentations de signes ou d'animaux et la courbe de résonance.   A remarkable discovery in the study of ornate caves is the relationship between painted red dots in narrow galleries, where one has to crawl, and the maxima of resonance of these galleries. While progressing in the dark gallery, crawling and making vocal sounds, suddenly the whole gallery resonates: you put the light of your torch on, and a red dot is there on the wall of the gallery. A simple low hm at the right pitch is sufficient because of the strong resonance. Then, it may be like a play; owing to the pleasure to have twenty meters or more of the cave that strongly resonate, one repeats the sound: the whole body vibrates or rather co-vibrates with the gallery, it is like an identification, a deep communion with earth, stone and the mineral elements of Creation (Iegor Reznikoff, “On Primitive Elements of Musical Meaning”, JMM: The Journal of Music and Meaning 3, Fall 2004/Winter 2005 [http://www.musicandmeaning.net/issues/showArticle.php?artID=3.2], sec.2.8)

Je ne doute pas du rôle de la résonance dans la production de l'art pariétal et je souhaite méditer sur le constat de la vibration que produisent les sons sur notre ossature, et les émotions générées. Langage, écho du son universel qui ouvre le champ de la conscience par la perception des phénomènes et le traitement des sensations par le cerveau...Sensibilité. (Anthropologie psychanalytique, 2016)