whatever its neural or social mechanics, the moment of self-consciousness was inseparable from one of distanciation and self-loss: from seeing oneself as Other, as not known, as threatened or threatening, as ‘taboo’. The true cognitive depth to the palaeolithic sculptures – their challenge, ultimately, to our anthropological schema – seems to me the way they suggest how self-loss and self-consciousness were intertwined.
This excerpt is fascinating to me in a way I don't know how to explain. The idea that these Paleolithic works are perhaps a way to reconcile the ever growing separation of the human species from the rest of the natural world, and maybe to even immortalize or celebrate being only a small part of it, goes against some of the most popular philosophies surrounding the human condition. The ability to create, from tools to creative pieces, is something that is usually considered the most distinctive quality of mankind that differentiates us from all other animals and assert our superiority over them. This notion of Paleolithic art's function to express a desire to return to Rousseau's "natural state" and mourn its loss is, in my opinion, both awe-inspiring and heartbreaking. How lonely must it have been to realize you are different from everything in the world around you, and to know you cannot ever belong. It reminds me of Adam & Eve cast out of Eden with the knowledge they have gained of the human condition, and the weight of knowing they could never return.