Customer Reviews

The Creative Explosion: An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and Religion (Cornell paperbacks)

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The Creative Explosion An Inquiry into the Origins of Art and ReligionWas amazed by incisiveness and depth of this book when
it came out, ca 1980. The function of the prehistoric symbiology, especially for scaring folks into behaving in useful, often necessary
ways (if the species is to survive) is very useful in understanding the
then Cold War, now War on Terror, War on Crime, War on Drugs, etc. The
phrase, "and the priests came to believe the lies," regarding the Dordogne
cave paintings has echoes over the decades, right down to Dawkins, Diamond, Harris, E.O. Wilson, and David Livingstone Smith ("Why We Lie"). Pfeiffer's book is a gem.

There are many books about prehistoric art but for some reason this excellent well written and very enjoyable book is not linked to them at Amazon. I read this book years ago on loan from a library after it was already out of print. After reading it I could not rest until I owned a copy, it was that good. The author pioneered the idea that cave art had a religious function, an idea now routinely passed around by scholars (ofter as their own). I found the author narrative hard to put down, unlike some more recent authors on the subject whose work is hard and often painful to pick up. If one wanted to read only one book about prehistoric art this should be the one.

BTW, for some reason Amazon put two pictures representing the cover of the book. The cover without the picture of the Pope and with the picture of the cave painting is the right cover.