ABSTRACT

A newly discovered rock art site in Montana (No Bear) displays eight anthropomorphic images from an Archaic-period artistic tradition named Foothills Abstract. We present two independent means of establishing the relative chronology and stylistic sequence of change across these anthropomorphs. Two different cultural processes may underpin this sequence of stylistic change: one involving emic and cosmological continuity versus a second involving emulative copying and implying only etic continuity across time. The first would rely on societal continuity, while the second might involve artists from different social traditions and a lack of cosmological correspondence across time. Given that site reuse by artists from different societal groups would involve them seeing multiple older images simultaneously (rather than just the latest image of previous artists), our results dictate that cultural, cosmological, and emic continuity characterizes the linear sequence of descent with modification in the anthropomorphs at No Bear, mediated by social transmission.

摘要

蒙大纳州的一个新发现的岩石艺术遗址（无熊）展示了八幅拟人化的图像，这些图像取材自古时的艺术传统，名为Foothills Abstract。我们提出了两种独立的方法来建立这些拟人化的相对时间顺序和风格变化顺序。两种不同的文化过程可能支撑着这种风格上的变化：一种涉及表情和宇宙学的连续性，另一种涉及喜剧性的复制，并且仅暗示时间上的性连续性。第一种可能依赖于社会的连续性，而第二种可能需要来自不同社会传统的艺术家，并且缺乏跨时代的宇宙学联系。