Wrenschler Red Ochre

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Red Ochre and Human Evolution: A Case for Discussion [and Comments and Reply]

Author(s): Ernst E. Wreschner, Ralph Bolton, Karl W. Butzer, Henri Delporte, AlexanderHäusler, Albert Heinrich, Anita Jacobson-Widding, Tadeusz Malinowski, Claude Masset, SherylF. Miller, Avraham Ronen, Ralph Solecki, Peter H. Stephenson, Lynn L. Thomas, HeinrichZollingerReviewed work(s):Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 21, No. 5 (Oct., 1980), pp. 631-644Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for AnthropologicalResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2741829 .

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SHORTER CONTRIBUTIONS

Red

Ochre

and Human

Evolution:

A

Case for

Discussion'

by RNST E. WRESCHNER

Department

f

Anthropology,

niversity f Haifa,

Mount

Carmel, aifa 31999, srael. 12 ix 79

Prehistory

as

produced

vidence or wo

meaningfulegulari-

ties

in

human evolution:

ool

making

nd

the collection

nd

use

of

ochre.

Tools

and

tool

making

have been

acknowledged

as

fossil ndicators fhuman

kill,

mental

apacities,

nd

social

and cultural

evelopment.

The

comments

f

anthropologists

nd

prehistorians

n

ochre

use have

dealt

mainly

with

he

mortuary

ustoms f the

Homo

sapiens populations

f the

Upper

Palaeolithic.

While finds

f

Neandertal

chre

urials

have been

recorded,

heir

mplications

for n

understanding

f the formative

rocesses

f

color

hoice

and

color

symbolism

ave

not

received the

attention

they

deserve.

t is

symptomatic

hat

in six

lectures

devoted to

Mousterian

burial

rites

Les sepultures

976),

the red

ochre

found t twoofthe sites s ignored.n Binford's1968) essay

on the

disposal

of thedead in

Mousterian

nd

Upper

Palaeo-

lithic

ites,we

find

brief emark n ochre

n

Upper

Palaeo-

lithicburialsbut

no

mention

f

t

in

thoseof the

Mousterian.

On theother

hand,

referenceso ochre

henomena

reate

he

impression

hat theyhave been an

integral

art

of

every

ocial

system

and

cultural

unit since

the

Upper

Palaeolithic-an

assumption hat

s

not

supported

y

archaeological vidence.

During

mostcultural

tages-the

Magdalenian

nd

the North

American

Archaic re probably

xceptions-ochreusers have

been

n

the

minority.

evertheless,he

transculturalnd trans-

historical

haracter nd

structural imilarities

f

ochre prac-

tices

re

striking.

Because color n

general nd red n

particular

lay

such an

importantole nhumanbehavior, tudies nd opinions n the

mechanisms

f

color

preferencean be found n

such fields s

anthropology,

sychology,

inguistics,esthetics, nd

biology.

Leach

(1976,60) reports:

it

is

verycommon o

find hat red

is

treated s

a sign f

danger, hich

maybe derived

rom ed

=

blood. But

red s

also quite

often

ssociated with oy,

which

might ome

from

ed

=

blood

=

life.

Levi-Strauss

quoted n

Charbonnier

969:116)

has

remarked, Red is a

source

of

phvsical

nd

physiological

xcitement.

'Andrade and Egan

(1974) argue

that emotional

ssociations

with color

are uni-

versal n

modernman's

behavior

ut find

no clear

explanation

for

he fact

hat

characteristicsf

color uch as

saturation nd

brightness

re

universally eacted

to in terms f

goodness r

badness,

trength r

weakness.

Pickford's1972) summary fcolor testsand colortheories

shows

a

predominance f but

no absolute

preference

orred.

Eysenck

1941), whose

color tests

nvolved

housands f ndi-

viduals,found

preference

orblue,

followed y red. n Mur-

ray

and

Deabler's

(1957)

experiments n

color-mood ssocia-

tions,

ed

was

rated s

exciting nd blue

or green s secure.

Scott

1970),

summarizinghe

results f

Luescher ests,

eports

a

preference

or ed.

Weitman

1973:349-50),

who has studied

color

ssociations n

national lags,

eports: The

vast majority

of

nationsuse

the colorRed

to symbolize

uch things

s 'wars

fought

gainst

aggressors',military alor',

courage',

blood

shed

in

battle',

readiness o

sacrifice',revolt',

struggle or

independence',

revolution',

tc. What s

remarkable ere s the

extraordinary egree of

consensus

among all these

vastly

different

ultures bout

the meaning

f this

olor.

Bornstein,

essen, and

Weiskopf

1977:50)

assert: It

can

now

be

stated with

reasonable

onfidence

hat

human beings

are

in

some

mannerwired r

programmed

or

partitioninghe

physically

ontinuous ue

spectrum

with he

categories

f

red,

yellow,

reen nd

blue.

Berlin nd

Kay (1969),

studying asic

color

terms n

natural

anguages, ind

cross-culturalrder

f

appearance

f erms

n

which

ed

akes

imilar laces

n different

societies.

They

suggest hat

the

order s

evolutionarv

n

char-

acter.

Durbin

[1972]

questions

Berlin nd

Kay's

methods f

data

gathering,

pparently ut of

suspicion f a

reductionist

tendencyntheir onclusions.)nspired ytheir tudy, ahlins

(1977:172, 167)

probes

nto the

biological

spects of

human

color

choice:

Color in

culture is .

.

.

[a] process

of

relating, not

of

recognizing.... It

is not,

then, hat

color erms

have their

meanings

mposedby the

constraints f

human

and physical

nature;

t

is

that

hey ake

on

such

constraints

nsofar s they

are

meaningful.

Obviously, olor

behavior

houldbe

evaluated n

the ight f

archaeological

inds,

he

ole

fossil

ndicators f

color

preference

in

the

earliest

ultures. inds of

ochre

re reported

n a wide

range f

publications.

ometimes hey

re very

brieflyecorded

and the

details

of

their

tratigraphic

nd

cultural

ffiliations

are either

missing

r

unclear.

Thereforehe

evidencehas

to be

closely crutinized nd

cases

which eem

nsufficient

dentified

and

disqualified.

ome

material

designated chremay in factbe red iron-bearing ock.Alternatively,chre

may not

have

been

recognized

s

such

during

excavation.

Archaeologists

should,

however, e

able to

make

these

distinctions.

A

significant

lement n

red ochre

finds oncerns

ed-stained

artifacts, ones, nd

shells

nd

ochre-stained

ccupation

trata.

Red-stained

bjects

are

often

found

associated

with ochred

human

skeletal

remains.Here

the

question

of whether

he

ochring f

the objects

nd

occupation ayerswas

intentional r

accidental

ecomes

cute. f

ochre r ron

hydroxides

limonite)

had been

brought o

the

occupation ite,

heat-processed

here,

and

rubbed or

pounded on

the spot,

the

powderypigments

could

have been

either ispersed

uring

he

periodof

occupa-

tionor

dissolved

hen

r

ater

by

water ction.

Besides becom-

ing

attached

to various

objects

n the ayers,

heycould

have

stainedthe layers themselves. hat excavators re able to

distinguish

hese

details s shown

by

the

example

f

Gonners-

dorf.

At this

Magdalenian

ite,

Bosinski

personal

ommunica-

tion)

found hat n

the

digging

f

ooking

oles oil

mpregnated

with

red

pigment

ad been

removed,

ausing

ntensive

eriph-

eral

coloring.nizan

(1976)

has

reported

he

discovery

f

tone

toolsfrom

apsian

sites

n

NorthAfrica

which

ad been

dipped

into a

mixture f ochre nd

gypsum; detailed

study

of

this

phenomenon

ould

be

interesting.

aste flakes

with

red ochre

traces

longtheir

harpedges

have been found t Palaeolithic

sites n

Sinai;

Bar-Yosef nd

Phillips

1977:81) suggest

hat

they

had

been

used

to

scrape

ochre,

nd ochre

has

in

fact

been

found

t

these sites. The

practice

of

sprinkling

chre

on

the

body,

the

ochring

f

parts

of

the

corpse,

nd the

burial of

haematiteor red ochrewiththe dead are so frequent hat

accidental

taining

hrough

he natural

occurrence

f ochre

n

the

spot

can be ruledout.

However,

bjects

used

in

mortuary

customs,

nail

and other

hells,

nd

animal bones and teeth

may

have

acquired

secondary

taining.

nail

and other

hells

may

have been

personal

belongings

f the

deceased,

but

they

undoubtedly

had ritual

or

symbolic

meaning.

Although

n

intentional

chring

f

these

bjects

s

plausible,

t

s

difficult

o

identify,nd

red

objects

associatedwith

burials

hould

there-

fore

be

evaluated

in

the

knowledge

hat

their

olor

may

be

accidental.

The earliestfind f red ochre

n

a

habitation

ite

of

early

hominids

s

the

two

umps

found

y

Leakey

1958:1099-1103)

in BKJJ t

Olduvai. Cole (1963:

137) raised

he question

f

the

probableuse of ochreby Olduvai H. erectus. ecause of the

antiquity f

the discovery,

he rejected

a body-painting

y-

pothesis. t

seems o me that

thepossibility

f the

use of

ochre

1

?

1980

by

The

Wenner-Gren

oundation for

Anthropological

Research001

1-3204/80/2105-0005$01.50

Vol. 21

*

No.

5

*

October

980

631



for body painting

s of

secondary

nterest.What

is more

interesting

s that we are

here confronted ith evidence

f a

social action

probably timulated

by the

capacity for

color

categorization.

lready xperienced

ool

makers,

ne

or several

group

members istinguished

etween

hese olored

tones nd

those suitable

for flaking.

ollecting hem and

transporting

them o the

habitation ite

meant haring

n experience

ith

others.Whether

omeone ried

o hammer r pound

them

we

will

neverknow. However,Olduvai

provides

ur first ppor-

tunity

o

ask

what activated

man's curiosity

bout the

red

color. Do we have herethe first videnceof a capacityfor

perceptive

color categorization?

We can assume that the

capacity

for

reating

meaningful

elationshipsfan ideational

nature

was

not

yet

well developed,

nd

this

may be

the reason

some 500,000years

passed before

ominidswith

better

brains

began gain

to experiment

ithred ochre.

These more

dvancedtypeswere

heAcheulian

ands,which

possessed

fire and

left clear evidence

of intentional

chre

collection

and

preparation.

Howell (1966)

reports

that at

Ambrona slab

ofochrewas apparently

eliberately

haped

by

trimming.

group

f

75

ochre iecesretrieved

rom wo

ayers

at

Terra Amata

shows color shades

fromyellow

to red

and

red-brown,

ithmany

ntermediatend

rregular

nes ttribut-

able

to

differenthermal

nfluence. he

raw material

for

the

pigments-limonite-must ave been

brought o

the

site for

firing.

t is possible

hat the transformation

f a yellow tone

into

red onewas viewed s

magic-a view

perhaps

einforced

by

the fact that when

rubbed nd

brought

nto contactwith

liquid

t was thecolor

fdriedblood,meat,

r fruit

nd berries.

The hunter-gatherersho

experimented

ith ochre

at

Terra

Amata

are credited

with other

technical

skills and social

achievements

de

Lumley

nd

Boone

1976).

The

archaeological

assemblage

ointsto mental

apacities

which

re outstanding

in the Early

Acheulian ontext.

t seemspossible

hat,

because

of the circumstances

f ts manufacture,

he

red

pigment

ame

to

be

endowed

withmeanings

nd

that,

hrough

ts

application

as a

powerful

medicine, elationships

etween

t and

things

r

between t

and

the

human body

were created

(Wreschner

1976b).

Apart from

Olduvai, Ambrona

nd Terra

Amata are

so far he arliest igns f olor reference.hey re far emoved

from

he tage n which

olorbehavior

s

generally

ccepted

s

natural. Because

of their solation

n

time

and space,

they

contain a message: they are

manifestations

f developments

that

much

ater, romMousterian

imes n, became

regular-

itv

in culture.

Between he Early

Acheulian chre

vidence nd

the

emer-

gence

of Mousterian chre

practices,

ractically

no finds

re

reportedthe

single xception s from

astillo Alcalde

del Rio,

Breuil, nd Serra

1911,cited by

Miiller-Karpe 966:288]).

It

is

difficulto assess

whether hisgap

reflects real

absence

of

interest n red pigments

n the part

of groups

of Acheulian

tradition.However,

systematic tudies

of Acheulian

ites of

different

tages re abundant,

nd

if

ochre

had been present

n

anyofthemprehistoriansould urelyhave recognizedt.

Evidence for ochre

collecting ppears

in the early

Middle

Mousterian,

bout

70,000years go.

It is

only

owards

he

end

of the Mousterian hat the

use of red

ochre s documented

archaeologically.

mong

he

many

xcavated

Mousterian

ites

are 15 that have

yielded

ochre, ither

n

occupation

evels,

n

burials,

or in

ritual depositions

f diverse

objects. (Not

in-

cluded

n

this number re

4

South

African chre-mining

ites

with

African

Middle Stone

Age assemblages

Dart

and Beau-

mont

1971]).

The

evidence

or chreuse

by Neandertal opula-

tions

s

comprised

f the

sprinkling

f

a

human

body at Le

Moustier,

he

deposition

f

bones, asper,

nd

ochre

round he

head of a male at La Chapelle-aux-Saints,

wo

skeletons

n

whose

vicinity ed ochre abounds at Qafza

(Vandermeersch

1969), fivehuman ncisors epositedwith red ochre at Pinar

(Jullien 1965:164),

the remains f

a fallow-deer urial

with

ochre at Nahr

Ibrahim Solecki 1975:283),

and an oval ar-

rangementf mammoth

ones withred ochre n the center

t

Molodova Klein

1973:69).

Ochre

burials

n

Mousterian

ontexts-and,

indeed,

n all

prehistoric

eriods-are

fewer han hosewithout

chre.

Among

roughly ontemporary

opulations

with similar

technologies,

often

n the same region,

few

groupsused

the red pigments

while

thers uried heir

ead eitherwithout unerary

ifts

r

with trophies

f the hunt or

tools. Thus

at La Ferrassie,

Regourdou,

nd La

Quina there

s no ochre

associated

with

burials,

but

red ochre has

been found

n an occupation

ayer

(C) at La Ferrassie.Again, n contrast o those t Qafza,the

human

remains t

Ras el-Kelb,Kebara,

Tabuln,Skhful,

nd

Amud ack ochre.

The archaeological

vidence

hows

that it was Neandertal

man who

created a new

dimension n

human behavior

that

from hen

on was an

integral art

of culture.

t is interesting

that ymbolism

elated

o death

and kin was

developed

y the

humantype supposed

to

have been

the first o

acquire the

capacitv

for

speech. We

may

now ask again if

associative

stimuli

re at the

root of the

color symbolism

f mentally

advanced

Mousterian

opulations

nd if red

ochrewas

chosen

as a symbolic

ehicle

with pecialproperties

nd because

of ts

mostprominent

ne-the

colorof blood. Or

is red now

part

of

the neurological

ystem and

a source

of preference

r of

relationships?heseare questions shall return o later.

With

the

appearance

of H.

sapiens

sapiens

in

Western,

Central, nd

Eastern Europe,

we witness

rapid

spread of

ochre

ustoms.

here are

123

ochre-bearing

ites,

mong hem

25

ochre

burials, reported

from

Aurignacian,

Perigordian,

Gravettian,

olutrean,

nd Magdalenian

contexts.

These

re-

flect

ot

only

heresults

f

rchaeological

fforts,

ut the ocial

and cultural

chievements

f these hunters,

ymbolizers

ar

excellence.

Marine

shells and animal bones and teeth

are

integral

lements

f their

ymbolism,

ound

n

their

ampsites

and their

burials.

The

mammoth,

ften ssociated

with

red

ochre,

igures

rominently

n

the burials

nd

ritual

depositions

of the

Eastern Gravettians.

olutrean

groups

re

supposed

o

have

practiced

ituals

n

which

he

human kull

and red

ochre

played

central

roles

(Maringer

1960). Grinding

tones with

tracesofred are frequent; igurinesnd engravingsn stone

and

bone

were

ochred.

n

Magdalenian

Stages

I-V

ochre s

a

symbolic

vehicle

attained

its

widest

distribution.

With

the

exception

f

human

igurines,

ll other

bjects

found

n

habita-

tion ites

re also

encountered

n

burials.

The

symbolic

ystems

of

these

Upper

Palaeolithic

hunters

eem to revolve

around

fertility

nd

procreation,

eath-life,

nd the

ycle

f he

easons.

Of the

16

Mesolithic

iteswith

ochre

finds

n

Europe,

7 are

ochre urials

r

depositions

fochred

kulls.

ome

of

these

ites

are

chronologically

lose

to

the

final

Magdalenian,

nd

similari-

ties

with ate Magdalenian

urial ustoms

oint

o a

continua-

tion of these

traditions

s

a

probable

result

f

adaptation

by

Mesolithic

roups.

A

prominent

rend

s

the

decline

f the use

of snail and other

shells

and

animal

bones

in

burials,

ochre

becoming ominant.Whethert was alreadyconceived s a

substitute

orblood

s

hard to

say.

In

comparison

with their

European

contemporaries,

he

Levantine

nd North

African alaeolithic

nd

Epi-Palaeolithic

groups

used

red

pigments

n

a much

smaller

scale.

Of

18

ochre-bearing

ites,

contain

chre urials.

As

n

their

uropean

counterparts,

marine shells

are

frequently

ssociated

with

ochre.Of themany

Kebaran sites,

chre

has been

found

n

only

6. In

sharp

contrast o

the

Kebaran,

which

s

poor

n human

remains,

he

subsequent

Natufian

has

yielded

the

remains

f

about 200

ndividuals.

he

Natufians

sed

red

ochre

electively

in

their urials;

ndividuals

wereburied

with

dentalium

ead-

bands or withred ochre

or

with

both.

t

is

possible

hat

this

practice

reflects tatus

differences.

chreburials

are found

n

the Natufian ettlementsf Nachal Oren,Yonim Cave, and

Eynan,

but not at El

Wad.

Neolithic armers

sed red ochre

o enhance

he potency

f

632

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY



symbolic

bjects,

which

evolved

mainly

roundcelestial

phe

nomena.

The

figurines

f the

Eye

Goddess,

the

rain

giver

pebble

figurines

rom

yblos,

Munhatta,

ha'ar-Hagolan, n(

other

Near

Eastern

sites,

nd

fertility

ymbols

f

the

Mothei

Earth

complex

were

painted

r

coated

with ed

ochre

Wresch

ner

1976a).

Of the 13 sites

with chre

inds f Near Eastern

pastoralists

5

have

ochre

burials.

n the

ochre burial

customs

of

Nea.

Eastern and North African

ocieties,

red

ochre is

the

soli

symbolic ehicle

rom

000B.C.

on.

Palaeo-Indians ndpopulations ftheLate Archaic nNortl

Americamadeextensive seof

red

ochre

n

mortuary

ustom,

in 10

reportedburial

sites

(Binford

1963,

1972;

Orr

1968

Ritzenthaler

nd

Quimby

962;

Laughlin

1967).

Pastoralists

f the

steppes

of

Russia

between 000

B.C.

and

1700 B.C.

and

populations on the

island of

Malta

around

1500B.C.

buried

theirdead with

ochre.

n

the

pit,

catacomb

and

moundburials f

the

former,

ones

of

herd

nimals nd

o0

hare and

fox were

deposited

with the

heavily

ochred

bodies.

Red ochre was also

placed

in

bowls

beside

the

body. (The

placing

f

bowlof

ochre

n

the

grave

recalls he

Maori

egend

of

the

womanwho

wentto

the

netherworldnd found

here

bowl

of

red

ochre;

he

ate the

ochre,

ecame

trong

gain, and

was restored

o

life.)

In

recent

nonliterate

ocieties,

ed

s

closely

onnectedwitb

reproduction,ith mothers, ithblood, ndwith ituals nd

symbolism

elated to

life and

death.

n

Ndembu ritesof

the

river

ource,

ed clay

represents

he blood

of the

mother ; n

the Ndembu

twinship

itual,

he

act

of

blowing

ed

and

white

clay

powder

rom

big water-snail

hell ver

theface

nd

chest

dramatizes

he

theory

f

procreation

Turner

969:53-69).

The

association of

blood

with red

ochre

is

illuminated

by

the

Australian

Aboriginal

egend

f the

UnthippaWomen

Bettel-

heim

1962:97).

Durkheim

1957

[1912]:137) remarked,

The

blood

coming

from

he

genital

organs

s

especially

acred.

Increase

ceremonies

nd

initiation

ites

re

closely onnected

with ed

ochre

Cranstone

973:41-42; Turner

969:40; Wallis

1939:165).

Red

dresses

re

worn n

the

marriage

eremonies f

Druze

communitiesn

srael,

Yemenite

Jews,

nd

Mari

Baluch

inBaluchistan. heseareonly few xamples rom hewealth

of

data

revealed

by

ethnographic

tudies

on

the

customs,

rituals, nd

symbolism

elated to

death-life nd

fertilitynd

procreation.

The

relationship

etween

chre

nd

blood

nd

between

chre

and

mothers s

signified

y

the

Greek

haema/haima

as in

haematite),

which

means

blood.

Dart

(1968:24)

has

drawn

attention

o

the

fact

that

:Haima

is the

most

emphatic orm

in

which he

basic

root

MA

could be

vocalized.

Metra n

Greek

and

matrixn

Latin

womb'

refer

more

roperly o

ts

entrance,

the

vulva.

Turner

1967:172)

has

observed

hat

the

womb

s

in

many

cultures

quated

with

the

tomb

and both

associated

with

the

earth, the

source of

fruits. t

is

believed

that

ores

grow

nside

the

earth

ike

an

embryo

n

the

womb.

Eliade

(1954:56) remarkedhat fornonliterateeoplesoresbelong o

the

domain

of

the

Earth

Mother.

t was

customaryn

Swazi-

land,

n

historic

imes, o fill

n

the

excavation f

red

minerals

to

avoid

offending

he

spirits

of

the

underworld

Raymond

Dart,

personal

ommunication).

In

modern

ultures

lack,

white,

ed,

green,

ellow, nd

blue

play

mportant

oles n

communication

ystems

nd

technology.

The

choiceof

these

colorsfor

ignal

devices

s

without

oubt

influenced

y

their

physical

properties

nd

man's

perceptual

system,

n

which

ssociative

eactions

erve s

signals.

Red is

hot

and

blue is

cool;

red is

danger

stop)

and

green s

safety

(go).

Is

it a

coincidence

hat n

these

olor

elationships

uman

choice

follows

he

same

principles s

the

development f

basic

color

erms

n

anguages?

In thisbrief urvey, heattraction oochrehas led us likea

red

thread

hrough

more

han 500,000

years

of

man's

history.

The

study

f olor

reference

emands

ttention

othe

extraor-

dinary imilarities

nd

repetitive

atterns n

symbolic

ctions

Although

these

patterns

become

distinguishable

nly

wit'

Mousterian

populations,

the

earlier

instances of

red

colk

attraction

eem o

bepart

of n

evolutionary

ognitive

roces:

Cognition

s

knowing

r

acquiring

nowledge.

he

perceptio:

of

red,

the

ability to

discriminate

olors,

ed

to

actions

tha

resulted n

new

experiences

nd

learning.

art of

the

cognitiv

process s

the

endowment f

objects-in

this

case

ochre-witi

meaning.The

creation

f

relationships

esulted n

social

an

cultural

structures.

One

such

relationship

might

be

bod

painting,which ould,as a signaldevice,have contributed

group

oherence

Wreschner

976b).

Recognition

s

knowing gain.

What

canbe

recognized

mus

already exist

in

the

mind;

it

must

be

something

imilar

o

identical

to

something

reviously

earned or

known.

Junj

(1964)

holds

that

the

mind s

as

much

product f

evolutio:

as

the

body.

The

color

behavior

of

early

hominids

how

nothing hat

can be

interpreted

s

recognition.

wareness

n

the

capacity

or

bstraction

eem

not

yet

ufficiently

evelope

to

permit

t. This

is

perhaps

the

meaning

f

the

500,000-yea

gap

between

H. erectus

nd

H.

sapiens

neandertal.

Biology

s

at the

root

of

human

olor

behavior.

Archaeolog3

makes this

clear and

demonstrates

hat

biological

foundatio

and

human

color

choice

are

inseparable

nd

interacting.

i

seems

unwarranted o conceiveof colorbehavior, s Sahlinz

(1977:172)

does,

solely as

a

process

of

relating.

Al

relationships

etween

ochre

and

ideas

also

indicate,

sinc

Mousterian

imes,

he

apacity

or

ecognition.

he

Neanderta

innovation

elating

death

and

red

ochre-probably

with

th

idea of

connecting

lood

with

ife

nd

life/blood

ith

ed

ochr

-and its

widespread

doption r

nvention

annot

be

satisfac

torily

xplained

n

terms

of

a

process of

relating

nly or

ir

terms

f

diffusion. s

a

result

of

evolutionaryrocesses

hal

are

not

yet

understood,

erceptive

ategorization-wiring

:

programming-became

art

of

the

human

equipment, f hu-

man

nature.

Being

of

selective

alue in

general,

ut not

neces-

sarily

n

the

particular

ase

of

red

color,

t

could

be

utilized

n

the formative

rocesses

f

symbolism

y

way

of

recognizing

and

relating.

hus

red

pigments

ould

become

synonym orblood and life, ordanger nd death.

While

present-day

onliterate

ocieties

till

mploy

ed

ochre

or

red

objects

s

symbolic ehicles

or

humanblood or for

he

female

rinciple,

modern

ivilized

man,

withhis

evolutionary,

biologically

ooted

color

associations,

an

and

does

use

red

more

nd

more.Thus

we

witness

ere

nd

there

he

urvival

f

red

ochre

raditionsuch

s

hina

n

Asian

communities,

hough

in

most cases

devoid

of

their

riginal

meaning.

Modern

man,

withhis

great

apacity

or

bstraction

nd his

universal

quip-

ment for

utilizing

olor

associations,

mploys

the color red

itself s

a

potent

social and

cultural

symbol.

Here,

too,

as

Weitman's

1976:62)

study

hows,

ed

s

equated

with

human

blood

n

contexts

f

an

emotional

haracter.

Comments

by

RALPH

OLTON

Department

f

Anthropology,

omona

College,

laremont,

a.

91711,

U.S.A. 5

iII

80

Color

s

a

topic

enjoying

igorous

nd

exciting

esearch fforts

in

anthropology

t

present.

ndeed,

this

subject

is one of

those

most blessed

by

a sustained

nterest nd

progressive

theoretical efinement

not

to

mention Kuhnian

turmoil).

During

the

past

decade valuable

contributionso

the

under-

standing

f

human color

behaviorhave come from

iological,

cultural,

inguistic,

nd

psychological

pecialists.

t

was

about

timefor

rchaeologists

o oin

the

fun.

hope that

Wreschner's

short rticlewill stimulate iscussion ot onlyof the specific

case

that he

presents,

ut

more

generally

f

the

relevance

f

archaeological

data to

color-research

ssues.

By

pointing

o

Vol.

21

*

No.

5

*

October

980

633



potential mplications f red ochre

findsfor

color

problems,

Wreschner

as

placed us

in

his

debt;

we shall be even

more

indebted

f his

ead results n furthernputfrom

rchaeology.

We have been aware

for

a

long

time

of the

presence

f

red

ochre n

prehistoricites,particularly ssociatedwithburials,

and

that presencehas oftenbeen cited as

evidence

for

the

existence

f

religious eliefs nd rituals

nd,

more

broadly, f

the

symbol-usingapabilities

f the

populations nvolved,

.g.,

Neandertal.

As

far

s I

know,however, he significance

f

the

colorred

n

thiscontext as

not

been

sufficiently

ppreciated.

Hence foundWreschner'sommentsntriguing.

In

view f heprominence

f

red

n

the

volutionaryequence

ofbasic

color erms Berlin nd Kay 1969)

and in the results

f

intraculturalnd cross-culturaltudies f the

relative

alience

of

color categories cf. Bolton

1978, Bolton

and

Crisp 1979,

Bolton,

Curtis,

nd Thomas

n.d.), it

is

noteworthy

hat

red

shouldbe the olor hat tands

out

n

the archaeological

ecord

from

uch earlyperiods s those ndicated

n

this

article

nd

especially

n

contexts

uggestive

f

the

deliberate,

ymbolic

se

of color.

As a

nonarchaeologist,

was not certain

how

to

interpret his fact,however.

Might therebe

some

explanation

for he salienceof red

archaeologicallyhat

has

nothing

o do

with

symbolism

r

with

human

perceptual apacities?

Could

other

bjects carrying ymbolic olor nformation

ail

to have

survived? s red ochre

more ikely to be durable than such

objects nd their orrespondingolor nformatione.g.,flowers)?

The

authordoes not

deal with

he

possibility

hat

other olors

might

ave

been as important s red

but

that the

data simply

are

deficientwith

respect

to such colors.

This

question,

t

seems o

me, shouldbe addressed.

Regardless f the answer o

that question, hough, suspect

that red

was symbolicallymportant,s the author

laims,

f

not as

the most salient color, hen urely s one

of

the most

salient.The

importance

f

red

n

ritual

ontexts

s

apparent

n

the

data

providedby Wreschner.

nterestingly,

ecentwork

has

demonstratedhat the relative alienceof color

categories

most

losely arallels he evolutionaryequence

f color erms

precisely

n

the domain of

ritual the goodness f fit s con-

siderably ower for

ubsistence omains nd somewhat ower

forotherdomains of expressive ulture) (Bolton 1978). It

could

be

argued that it is in

the ritual domain where the

biological

structures esponsible or the relative

salience

of

colors

would be

most visible, since this domain of human

activity

s

less completely onstrained y

immediate nviron-

mental and utilitarian

actors han other domains are. Not

only

s

biology

he

root

of

human olorbehavior s Wresch-

ner

claims,

but

it

is

especially

n

the area of

ritual ymbolism

that those

roots re

most

easily exposed:here the outcome

f

evolutionary rocesses s laid

bare. This is striking, f course,

because of

the

tendency or itual o be thought

f

as

perhaps

the

most

highly ymbolic

read cultural ) activity

n

which

humans

engage.

It

could be argued, further,

hat deeply

meaningfulymbols r symbol

ystems re those hatfaithfully

reflect r are somorphic ith herelevant iological tructures.

This

would

account for the

widespread ccurrence

n

rituals

cross-culturally

f

the

color triad

black-white-red,

oted

by

Turner

1967).

A

seconddomain n

which

herelative alience fcolor erms

rather

closely mirrors he evolutionary

equence

is

that

of

folktales.

n

this

domainhumans o not eem

unduly oundby

considerationsf

veridicalitynd

relative nvironmentalbiq-

uity

n

their

use

of

color terms

Bolton and Crisp 1979). Just

as

prehistoric

opulations ften iberally mployed

ed ochre

n

ritual

ontexts, ontemporaryeople n many

cultures ener-

ously

pply

the

abel red to a broad range f

objects. n one

analysis

of

the

types

of

objects to whichdifferent

olor terms

had been attached, t was

discovered hat red was the

most

salienthue (i.e., excluding color terms orblack andwhite).

The number

f object classes to whichred was

applied

was

approximately

wo and one-half imes

s large as the

number

to which ny other olor

abel had been applied.

Yellow,

green,

and

blue werementioned ith

lmost qual frequency ut much

less often

han red.

n a

sample

of tale

textsfrom

0

cultures,

redwas found

o

be

themost alient olor erm n

27 collections

of tales, ied

for ighest alience

n

3

collections,nd ess salient

than another

olor n 10 collections.

hus the

prominence

f

red ymbolicallys fully

ocumented

thnographically

n

realms

of expressive ulture.

Wreschner

ses

the

word preference

n

relation

o human

orientationso red,

but salience

s

reallywhat he is discussing.

There s a real, though ubtle,differenceetween heseterms,

and the difference ay

be

important.

e

cites

some studies

reporting

esults

which show that

people

may prefer ther

colors o red,

for nstance,

lue

(Eysenck 1941).

The fact that

red

s

prominently

ssociatedwith rehistoricemains oes not

necessarily

mply

thatred was better iked but only that it

was

used as

an

important

ehicle f

symbolic

ommunication.

It was and

continues

o

be salientforhumans.

Wreschner

mentionswork

by

D'Andrade and Egan (1974)

on

the

emotional ssociationswith

color and their rgument

that

such

associations re universal.

t

is

germane

o point to

otherresearch

n thistopic, specially hat by Osgood, May,

and Miron

1975),

who

foundred to

be

the color highest n

their

otency

imension

f

affective

eaning.

Wreschner efers

to red

as

a

potent

ocial and

cultural ymbol,

ut the basic

point s thatred connotes otencymorethanany other olor

does.

Thus,

cross-culturally

ed

symbolizes

r

has

the meaning

of

power

s much

s it doesof

danger, lood,

and so forth.n

a

sense,

he use

of

red

n

the context

f

death burials/hunts)

may

seem

anomalous,

ince this

s

the situation

n

whichhu-

mans

may

be the

east

powerful. hey

can do nothing o reverse

the ultimate

fact

of

death. Because

of

its connotations

f

power,

ed

s

themost ppropriate

olor o employ o symbolize

defiance

f death. Or its

use

may represent

n

attempt,

how-

ever

unsuccessful,

o overcome

eath,

to

reverse he

process,

to

restore

ower.

The use

of

red

may signal

denial

of human

weakness

nd

of

death

as a threat

o

human urvival.

What

s

remarkable

s

the

magic

involved

n

ochre's

olor

transformation,.e.,

from

yellow

o

red. This

process

may

be

crucial in explainingwhyochre was used ratherthan some

other

red

object.

I

would like

to

suggest

two

reasons this

yellow-red

ransformation

ight

e

significant.irst,

he color

next

n salienceto red tends to

be

yellow.Occasionally

ne

encounters

ata

in

which

yellow

edes second

place

to blue

or

green,

ut

on

averageyellow

s

more alient

han ither

f hese.

This is

true

not

only

of intracultural ata

on

color-term

salience,

but

also

of the

patterns

of lexical

development

(Witkowski

nd

Brown

1977:52). Second,

while

red

is

at the

top

of the ist

of

colors

s far s

potency

s

concerned, ellow

is

at the

bottom.

Consequently,

chre

s

especially

uitable

s

a ritual

symbol

because

it involves the transformation

f

something

hat

s

highly

alient nto

something

hat

s

highest

in

salience

erceptually

nd because t

nvolves he transforma-

tionof weakness ntopower.Death, ofcourse, s theopposite

transformation,

rom

ower

o

weakness.

he use

of ochre

may

be an

attempt

o

reverse

he atter

ransformation

r

to

deny

it by uxtaposing t

with ts opposite.Similar

easoning

ould

be

involved

n

the

use

of ochrewith

respect

o

hunting.

f

one

wishes

o

kill

n animal

ne

might

ymbolize

his

by uxtaposing

the

weakness-to-power

hift

f

ochrewith

he

ntended

ower-

to-weaknesshift f

the

hunt

i.e.,

the

animal's

death).

n each

case one wishes o transform

omething

n

the

power

dimen-

sion, but timingprobably

differs

n

the two

contexts,

with

ochre

being used after

humandeath

has

occurred

ut

prior

to

the animal's death

(smeared

on tools

or

on

the

remains

f

previous

ills

before

oing

ut

on a

hunt).

Wreschner

ccepts the receivedwisdom

on the importance

of the symbolic elationshipetween lood and red. have an

uneasyfeeling hat too much s made

of the obviousfact

that

red often ymbolizes

lood. Clearlythe salience

of red is nOt

634

CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY



due to

its associationwith blood;

the research y Bornstein,

Kessen,

and

Weiskopf

1976) demonstrates he priority

f

perceptual

alience

nd the

mportance

f

physiological

actors

as determinants

f color-termalience cf. von Wattenwyl

nd

Zollinger

1979). The neurophysiological

asis of color vision

renders

ed markedly

alient for

humans,

nd it

is

entirely

plausible

that

the salience

of

red,

which

ppears

to be wired

into

the species,

s

responsible

orthe potency f blood as a

symbol.One might

peculate hat t

is

not because

blood

s

red

that

red

is a

powerful

ymbol

but rather t

is

the

redness

f

blood that makes blood a powerful ubstancesymbolically.

Wouldblood be as potent symbol

f t weregrey?Red height-

ens the symbolic ignificance

f blood rather

han vice versa.

by

KARL

W.

BUTZER

Departments

f Anthropology

nd

Geography, niversityf

Chicago, hicago, II. 60637,

U.S.A. 24 i

80

Ochre

s

undoubtedly prominent

eature n some

ater

pre-

historic

ites.

However, many

claims

for

ochre

are

spurious,

based

not

on

competent nalyses

r contextual

valuation,

ut

on unseasoned

archeological

field

conclusions.

As

a

result,

perhaps majority

f the claimsfor

chre

n

particular

rcheo-

logical

ssociations

re

either

nconclusive r

simplywrong.

Red pigmentan be obtainedby grindingownhematitic r

limonitic oncretions

such

as

specularite

r

trueochre)

s

well

as

ferruginized

hales

or sandstones.

t can be derived rom

paste

made from

esquioxide-richlayey

r

sandy

oils.

Finally,

blood

can also be

used

for he

purpose.

Ochre

is

therefore

misleading eneric erm,

nd

there

s

a majordifference

hether

a reddish rock

is

collected for

curiosity urposes,

whether

nonstainingock

powder

s

generated,

r whether

red stain

s

produced

rom red

soil,

a

partly

ithified erric

owder,

r

blood plasma.

In

each case identificationnd

archeological

interpretation

ose

different

roblems

hat mustbe dealt with

explicitly.

he issue

s

too

complex

o end tself o a

generalized

discussion

f ochre n

archeological ites.

The ochre lab at Ambronawas a reddish

iltstonewhich,

because of natural fractures long the laminate structure,

appeared

to be

flaked:

o

prove

human

modification ould

be

nextto

impossible.

n its

specific ontext, he rockwas

one of

many

manuports ut could have been obtained at

no

great

distance.There

s

no evidence f

rock

pulverization.

ed

stain

could have been farmore

asily

obtainedfrom

paste

of ocal

red

soils,but

this

would have

left

no

permanent ecord.

n the

other nstance

f n early ite,Hay (1976:185) has not explicit-

ly

verified

he

nature

of

the two

lumps

of

ochre

originally

reported y

Leakey for

Olduvai

Bed

II

(Upper).

None

of

the tratified cheulian

pen-air r cave siteswhere

I have studied

archeological ediments-in

Spain (Torralba

and Ambrona) and

South Africa (Wonderwork, ooidam,

Doornlaagte)-provide evidence

f

ochre

manipulation

r use.

Withoutwishingodeny he use ofochre nMiddle Paleolithic

sites,

particularly

n

certainFrenchburials, have also been

unable to

verify

ts use

in

Mousterian trata

of

northernpain

(Cueva Morin, Castillo,

La

Flecha, El

Pendo, Cobalejos)

or

Middle

Stone

Age occupations

n

South Africa Border Cave,

Bushman

Rock, Rose Cottage Cave,

Klasies River Mouth,

Nelson

Bay Cave), despite nstances

n

which

ome

excavators

have claimed

otherwise. ed rocks re present n a fewbut are

of local origin

and contain little iron. Purportedly chre

laminae

invariably re fire-baked

ceramicized ) sediment,

resulting rom

oxidization n responseto high floor-contact

temperatures nder

hearths. n fact, ilt-or sand-sized rains

or

laminae of

red-firededimentary ggregates ose a major

problem

n

the physical nalysis of the

residues f most n-

tensively ccupied ites. f a fire s set n a burialpit prior o or

subsequent

o

intermenta reasonably

ommon racticewith

ethnographic

r late prehistoric roups),the baked sediment

can

easily

simulate ochre

powder

to

the

uninitiated.

Less

problematical

re ochre-smeared

ocks,which

have

indeed

been

able to

verify

n

Upper/Late

Paleolithic

sites,

or the

well-known

ed

paints

mployed

n

parietal

or

mobiliary rt.

I

would

uggest

hat

Wreschner

as

made a

plausible ase for

the

relevance

f

ochre

n

social

and

cultural

evelopment

ut

not

n human volution n

the

trict

ense.More

mportantly,

I

would ike to plead for more

responsible

pproach to

the

analysis nd

interpretationf red

materials

n

the

archeo-

logical recordbefore

ociocultural

ignificance

s

attached to

them.

by

HENRI

DELPORTE

Musee des Antiquites

ationales,

8103 St. Germain

n

Laye,

France.

8 iII 80

II me semble

que

le

probleme

de l'ocre au

Paleolithique

est

d'abord

de

reunir

ne information

bjective t

de tenter

'en

evaluer

la pertinence,

vant

de recourir

la

comparaison

ethnographique

n vue

d'en

determiner

'usage

et la

significa-

tion,

usage et signification

ui

peuventd'ailleurs

tre

multiples

(j'ai

signale,

titre

necdotique,

ue l'ocre

se

revele

xtreme-

ment

utiledans l'operation

e gravure ur os ... ).

Dans

cette

optique,

l est

necessaire

e

preciser

es points

uivants:

t. Quelles sont es varietesminerales u'on groupe ous le

nom

d'ocre? Quelles

sont leurs

proprietes

hysiques

et

chi-

miques?

Peut-on

determiner

eur

origine t,

de ce fait,

eurs

cheminements?

es recherches

e Couraud (1978) sont

in-

teressantes

ce sujet.

2.

Wreschner

arle

de dissolution

e

l'ocrepar

1'eau.

Ce type

de migration

st-il

possible?A-t-il te etudie?

N'existe-t-il

as

d'autres

ypesde migration?

3.

Quels

sont les caracteres

ntrinseques

es

decouvertes

d'ocre-sous

forme

e masse

morphe,

e

((crayons)),

e poudre,

etc.

4.

Quels

en sont les

caracteres

xtrinseques?

'ocre

a

ete

observee

ans les sepultures;

ous quelle

forme? ui?

'absence

d'ocre

dans certaines epultures

st-elle

en correlation

vec

d'autresphenomenes? n a observe a presence 'ocresurdes

oeuvres

d'art, par

exemple

ur des

figurations

eminines

Wil-

lendorf, aussel,

etc.)

ou sur des

objets

varies,

par

exemple

a

la

Madeleine;

y

a-t-il des localisations

particulieres

par

exemple,

Laussel,

sur es seins

et le

ventre)?

La presence

de

l'ocre

a

egalement

te

observee

dans

des

habitats: dans

le

niveau inferieur

e I'abri

du Facteur,

a Tursac (Dordogne)

(Aurignacien

),

j'ai

observe

Delporte

1968)

a coloration

res

intense

ur

a

surface

'occupation

ituee

en

arriere

es

foyers,

avec

entralnement

e l'ocre

par l'eau-avec

ou

sans

dissolu-

tion?-dans

la couche

de plaquettes

de

gelifraction

ous-

jacente.

Existe-t-il

es localisations

e

l'ocre

a

l'interieur

e

l'habitat?

Ces localisations

ont-elles

tendance a

etre

sys-

tematiques?

Lorsqu'unetelle nformationura ete reunieet ((pesee)),l

sera beaucoup

plus facile

de

tenter

e preciser

es

conditions

e

l'utilisation

e l'ocre

par les

hommes

u Paleolithique.

[It

seems

to

me that

the

problem

f Paleolithicred ochre

s

first f

all to

gather

bjective

nformation

bout

it

and

try

o

evaluate

the

pertinence

f that

nformation

efore

we rush

off

to

make

ethnographic

omparisons

ith

view

to

determining

its use

and

significance.

oreover,

ts

use and significance

ay

be

multiple

I

have pointed

out

anecdotally

hat

ochre

has

proved

extremely

seful

n the

process

of

engraving

one).

From

hispoint

f

view,

he

followinguestions

must

be

raised:

1. What

are

the various

minerals hat

we group

under

the

name

ofochre?What

are

theirphysical

nd

chemical

proper-

ties?Can

their

rigin

e

determined,

nd

can

we

then

etermine

thechanges heyhaveundergone? ouraud's 1978) studies n

this rea are very

nteresting.

2. Wreschnerpeaks

of the

dissolution

f

ochre

by

water.

s

Vol. 21

* No. 5

*

October980

635



thismeans

of

spreading ossible?

Has it been

studied? Are

there

no otherways n which

his an

happen?

3;

What

are the ntrinsic haracteristicsf the ochrefinds-

amorphousmass, crayons, owder,

tc.?

4. What are its extrinsic haracteristics?chre

has

been

found

n

graves;

n

what

form?where? s

there correlation

between he

absence

of ochre

n some

graves

and

otherphe-

nomena?Traces

of ochre

have been found n

art objects, .g.,

on female igurinesWillendorf,

aussel, etc.) or on a variety

of objects La Madeleine).

Are there

ny particular pots

n

which t is found e.g., at Laussel it was on the breasts nd

abdomen)?

Ochrehas also

been

found

n

dwellings;

n

the ower

level

of

the

Abridu Facteur t Tursac,Dordogne Aurignacian

I), I observed very ntense olouring

f

the habitation

loor

behind

the fireplaces,

ith the ochre

having

been carriedby

water nto the underlyingayer

of frost-shatteredlabs. Are

there

ertain

ocationswithin

wellings

here chre

s

found?

Do these ocations ppear to

be systematicn any way?

When

his

ype

f

nformationas been

gathered

nd weighed,

it willbe easierto try o

make some

precise tatements

n the

use of ochre mongst alaeolithic

eoples.]

by

ALEXANDER HXUSLER

ZentralinstitutiirAlte eschichtendArchdologieerAkademie

der Wissenschaften

er

DDR,

Leipziger

tr. 3/4,

108

Berlin,

German emocratic epublic.

0 ii

80

Es ist sehr zu

begrtiBen,

aB Wreschner as Problem der

Ockerfarbung

n

der Urgeschichte

ufgreift. ie Bedeutung

der Ockerfarbung urde

bereitsvon Bachofen 1925 [1859]),

erkannt, m dann immerwieder diskutiert u

werden

z.B.

Timm1964, csedy 1979: 9-40). Belege

ur as Farbempfinden,

die sich nicht allein auf die rote Farbe beschranken, ind

anscheinend

chon

seit der Zeit der Neandertaler iberliefert

(Smolla 1967).

Woraufhier

hingewiesen

erden

oll,

ist die

enge Verbindung wischen der Verwendung

on Ocker

im

Bestattungsritual ei den Jager-und

Fischerkulturenura-

siens, wahrend beim Ubergang von

der aneigenenden ur

erzeugendenWirtschaft iese Sitte jeweils an Bedeutung

verliert Hausler 1974, 1976). Bei den epipalaolithischen,

mesolithischennd subneolithischen

ager-und Fischergrup-

pen Nordeurasiens

st die

Ockerfarbung

er

Toten,

d.h. die

Bestreuung es Leichnamsmit Ocker,haufig uch

die

Ocker-

farbung

der

Beiganen,

ein besonders uffallendes

hanomen

(Hausler

1962).

Die

zur Landwirtschaft,

nsbesondere ur

Viehhaltung, bergegangenen rager

der

zwischen

Ural und

Karpaten verbreiteten ckergrabkultur

3.-2. Jt. v.u. Z.)

lassen die kontinuierlicheWeiterentwicklung

er Bestat-

tungssittenolcher ager- nd Fischergruppenrkennen. abei

fallt uf,

daB

hier

der

Brauch

der

Ockerfarbung

m

Laufe

der

Zeit an Bedeutung erliert. s

laBt

ich

ndessen ichtkonkret

feststellen, elcheAnderungen er deologischen orstellungen

dieseVerringerungerOckerfarbungewirkten. ckertrittn

dieser Kultur als

Farbstreuung, ber

auch als Beigabe vom

Klumpen der ogarvon eifbrmigen

tuickenuf,die bisweilen

in groBer ahl beigegebenwurden Hausler 1974:96; Ecsedy

1979:39-40). Hier liegtdie Verbindung

wischen em eiformi-

gen Ockerstuick nd der recht haufigen

eigabe von echten

Vogeleiern Hausler 1974:96; 1976:66)

als Ausdruck

des

Gedankens

der

Wiedergeburt

uf der Hand. Auch

dieser

Symbolik

st bereitsBachofen 1925 [1859])

m

Detail

nach-

gegangen.

Es

ist

aber zu

beachten, aB der

Terminus (Ockerfarbung))

und ((Ocker)) ur

zur

allgemeinen

ennzeichnungines roten,

rotlichen der gelben Farbstoffes ient. ChemischeAnalysen

haben

nur

sehr

selten stattgefunden. ur das Material aus

Grabern erOckergrabkultur,ie man n Ungarn ntersuchte,

konnte achgewiesen erden, aB es sichum Hamatithandelte,

der

in dem betreffendenebiet uberhaupt icht vorkommt,

oder um rot gefarbte rdklumpenEcsedy 1979:40). Dadurch

tritt ie symbolische edeutung

on (Ocker))n diesen

Grabern

nurnoch deutlicher ervor.

Ahnliches st auch furdie meisten

anderen ur-

und

frtihgeschichtlichen

ulturen

anzunehmen.

Daneben ist aber auch eine einfachere, rofaneDeutung der

Verwendung on ((Ocker))nicht

auszuschliefen,wie das von

den Ureinwohnern ustraliens

bezeugt ist (Timm 1964).

Deshalb

ware es problematisch,on der Auffindungon Ocker

in Siedlungsschichtender

Gruben utomatisch uch auf eine

rituelle erwendungn den

betreffendenulturen u schliefen.

[It is verygratifyingo see Wreschner akingup the problem

of ochre in prehistoric imes.

Bachofen 1925

[1859])

was

aware

of

the significance f

ochre, and it has been widely

discussed ver ince e.g., Timm 1964; Ecsedy 1979:39-40).

Evidence of the perception f

colour,which s not confined

to red

alone,has apparently ome downto us from he timeof

Neandertalman (Smolla 1967). There is a close relationship

between the use of ochre and

burial rites among Eurasian

hunting nd fishing ultures,

ut this custom ost its signifi-

cance during he transition

rom n adaptive to a productive

economy Hausler 1974, 1976). In the Epipalaeolithic,Meso-

lithic, nd sub-Neolithic unting

nd fishing roups fnorthern

Eurasia,

the ochre

olouring f the dead (i.e., the sprinklingf

the bodies and often lso the grave objects with ochre) s an

especially triking henomenonHausler 1962). The bearers f

the Ochre-Grave ulture

3d-2d century

.C.),

locatedbetween

the

Urals

and the

Carpathians,

who had

adopted agriculture

and

especially

attle

raising,

till how

igns

f

the

persistence

of his urial

ustom

ssociatedwith

ishingnd hunting roups.

Thus

it

is

quite striking

hat the

custom

f

using

chre

ost

ts

significance

ith the

passage

of

time.

It cannot be

firmly

established

what actual

changes

n

ideology rought

bout the

decrease

n

this custom.

Ochre

appears

in

this culture as a

powder

or

trewing,

ut t

s

also

found s

lumps

r

egg-shaped

pieces

n

graves,

which re

sometimes

resent

n

arge

numbers

(Hausler 1974,Ecsedy

1979:39-40).

The

relationship

etween

the

egg-shaped ieces

of

ochre nd the

arge

number

f actual

birds'

eggs

found

n

the

graves

Hausler 1974:96; 1976:66)

is

clearly an expression f the concept of rebirth.Bachofen

(1925 [1859])

has

investigated

his ymbolism

n some

detail.

We

should,however,

e aware that the

terms

ochre

dye

and

ochre are used

only

n a

general

way

to

designate red,

reddish,

r

yellow

olorant.

Very

few

hemical

nalyses

f

this

substance

have been carried out.

It can be shown

that

the

material

ound

n

certain

Hungarian

Ochre-Grave

ulture ites

was

actually

hematite

which

does not occur n the

area)

or

red-coloured

lumps

of earth

(Ecsedy 1979:40).

Thus the

symbolic ignificance

f ochre

in

these

graves

stands

out

even

more

learly.

imilar

ssumptions

an

be made formost

of

the

other

prehistoric

nd

early

historic ultures.

n this

connection

ne cannotrule out a

simpler, onreligiousignifi-

cance

for

the use

of

ochre,

such

as that

evidenced

by

the

Aboriginesf Australia Timm 1964).For thisreason twould

be

questionable

to conclude

definitely

hat

the

presence

of

ochre n

graves

or

settlement

ites

automatically

means that

it had

a ritual

purpose

n that

particular

ulture.]

by

ALBERT

HEINRICH

Departmentf Anthropology,

niversityf Calgary, algary,

Alta.,

Canada

T2N 1N4.

12

I

80

Wreschner

erforms

valuable

service

nd also leaves

some-

thing

o

be desired.

n

writing longish-perhaps verlong-

article

about an

already

rather

well-known

et

of

facts,

he

demonstrates

nce

more that the

science

of

archeology

ies

within herealm f nthropologynd is not, s somehave

tried

to make t, digging hings ut ofthe ground. ts essence ies in

theoretical nterpretationf the materials hemselves. deas,

not things, re what count n our discipline.

636

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY





posypano wloki Witckowska 975:417).Analogiczny wyczaj

towarzyszylez

obrz4dkowi

ogrzebowemu

iektorychlemion

neolitycznych ozmaitego w dodatku

pochodzenia-kultur

ceramiki

dolkowej

i

dolkowo-grzebykowej,

chodz4cych

w

sklad

krqgu

ultur

ubneolitycznychWisla'nski

979:323,331)

oraz w starszych mlodszychkulturach

wywodz4cych

ie z

krqgu

addunajskiego:

kulturze eramiki

wst,gowej ytej w

kulturze lendzielskiej (Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa

1979:94,

162).

Do

pierwszej tych

kultur

addunajskich alezyrowniez

pochowekkobiety,

rzymaj4cej

w

dioniach naczyniegliniane

wypelnionechr4. wyczajbarwieniawlok-zapewneochr4-

byl takze znany niektorym eolitycznym lemionom kr,gu

kulturowego eramiki sznurowej, np. w kulturze

zlockiej

(Machnik 1979:382). Jednakze

w wielu

innych

kulturach

mlodszejepoki

kamienia

wyczaj

ten nie

byl

praktykowany-

brak bowiemsladow jakichkolwiek arwnikoww

niekiedy

dosyc icznych robach

eprezentuj4cych

e inne

kultury.

W

epoce

br4zu

i

we

wczesnej epoce zelaza

brak

jest

na

ziemiachpolskich upelniewyraznych ladow zywania

barw-

nikow w

obrz4dku

pogrzebowym,ednakze

w kilku

grobach

cialopalnych

raz bez

Aladu

pochowka szkieletowy?)

udnoAci

kultury uzyckiej znajdowano grudki ochry

oraz

naczynie

wypetnionezerwonym iaskiem Malinowski 962:88).

Z

powyzszego zwi,zlego

przegl4du

polskich

materialow

archeologicznychdaje sip wynikac, e barwnikimineralne

czerwonopodobne yly przez wiele spoArodpradziejowych

ludow,

ecz

przedewszystkim starszej, rodkowej mlodszej

epoce

kamienia.

udy

te

s4

bardzo

roznicowane od

wzgledem

pochodzenia,

reprezentuj4

takze

rozne

formy

gospodarki.

Barwniki

byly

zaA

wykorzystywane

arowno

w

obrz4dku

pogrzebowym,ak

i

w innych rzejawach ycia (znaleziska

z

terenu

sad). Oprocz chry uze

znaczeniemial w

tym

akresie

takze hematyt.

Na

marginesie ego przegldu

warto

zasygnalizowac, e

najprawdopodobniej owniez

zerwonebarwniki

oslinne

d-

grywaly ole

w

rozmaitych wyczajach

udow

pradziejowych,

choc

ch

slady

s4

oczywiscie adzwyczaj

rudne

o

uchwycenia.

S4dz,

tak na

podstawie grobowego

znalezienia

owockow

nawrotu

ckarskiego Lithospermum

fficinale

.)

w

okolicy

glowy ednego z nieboszczykow alei4cego do kulturyen-

dzielskiej Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa

979:162-64), takze

w

zwi4zku

e znalezieniem

wocow

glogu Crataegus

p.)

w

kilku

grobach ialopalnych udnoscikultury omorskiej

wczesnej

epoki elaza (Luka 1971:72).

[I

have read Wreschner's

ery

concisearticle with

interest.

Though

a

great

number f

reports

ave

been

devoted to the

meaning

of

colours-especially

of

red

and

its

shades-and

though

Wreschner

imself ites the most essential

onclusions

set

forth n this

matter,

here

s

still

another

uestionwhich

interests

me,

and that

s

the earliest se of ochre.

The

Polish

archaeological

ecord

estifies

o

the

use

of

ochre

as

early

s

the Middle

Magdalenian; umps

f t

bearing

races

of abrasionwerefound n

Maszycka Cave. Later,

n

the Late

Palaeolithic, here s evidence ftheuse ofanother olouring

substance,

haematite. t seems that

during

this

period

the

significance

f

haematite s a

source

f

reddish

ints

prevailed

over

that of

ochre. n

the northeastern

oly

Cross

(Swieto-

krzyskie)Mountains,

haematite

was

extracted rom

rimitive

mines,

nd

traces

of

settlement re exceptionallybundant

n

the

surrounding

rea

(Schild 1975:325).

The

haematitemined

in

the

regionwas partly rocessed ordyestuff

n

the spot and

partly transported ar away by migrating

roups that left

remains f it in

theirhunting amps, knownfromnumerous

explored

ites. The

farthest ite

in

whichhaematitic

owder

has

been

discovered s in

western oland,

some

400

km

from

the spot where hismineralwas exploited.

The extraction f haematite rommines n the Holy Cross

Mountainswent n throughouthe Mesolithic ndfar nto the

Neolithic. Remains excavated in settlements

estify hat it

continued o be

produced s a

dyestuff y using

beaters nd

grinders,

ven in regions t

a considerable

istancefrom he

source

(Wi,ckowska

1975:410;

Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa

1979:82, 134).

The oldest burial

in Poland,

discovered t

Janislawice nd

dated to the

Mesolithic,had its

pit-walls

tinctured

ith he ochre

used to sprinkle he

corpse Wi,ckow-

ska

1975:417). A very

imilarusage

accompanied he funeral

ritual among

certainNeolithic

tribesof different

rigin, e-

longing

o the

Subneolithic

it-marked

ottery nd the Comb-

and-Pit-marked ottery

cultures

WiAla'nski

979:323, 331)

and to earlier nd latercultures riginatingn theDanubian

cultural

area, namely,the

Linear Pottery

nd the Lengyel

(Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa

979:94, 162). For

example, the

burial of a

woman

bearing n her

hands a clay pot

filledwith

ochrebelongs o the

first f theseDanubian

cultures. t seems

that the

custom

of

dyeing-probably with

ochre-mortal

remainswas

practised y

certainNeolithic

ribes elonging o

the

orbitof the

Corded Ware

culture, or nstance,

he Ziota

culture Machnik

1979:382).Among

numerous ther

ultures

of the

Neolithic, owever,

here re no hints t

all whichwould

point o

thepresence f dye

ubstances ntombs.

In the Bronze

Age and Early Iron

Age in Poland,

tracesof

the

use

of

dye substances

n funeral

eremonies re almost

completelv

acking,but in

several

cremation ombs and in

some tombswithout keletalremains f the Lusatian culture

therewere

umps

of

ochre

nd pots

filledwithred sand

(Mali-

nowski

1962:88).

Summingup

the

above

abbreviated

ketch of the

Polish

archaeological

ecord,we can

conclude that reddish

mineral

colouring

ubstanceswere

used by many

prehistoric opula-

tions,mainly

n

the

Early,Middle,

nd Late Stone Age.

These

populations differed

onsiderably n

origin and in

formof

economy.

Moreover, here s

evidence that

dyes were used

not

only

n

funeral

itual,but in

everyday ife.

Besides ochre,

haematite

had

marked

ignificance.

Red

vegetaldye substances

probably layed

a

considerable

role n

thevarious ustoms

f

prehistoric

opulations.

f

ourse,

their traces

are not

easy

to

detect.

My supposition

n this

matter

s

based

on

the

gromwell

Lithospermum

fficinale

.)

remains oundnearthe head ofthecorpse n a tomb scribed

to the

Lengyel

ulture

Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa

979:162-

64)

and the hawthorn ruits

Crataegus

p.)

found

n

several

cremation urials

of

tribes f

the

Early

Iron

Age

Pomeranian

culture

Luka

1971:

72).]

by

CLAUDEMASSET

Laboraloire

e

Prehistoire,ollege

e

France,

Place Marcelin-

Berthelot,

-75005

Paris,

France.

29

I

80

La

plupart

des colorants

utilises

naguere,que

ce soit

pour

teindre

es

peaux,

de

la

vannerie,

es

tissus, our

des

peintures

corporelles, tc.,

etaient

des

extraits

e

plantes:

sucs de baies

ou de

racines,fueilles,

fleurs,

corces,plantes entieres,

er-

mentees u non

a

cette iste

ajoutons

e charbon e

bois).

Les

pigments

'origine

nimale,

omme a

pourpre

u la

cochenille,

etaient

moins

repandus.

Les colorants

mineraux taient

eux

aussi

largement

tilises,

mais

parfois

our

des

emplois

un

peu

diffcrents:

einture

roprement

ite de

surfaces

igides

parois

rocheuses, aisons),

t naturellement

eramique.

ources

usages

et

bien

d'autres,

n se servait

beaucoup

de

la

gamme

es

ocres,

et de

mineraux

pparentes

omme

'hematite;

moins

ouvent,

du

noir

bioxyde

de

manganese

t

de

diverses

rgiles

olorees.

De tous

ces

colorants, uels

sont ceux

qu'un

archeologue

peut

esperer

retrouver n fouillant?

Un

bien

petit

nombre.

D'abord,

la

plupart

ont

biodegradables.

nsuite,

e

charbon

de

bois,par exemple, st trop

ommun our qu'un

archeologue

y voit

spontanement

utre chose

qu'un

dechet

de

combustion;

quant au bioxyde

de

manganese,

l lui

ressemble rop

pour

que nous

puissions roire ue les

fouilleurs 'antanont

toujours

638

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY



su faire a distinction. a palette de l'art rupestre ranco-

cantabrique st assez riche,mais de ces pigments

a

'utilisation

specialisee,

ien peu sont

retrouves

ans es sitesde sepultures

ou d'habitat. 11 est vrai

qu'ils

ont

pu

etre confondus

vec les

sediments, u que des fouilleurs 'en aient pas reconnu 'im-

portance.Restent 'ocre

et

l'hematite.

Je

ne voudrais pas

sous-estimere travail fort nteressant

auquel s'est livre Wreschnermais seulement elativiser er-

tainesde ses interpretations.

ssurement,

'ocre

frappe arfois

par son abondance;

mais

quand,

a

cotede gisementsiches

n

ocre,d'autres itesd'une meme ulture rehistoriquearaissent

ignorer es colorants, l est

permis de

se demander si

nous

sommes

reellement

en

presence

d'un

manque: peut-etre

s'agissait-il implement

e colorants

ouges 'origine rganique

_ou meme

d'autres

couleurs,egalementorganiques.

l

est

meme

possible u'il ne

s'agisse

dans

ce

cas

que subsidiairement

de

couleur:

l'ocre

peut

servir aussi

a

tanner es

peaux (je

regrette ue Wreschner

'ait

pense

a

rappeler

e

fait).

Une

autre de ses

observations,

elon

laquelle,

au cours

de

la

pre-

histoire, es culturesutilisatrices 'ocre

etaient

minoritaires,

pourrait, out en etant

uste,

nduire e lecteur n

erreur.

l ne

faudrait as,

sous

pretexte ue

nous

ne

trouvons

as

de

colorant

dans une fouille,

ous

maginer ue

la

culture nteressee

aisait

peu de cas des couleurs:

e serait

perdre

e

vue

le

peu de

chose

que

sont les

vestiges par

rapport

a

la richessedes

realites

defuntes. our a meme aison, a primaute u rougerisquede

n'etre u'une llusion 'optique,n'exprimant ue la disparition

des autres ouleurs.

Dans

les

cultures

modernes, crit 'auteur,

le

noir,

e

blanc,

e

rouge,

e

vert,

e

jaune

et

le

bleu

ouent

un

role mportant ans

les

systemes

e

communication

t dans la

technologie.1 n'y

a

pas

de

bonneraisonde penser

u'il

en

ait

ete autrement l'epoque prehistorique.

[Most

of he olorants sed

n the

past,

whether

or

ying kins,

baskets,

nd

fabrics,

or

body painting, tc.,

are

extracts

f

plants: juices

of

berries

or of

roots, eaves, flowers, arks,

whole

plants,

fermentedr unfermented

charcoal

could be

added to this ist). Pigments

f animal

origin

uch as

purple

r

cochineal

re less common.Mineral olorants

were

lso

widely

used,but often or lightly ifferenturposes: or hepainting

of

rigid

urfaces

rock

or house wall

paintings,

or

nstance)

and,

of

course,

for ceramic rticles.

For

these

purposes

nd

many others,

chres and related minerals

uch as

hematite

and,

less

frequently,

lack

manganese

dioxide and various

types

f

coloured

lav

were

used.

Of

ll these

olorants, hich

nes

can an

archaeologistxpect

to find

n

an

excavation ite?

Very

few.

First

of

all,

most

of

them are

biodegradable.

econdly, harcoal,

for

example,

s

too common or

he

archaeologist

o

recognize

t

immediately

as

anything

ther

than

the

product

of

combustion;

s

for

manganesedioxide, t

resembles harcoal

so

closely that we

cannot

maginemany past excavators'

being

able to

see the

difference.

he

range

fcolours

n

Franco-Cantabrianupestral

art

s

fairly ich,

ut not

many

of

the

specialized igments

re

foundngravesorsettlements.t is true that they ouldhave

been

confused

with ediments

r

that

the

excavatorsmay

not

have recognized their importance.This leaves ochre and

hematite.

I

do

not wish to

underestimate he very nteresting ork

Wreschner as

done,

but

I

would

like

to

place

some

of his

interpretationsn

perspective. f course,ochre s striking

n

its abundance;but when

we find ome itesrich n ochrewhile

other

ites of the same

prehistoriculture ppear to have

no

colorants t

all,

we

should ask

ourselveswhether

his

really

reflects

lack

n

the

atter: t may simply eflect he use

of red

colorants

of

organicorigin-or

even the use

of

other colors,

also organic n origin. t

is even possible hat the question f

colour n this ase s secondary: chre an be used to tan eather

(I'm sorry Wreschnerhas not thought to mention

this).

Another f his observations, amely, hat prehistoric

ultures

usingochrewerefew nd far between, ould, n fact,

mislead

the reader. We

should not imagine, ust because we

findno

colorants

n a

site,that the culture

n questiondid not attach

any importance o colour: this would

be to lose sightof the

scarcity f the

remains n relation o the richness f

the past

reality.

For

the

same reason, he primacy f red may

merely

be an

optical

illusion, imply reflectinghe fact that

other

colours

have disappeared. n modern ultures, s the author

says, black,white, ed,green, ellow,

nd blue play mportant

roles

n

communication

ystems nd in technology. here s no

reason o believe hatthe ituationwas otherwisen prehistoric

times.]

by

HERYL

F.

MILLER

Department f Anthropology,itzer

College,Claremont, a.

91711,U.S.A. 13

III

80

Throughout

his

discussion,Wreschner

lights vidence from

sub-Saharan

Africa.For example,concerning pper

Palaeo-

lithic nd morerecent imeshe states,

During mostcultural

stages-the Magdalenian

nd the NorthAmerican rchaic

re

probably n exception-ochre

sershave been n the

minority.

In

fact, hrough

largepart of sub-SaharanAfrica uring

he

Later Stone

Age

ochre se hasbeenfairly ommon. t occurs n

manysites of the Nachikufanndustrial omplex, cultural

manifestation

f

woodedregions n southeastern frica

asting

in

severalphases

from pproximately 8,000years ago

to the

past century. chre

ccurs nNachikufanites n small umps,

commonly

ess

than

3

cm maximum

dimension.

requently

these

lumps

exhibit

igns

that the

ochre was

powderedby

rubbing; flattened

ace often hows parallel striations

rom

the

abrasion of

the

rubbing

tone. Some

ochre

umps

have

several such facets.Stones

on

which

he ochrewas processed

also occur n Nachikufan ites. t is even

possible

that

some

ochre lumps

were used as

crayons

with which

to

produce

designs

directly

n cave and

shelter

walls. Nachikufu

Cave

itself ontains well-preservedpecimen, complex

eometric

design ntirely

nred. t is more

ikelv,however,

hat

pigments

tobe used n thismannerwerefirst owdered nd thenmixed

with

binder efore

eing ppliedto

cave

walls.

Another ater

Stone

Age

cultural

omplex,

he Wilton

of

southern

African

savannah

egions,

s famed or

tsnaturalistic

rt

n

polychrome.

Ochre

nd

other

igments

ere

used.

n

contemporaneous

ites

in eastern

Africa,

ock rt

utilizing

chre lso

occurs

n

associa-

tion

with

Later Stone

Age

artifacts.

Wreschner

evotes

his closest attention

o

uses

of

ochre

associated

with

mortuary

ustoms.

Art,

as indicated

above,

constitutes

nother

mportant

unction

or such

pigments.

Wreschner

ismisses

further

ossible

se of

chre,

ody

paint-

ing,

as

of

secondary

nterest. t

is true thatwe have few

means

f

testing ypotheses oncerning rehistoric

odypaint-

ing.However,

t

s

perhaps

elevant

hat he bundance

f chre

inprehistoricitesgenerallyncreases longwith rchaeological

evidence

or ther

forms

f

personal

decoration

uch

as beads

and

pendants.

by

AVRAHAM

RONEN

Departmentf

Eretz-Israel

tudies,Universityf Haifa,

Mt.

Carmel, aifa 31999,

srael.

7

III

80

The

very

timulating roblem

n

which

his article

ouches-

the

use

ofred ochre nd

its

biological

asis-would

also

require

an

account

of

the

reaction

o

colors

of animals

endowed

with

color vision.

As

it

stands,

the articleconsists

f

citations

f

anthropologists

nd

ethnographers

nd

a concise

worldwide

survey f the archaeological

ecord. ome of the nformationn

the survey s misleading. hus, the number f ochre-bearing

sitesper periodper region ught o be given s a percentage

f

the

sites

xcavated;

lso, the definitend clear-cut umbers

f

Vol. 21

No.

5

October

980

639



sites re

difficulto

acceptfor

nyonewho

knowshow

dispersed

the

archaeological

nformation

s. Such

statistics

hould be

precededby

the qualification very approximative

cf.

Del-

porte

1979:214).

If

the

use of red

ochre s

archaeologically

documentednly

rom he ate Mousterian,

hat s the

vidence

that t

was collected

n the

early middle Mousterian?

The

author

suggeststhat

Natufian burials

accompanied

by

red

ochremay

reflect tatus

differences;

hy not

earlieror later

than

the Natufian?

The

significance

f ochre n

humanmental

volution as

not

been graspedhere. The oldest recordeduse of ochre-if ac-

cepted-does

not mplv he

oldest ategorization.

his human

trait

s attestedby

any repeated

manufacture

f stone

mple-

ments, ven

the crudest.

he characterization

f ochre,

ed or

another olor, ook

place within

he domain

of the

spiritual,

the nonutilitarian.

ow does

thisrelate to the

knowledge

f

death? To

man's growing

erception

f his uniqueness?

With-

out these spects,

chre oes

not onstitute

case for

iscussion.

by

RALPH SOLECKI

Department

fAnthropology,

olumbia

University,

ew

York,

N.Y. 10027,

U.S.A.

29

I

80

Wreschner

s

dealing

from he outset with

one

of

the

most

difficultroblems

n

archaeology,

hatof

deology, ompounded

bythe added difficultyn tryingo assesscognitiveinks cross

diverse trains f

hominids rom

Homo erectus

o H. sapiens

neanderthalensis

o H. sapiens sapiens.

How can

a modern

gauge

for olorpreference

e

extrapolated

o H. erectus

refer-

ences?

The

assumption

may

be

valid,

but

we'll never

know.

In

any case,

nowwe

can be surethat

earlyprehistoric

an was

not color-blind.

Wreschner

makes no

comment

s to what

other olormaterials

were vailable

to early

man. Admittedly,

it

is

very difficult

o determine

he

range

of the color palette

from

rehistoric

ites. The source

materialforthered

ochre

and

a

shortreview

of

the mineralogy ermane

o

the theme

would

be

helpful

o the nonspecialist

eader.How

much

of the

use

ofred

color n burials

was

ndependent

nvention

r

contact

or

something

lse

can

only

be

guessed.

The occurrences

iven

appeartobe without ealgeographicalinks.Could it be that

the

Levantine

nd

North

African alaeolithic nd

Epi-Palaeo-

lithicgroups,

which

reportedly

sed red pigments

n a much

smaller

cale than theirEuropean

counterparts,

ave simply

been

deprived

f sources

of

the

material?

Wreschner

s to

be

commended

or

ackling

most

difficultubject

n

prehistory,

and we are

clearly

ndebted

o

himfor

his

discussion.

by

PETER

H.

STEPHENSON

Department

f

Anthropology,

niversityf

Victoria,

Victoria,

B.C.,

Canada.

22 I

80

This

s a

very

nteresting

ollection

f

evidence,

nd

Wreschner

is

to be

congratulated

or

bringing

t

all

together

s

well

as

for

approaching

olor

symbols

as phenomena t the nexus of

linguistic,

ultural,

nd

biological

approaches.

Assaying

pre-

history

o

clarify

heserelationships

s both ambitious

nd

necessary.

ike

Wreschner,

agree

with

Bornstein,Kessen,

and

Weiskopf1977)

that

human

eings

re

wired

o

perceive

segmentally

he

psychophysically

istinct

hroma

red,yellow,

green,

and

blue).

Macaques

have

been

used

to

study

the

neurological

underpinnings

f

color

response

because

their

hue-discrimination

urves

are

nearly

identical

to those

of

humans. his

research eveals

hat

within

he

ateral

geniculate

nucleus cells

respond

o

wavelengths

ifferentially:

he

most

generalized

response

s

to

brightness,

nd

particular

cells

change either

ncrease r decrease)

atesoffiring

hen

xposed

to red, green,

ellow, r blue

(Devalois, Abramov,

nd

Jacobs

1966). Because the atmosphere s saturatedwith ongwave-

length

ight t dawn

nd dusk Herzberg

965), pecies

moving

from octurnal hrough repuscular

nd into diurnalhabitats

would

be exposedto increasing requencies

f ight.Herein,

have suggested Stephenson 1973a),

lies the basis for

the

differentialalience of colors:

black/white red > yellow

green blue.

Thus it is change n color which

from he very

outsethas served

o establish hebasis for oth

perceptionnd

meaning Stephenson

979a). The changes t

dawn, fripening,

bleeding,molting, tc., are

a few examples. n this respect

would uggest hat changefrom

right oxygenated) ed blood

tothe earthy rown f coagulatedblood s naturally

ssociated

withdanger nd death.The change rom dull ustre o bright

red during iring r withthe

addition f iquid might ikewise

representife. The reversal

to red or from ed with brown)

implies

he ife-death ichotomy.

Symbols

which change theirreferent hen

social contexts

are altered re termedmultivocal

y Turner 1967). Red

may

represent ne of the earliest

multivocal ymbols. nterestingly,

when I compared the level of abstraction

f color symbols

(multivocalor unireferential)

ith their respective evels

of

abstraction n language (basic term or metonym)for five

cultureswithdifferent-sizedolorvocabularies,

discovered n

almost exact correspondence

Stephenson 973b). Only colors

which

were

basic

terms

were also used multivocally n

the

cultural

domain.

n

metonymic

ituations, he meaning f

the

symbolwas

imited o themeaning f theword

used to describe

it. I should also note that one societywhich ntentionally

eschewed

the

use of most color

symbols as idolatrous the

Hutterites)

ustained he

use of red

to represent lood and

to

imply

ife nd

death

Stephenson 979b).

The

transition

rom

imited

to

widespread

utilizationof

ochre

whichWreschner ocuments

may

be

a useful

yardstick

for tudying

he

elaboration f

anguage.

Unlike

flowers,hells,

etc.,

whose

colors

may

have

been

important

ut are

likely

o

have been metonymic,

chrewas

mined, raded,refined,

nd

used

n

multiple

ontexts.

hus

the

temptingpeculation

rises

that Neanderthals

poke

and

may

have even

had a

basic

color

term

or

ed.

A few aveats:

1)

The

degree

fconsensus s to the

meaning

of red

on

flagsmay

reflect

more

he

meaning

f

flags

han

the

meaning f their onstituentolors. 2) The fact hat a body s

buried

n

ochre

does not

logically

mean that the ochre was

applied

at death.

For all

we

know,peoplemay

have

painted

themselves

hile

they

were alive

and

merely

uriedthe dead

as

they

were.

Bowls

of ochre could

merely epresent

uture

supplies

of

body paint

for

the

afterworld.

3)

Neanderthals

needn't

have

spoken; they

doubtless

ommunicated,

ut

sign

language

might

have

been used

(see

Hewes

1973; Stephenson

1974,

1979c).

by

YNN L.

THOMAS

Department

f Sociology

nd

Anthropology,

omona

College,

Claremont,

a.

91711,

U.S.A.

7 iii 80

In his interestingnd usefuil iscussion,Wreschner oes not

minimize

he

problems

f nferencend

interpretation

nvolved

in

trying

o understand

henature

nd

roles

f

prehistoric

chre

use,

but

more larification

f

two

ssues

may

be

possible.

First,

Wreschner

mentionshe

rarity save

in the

Magdale-

nian and

North

American

Archaic)

and

uneven

rcheological

evidence

of ochre.

Do the

inferential

roblems

concerning

evidence

of

use

and

dating preclude

distributional

nalyses

(e.g.,

distribution

n

space

and

time,

analysis

of association

with

ther

rtifacts)?

Wreshner

ives

he

mpression

hat

ither

the evidence

does not

warrant

much of such

analysis

or

he

is

not

very

much

nterested

n

doing

t.

Are the

data

just

too

few?

Are there

no

patterns?

Second, can the concepts

oncerning ognition,

erception,

use, and symbolic ttributione sharpened? or example,with

regard o the

two umps fred ochre ound n BKIJ

at Olduvai,

640

CURRENT

ANTHROPOLOGY



Wreschner

rgues

that we are hereconfronted

ith vidence

of a

social actionprobably timulated y

the

capacity

or olor

categorization.

He then asks: Do

we have here the first

evidence

of

a

capacity

for

perceptive

olor

categorization?

He seems

to answer

the

question

ffirmatively.

hat

seems

problematical

ere

s the

placing

of

significance

n

perceptual

categorization

er se, however pecified the sociology

f

the

ochreuse

is

anothermatter).

For one

thing,

t is

highly

ikely

that

bare

perceptual

bilities

n

regard

o reddish olors

ong

preceded

BKII

at

Olduvai

in hominid

phylogenesis.

his

notion houldbe indirectlyestable n the case of nonhuman

primates cf.

Kay

and

McDaniel

1978).

What seems more

t

issue-and

the more nteresting uestion-concerns

he

pat-

terns

of uses

and the involvement f

cognitive and

social)

constructions

n

uses,

whether ur concern s with

significant

discontinuities

r continuities

n human evolution or with

panspecific

r variable

patterning,

ay,

n the ater

part

of

the

record.

he

associations freddish chrewith

mortuary

ustoms

and

the

nferences

oncerningmeanings

e.g.,

those

nvolving

life nd death,

blood

and

danger),

ven fnot

early

ttestations

of color preference,

re the

more

nteresting.

What

sorts,

then,

of

cognitive

nd social

capacities

underlie

uch

specific

constructions

f

meaning?

onstanciesn

perception

may

well

be

involved;

categorization

nd

recognition

re

certainly

n-

volved and

the

atterwould

eem,

n

Wreschner's

sage,

to be

implied ytheformer). ut how, nd inrelation o what?Do

the

ochre olorshave the

meanings

ttributed o them,

ither

originally

r

after he fact,

n

a

given

setting ecause

of

the

similarities

o

other

olors, .g., that

of

blood?Or

do

they

have

these

ttributes

ecause

of

particular

ue-saturation-brightness

values? Are there nteractive r additive

effects f these?One

lead

is

providedby

Berlin nd Kay, Sahlins,

nd

D'Andrade

and

Egan.

Sahlins

argues

that

the

strong

ross-culturalegu-

larities

n

attributions

f

foci

of

the

basic

color

categories

f

Berlin

nd Kay

are understandable

n

the basis

of saturation,

given hue. D'Andrade and

Egan notice that the

emotional

associations suallv

foundwith

color'

do not seem to

be

due

primarily o the actual hue,

or lightwavelength,nvolved

but

to

the degree

f

saturation

nd brightness 1974:62).

In the

lightof theBerlinand Kay arguments nd evidenceto the

effect

hat

there s considerable ross-

s well as intracultural

variation n

nonfocal ttributionssee

also Kay and McDaniel

1978), the question ecomes,

irst,What are the ranges

f the

ochre

nd ochre-derivedolors, specially

rightnessnd satu-

ration

(and controlling

or

effects f wear-and-tear

n the

archeological pecimens)?

hen, are the ochremeanings

o be

interpreteds associated

with redness per se (which

percep-

tual

aspects

hereof?),nd,

f

o,

s it focal

red,

or do the ochre

reds call to mind

focal

red,

or

s

it saturation nd brightness

alone?

Or are the

ochre

meanings o be

nterpreteds associated

with ther spectsof ochre oloror material

e.g., texture?) r

such

things

s

salience

n theenvironmentnd similarity

o the

colorof blood?

Suchquestions s thesemightead Wreschner o reconsider

the

ppropriateness

fhis

dismissal f

Sahlins,

who does ndeed

espouse

relational-but

not merely elational-point

f view.

However

the

above

questions re answered,

t becomes lear

that

the dismissal

f

Sahlins

s

neithermpliednorparticularly

suggested y

Wreschner's vidence nd arguments.

he ques-

tions

lso

require

ur

asking

f

we have

here

o

do

withbiology

beingpurely

nd

simply

at theroot fhuman olor

behavior

or rather

with relativelycomplex constructions

f reality

(apologies

o Berger nd Luckmann 966)

whichmay or may

not)

be

similar ecause

of the modesof manipulation

nd the

concerns

f the

attributors

f meaning.The same

sorts of

questions,

t

would seem,

need to be asked concerning otions

of death, danger, nd the

ike. But, as D'Andrade and

Egan

put t, a metaphoricarkness escends, darkness nthis ase

compounded y antiquity.

by

HEINRICH OLLINGER

Eigdenossische echnische

ochschule, 092 Zurich,

witzer-

land. 19 I 80

As Wreschner as noted,

Berlin nd Kay (1969) have demon-

strated clearly n a cross-culturalinguistic tudy

that the

simplest olor exicon ontainswords orblack and

white nly.

A wordforred

is

then added, followed y wordsfor

yellow,

green, lue,

etc. With the

help

of

color-naming

ests,we have

shown von Wattenwyl nd Zollinger 979,Zollinger

979, nd

earlier

apers)

that his equence s related o a neurobiological

basis, namely,Hering's opponent-colorcheme.This scheme

predicts,however, nly the dominance f black,

white,

red,

yellow,green,

nd blue relative to other hues, not their e-

quence.

A

linguistic

asis for hecolor equence an be found n

Jakobson 1968

[19411),

s

I

have recently ointed

ut (1979).

Jakobson howed hatthedevelopment f anguage

n the child

takes

place

in a

regular

equence;

he

also recognized lose

relationships

etween speech sounds and color

perception,

arguing hat sounds are chromatic n different

egrees, , for

example,being most chromatic mong the vowels

and least

affected v

the

ight-dark pposition. hat sounds

re psycho-

logically

elated

to

the

perception

f color had already been

recognized arly

n

this century, .g., by K6hler

and

Stumpf,

but

the

specific ecognition hat the development

f sounds

parallels hat f olorssJakobson's: as theprimaryhromatic

vowel

s

symbolizedy red,

s various

nalyses

f

psychological

sensationshave

demonstrated.My correlation f Jakobson's

ontogenetic nvestigation f child language

with the cross-

cultural inguistic esults

f

Berlin nd

Kay

on colorterms its

well

ntoWreschner's

hylogeneticiscussion f the role

of red

ochre

n

human volution.

It may

be

added that Williams's 1976) investigation

f

the

metaphorical

se of

djectives elated

o thefive enses arallels

the

biological

volution

f

the

senses, .e.,

their

phylogenetic

development

n

animals and

man,

the visual and acoustic

senses

being

the

most

highlydeveloped see

Zollinger1979).

This allows an-admittedly speculative-extrapolation

o pe-

riods ven

earlier

han 500,000years go.

Reply

by

RNST

E.

WRESCHNER

Haifa, Israel.

2

v

80

It

is

encouraging

o observe

that the

responses

o

my

short

paperopen

first ound

n an

interdisciplinary

ritical

ppraisal

of

red color

finds n

archaeological

ontexts. he similar

ues-

tions

aised

nd the

imilar

uggestionsoncerning

he

validity

of

the

archaeological

vidence

nd the role

of

colors

ther han

red

n

past

human

behavior

llustrate

he

need for methodo-

logical approach

to the

topic

and

an

understanding

f

its

inherent

bjective

imitations.

t

must

be stressed

hat it

is

the

color

red

that

s

the focus

of

my discussion,

nd here

t

becomes uiteobvious hat he erm ochre anbemisleading.

I therefore

ind utzer'sobservations

mportant.

While

reflect-

ing

an

understandable

esitation o

elaborate

on the

mplica-

tions

of red color

materials

n

early

Palaeolithic sites

(the

presence

of which

is

an

archaeological act), they

tend to

throw

ut the

baby

with he bath.

agree

that

ochre s not

a

satisfying

r accurate

term for

a

variety

of

red-colored

materials

f

mineral

origin.

What

is

important, owever,

s

their

ntentional

ollection

because

of

their

color.

Whether

red-colored

ineralswere ollected

y early

human

beings

ut

of

uriosity,

hether heir

roperties

ere

discovered

y chance,

whether

he

use

of

red

pigment

was

invented

t different

imes

in differentlaces by differenteoples or diffused y

contact,

it seemsthat the color attractedman because t

could be en-

dowed withmeaning.Therefore inds f red objects,whether

archaeologistshave termed them ochre or not, are

fossil

Vol. 21

No.

5

October

980

641



indicators

f human behavior

whenever

heir ntentional

ol-

lection

can be

established.A reddish

iltstone collected

for

curiosity urposes,

s Butzer

concedes, s therefore o

less

significant

han

the 75 pieces

of partly or thoroughly

ired

limonite eported

y de

Lumley at

Terra Amata or

the red

pigments

rom aterprehistoric

ites hathe does

acknowledge.

Further,

hough

Howell

mav

have

mistaken nattural

racture

on thereddish iltstone

t Ambrona

or n indication

fprobable

rubbing,t

is the presence

f the siltstone

nd its find

ircum-

stances

hat re important.

he

same criteria

pply to

Castillo

and the sub-SaharanMiddle Stone Age sites.The frequency

of red

pigments

nthe attermay have a bearing

n the claims

for he antiquity

f hematite nd

specularite

mining n Swazi-

land reported

y Boshier

ndBeaumont 1972)

and Beaumont,

de Villiers,

nd

Vogel (1978).

Beaumont

has informedme

of

the

pronounced

carcity

f colorants

n

the Acheulian

sites

preceding

hose of the Middle

Stone Age.

To accept

the

intentional

resence

f ochre

n

ater

prehistoricites

only nd

to

conclude

hat

perhaps

a

majority

f the

claims

for

ochre

in

particular

rchaeological ssociations

are inconclusive

r

simplywrong

s a position hat

has yet to

be justified.

Delporte

dvocates he

gatheringf

objective nformation,

and

I

agree.

Controlled xperiments

ithferruginated

hales,

sandstones,

nd sesquioxide-rich

lays should

be performed

o

findout if these

materialsyield

results

similar to those

of

water-dissolved r fat-mixed owderedhematiteand fired

limonite,

hich roduce,

ccording

o

myexperience,

smooth,

homogeneousaste that

adhereswell

to wood,

bone, and

skin.

Relevant pioneeringwork

has

been done by Couraud

and

Laming-Emperaire

1979)

with

colorants

of mineral origin

used

n

Palaeolithic ock

rt. We

need to learnmore boutthe

behavior

of red mineral pigments

under

the influence

f

percolating

ater

n

subsoils

nd

about the nfluence

f ochre-

stained

oils

and

the extent

f their

esponsibility

or taining

artifacts

nd

bones. We need to know

more about the causes

of thered coloring

n the

edges

of

flint

ools

nd

the red

traces

on stone

nd

bone

eft

by

ochre-related

uman ctivities.

am

currently

ngaged

n some

experiments

f

this

ort,

nd

I

hope

that other appropriate

tudieswill

soon be undertaken. ne

relevant xaminationf color traceson Magdalenian crapers

is

that of

Rosenfeld

1972).

Now

to the

question

f

other

han

red

pigments

n

archaeo-

logical

contexts:

o

my

knowledge,manganese

xide

has

been

found

n

Mousterian

nd

ater

evels.Apart

from

ts

occurrence

in rock

rt,

we have

no ndications f

ts

probable

se.

Charcoal

might

ave erved

o

produce

lackcoloring,ut this an

hardly

be determined. umps

of white clay foreign

o the site have

been retrieved rom

n

Aurignacian

ayer

t HayonimCave

in

Israel,

laver

rich

n redochre

ieces

nd

ochre-coated

rinding

stones

nd

palettes.Green

malachite

nd antimony

black)

are

known

rom ynastic

strata and supposed

to

have been

used

for osmetic

urposes.

The ochre-derived

olor shades are dull

red

tending

to

reddish-brown,he colorof driedor coagulatedblood,whereas

cinnabar

mercury

ulfide)produces

bright

ed

very

much

like

the color of fresh lood. Cinnabar

appears

in

mortuary

customs and in the

painting

of

shrines

n later

Neolithic

contexts

nly, nd

the earliestevidence

for cinnabar

mining

comes

from he

ate

Neolithic.

vidence

for

lant-derived

nd

perishable

ed colorants

s

lacking n prehistoric

ites.

The examination

f red n its

relationships

ith

other

olors

recommended

y

Bolton

and

Jacobson-Widding

annot

be

undertaken

n thebasis

of

rchaeological

vidence.

Archaeology

cannot

provide

he

means to

reconstruct

olor

relationships

n

past symbolic

tructures

s ethnography

oes

in

present

nes.

However, archaeology

may

be able

to reveal

the

linkage

of

various

structural lements

n ochre-related

itual and

sym-

bolism s early s the ate Middle Palaeolithic.The similarity

and persistence

f such elements

s shells, nimal teeth,

nd

incisions n

bone and stone

are astonishing.

tterances nd

movements,

n integral tructural

art of ancient

ritual and

symbolism,

emain orever

idden.

believe that the salience

of

red forman and the

pattern nd scope

of ts persistence

an

and shouldbe

observed hrough

diachronic pproach

o their

synchronic

manifestationsn

the archaeological

contexts-

something ike

a chronological-stratigraphic

ecording

f red

color phenomena,which

nables us to

observeregularities

n

specific ituations.

thnography

hus onstitutes

he youngest

level and cannot

be ignored

s Delportethinks t should.

The questions ormulatedyThomas re ofprime mportance

for

a

discussion f ochre practices.

do not, as he

reports,

dismissSahlins;

I simplyobject to Sahlins's

conclusion

hat

recognizing lays no

role at all. Thomas

arguesthat Sahlins's

point

of

view

s

not merely elational.

agree

that this can

be observed n his reasoning,

ut thismakes his

conclusion ll

the

more

questionable.

interpret he

evidence s pointing

o

an interaction

f

recognizing

nd relating.

It is known hat primates

have color vision.

dentifyingn

orange

r red

fruit

r other

eature

gainst not

monochromatic

background

an be seen as of

elective alue. Reactions

o

hue,

brightness,

nd

saturation may have

become decisive for

categorisation

nd

relating,

s

Stephenson's

nd Zollinger's

contributions

ndicate.

The wealth of ideas

offered y Bolton

and his intriguing

reasoningon relevantaspects of ochre practicesmake his

response

a valuable complementary

aper for discussion.

cannot do

justice

to it

here,

but

I

would

like

to

make a

few

remarks

n

his observations n the use of red

ochre

n the

context

of death.

Of course,

we

cannot know what specific

beliefswere

nvolved

n

the use

of red ochre

n the

mortuary

customs

f ancient

hunters, astoralists,

nd

farmers.

We call

them

primitive

eligion nd,

out

of some

deep compulsion,

speculate

bout

their

rigins.

Ochre

practices

might

e

inter-

preted

as

a

defianceof death.

For

these

ancient

humans,

however,

death was perhaps

or

probably

not the

ultimate

fact,

but

a transformation

r

transfiguration

o another

tate,

another

reality.

Red

may

have

been conceived

s

containing

the

power (or

being

the

power)

of

ensuring

ife.

In

many

primitiveocieties, edochre nd redthings re conceived s

powerful

medicines

gainst

disease and

death,

but

they

are

equally

thought

ffective

n

ensuring

ife

after

death.

(Those

opposed

to

the citation

f

ethnographicxamples

will, hope,

forgive

me for

this

remark.)

We

moderns

ind t

difficult,

ut

not

impossible,

o

construct

nd

to

accept

other

realities.

Playing

as

if

is not confined

o children.

n

substantial

numbers,

modern

humanity

till

does

not

accept

the

ultimate

fact

ofdeath

as

nonexistence.

To

speak

of

man's

growing

erception

f

his

uniqueness

n

connection

with

ochre,

as

Ronen

does,

is

inappropriate.

notice

lso that

his

conclusion

hat

have failed

to

grasp

the

significance

f ochre

n human

mental

volution

s not

shared

by

the

other

ommentators.

Finally, didnotclaim hatthenumbersf ites nmypaper

were

definitend

accounted

for ll the knownochre finds.

am

therefore

rateful

o

Hausler

and

Malinowskifor

their

additional

information

nd references.

uch information

s

needed

for

he

further

tudies

hat

hope

will

be undertaken

as

a

result

f

our

discussion.

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IndigenousAnthropology

n

Non-Western

Countries:

A

Further

laboration'

by

HUSSEIN FAHIM and KATHERINE

HELMER

Department f Anthropology,niversityf Utah, Salt Lake

City,Utah 84112/Departmentf Anthropology,tate Univer-

sity f

New

York,

inghamton,

.Y.

13902,

U.S.A. 6

x

79

[we] ave oremindurselveshat nthropology

oesnotmerelyppre-

hend heworldn whicht s located,ut heworldlsodeterminesow

anthropologyill pprehendt.

TALAL

ASAD,

Anthropology

nd he olonial ncounter

In

response o

a

preliminary

tatement f ntention

rom

he

organizer

nd a letter of invitationfrom the sponsor,

the

Wenner-Gren oundation for Anthropological esearch,

20

participantsfrom 17 countries2met at Burg Wartenstein,

Austria,July15-24, 1978, o present

apers and discuss ssues

related o indigenous nthropology

n non-Westernountries.

The term

indigenous nthropology

as proposed s a work-

ing conceptreferringo the practiceof anthropologyn one's

native country, ociety, nd/or thnicgroup.The label non-

Western

was

conceived s

appropriate

or

he purpose

f

this

symposium ecause nthropology

ad originatednd developed

in

a

Western ntellectual, conomic, nd political milieu nd

the

ncreasing umber f nthropologistsrained

nd

operating

outside his

radition as raisednew ssueswithin hediscipline.

Several

recentdevelopments ave

made the exploration

f

this

theme imely.Many of

the countries hat previously

on-

stituted avorable

ettings orWestern

nthropologists'ield-

workhave become

politically ensitive

eveloping ations.

As

a result, heyhave set restrictions

n foreign nthropological

research,

while vigorously

ncouraging ndigenous

nthro-

pologists o conduct researchrelevantto nationallydefined

developmental oals.

Expanding adresof ocal

social scientists

are currentlyonducting ieldwork

untainted by

nationalist

accusations

f mperialistnd

colonial onnections.

ome peak

of decolonializing nthropology

Maquet 1964,

Stavenhagen

1971),

whileothers re developing

ew concepts

nd method-

ologies

for

the practice

of indigenous

esearch Nash 1975,

Fahim 1976).

Parallel to the

growth f indigenous

nthropologyn the

Third World,many

Western nthropologists,specially

n

the

United States,

are

turning

o domestic ocial interests

nd

problems.

Whilethis

rendmay

be seen s a

way of

copingwith

the

difficulties

f overseas

research,

nfavorable omestic

ob

markets,

nd

tight

cademicresearch udgets,

here s a lively

and creative ndigenousnthropologyevelopingn the United

States (e.g., Spradley

1970,

Arens and

Montague

1976).

Already

we have some

foreshadowing

f the advances

that

may takeplace

when

nthropologists

hohave worked

n other

countries

urn heir hinking

o our

arge-scale

American nd

European

societies nd their

ssociated nstitutions

Colson

1976:268).

In this

eriod

frethinking,eviving,

nd

reassessing

nthro-

pology,

he discipline

as

recently egun

o examine

he

field-

workprocess

nd to question

results n the basis

of methods

and

techniques. Anthropologists

n the

United States,

for

instance,

re

publishing

ccounts

of their ieldworkxperience

and

procedures

e.g.,

Freilich 1970, Wax 1971,

Foster and

Kemper 974).

The

experiences

fnon-Westernnthropologists,

however, emain o be adequately nvestigated. hirdWorld

anthropologists

ust

be

given

n

equal

opportunityo report

on

the

state

of

anthropology

nd fieldwork

xperiences

ithin

their

ocal

settings.

Many argue

that

the fundamental

remises

f the

anthro-

pological

enterprise re,

or should

be,

the

same

regardless

f

the

identity

f the researcher

r the locus

of

investigation.

Nonetheless,

he

underlyingssumption

n this

working

on-

cept

of

indigenous nthropology

s that

change

n

the

ctor

(i.e.,

local

in lieu of

foreign)

mplies change

n

the

anthro-

pologist's

ole nd

perspective.

ethodologiesmaychange

rom

one

setting

to

another,

but

anthropology

n Third

World

countries

may

also

require

set

of theories

ased on non-

Western

precepts

and

assumptions

n

the

same

sense that

modern nthropologys based on and has supportedWestern

beliefs nd values (Jones

1970:251).

The concept

of native

anthropology,

s

proposed

by Jones, learly

dentifies

he

re-

1

?-

980 by The

Wenner-Gren oundationfor

Anthropological

Research

0011-3204/80/2105-0002$02.00.hese comments

xpand

on

a brief eport f the

conference ublished n CA 20:397.

2

The

conference as the result f the nitiative

nd cooperation f

many ndividuals.

The selection f participants

was guided by a con-

cern

for

wide range

of

regional

epresentation,cademic

training,

intellectual

erspectives, nd age. Four

participants ame

from

he

fields fsociology, sychology, nd linguistics.A graduate student

served s

rapporteur. he

participants nd their nstitutional

ffili-

ations are as follows:

oraya

Altorki

American

University

n

Cairo),

JohnBarnes Churchill

ollege,Cambridge),Michael Cernea

World

Bank), Yehudi

Cohen (Rutgers), Elizabeth Colson

(University

f

California,

Berkeley),

Jean

Cuisenier Musee National des Arts et

Traditions

Populaires), HusseinFahim

(University f Utah), Epeli

Hau'ofa

(Nuku'alofa, Tonga), Katherine Helmer

(State University

of

New York,

Binghamton),Mubanga E. Kashoki

(University

f

Zambia, Ndola

Campus), Herbert C. Kelman

(Harvard),

Koent-

jaraningrat

KomplexUniversitas ndonesia), T.

N.

Madan

(Insti-

tute of Economic

Growth,Delhi), Luiz R. B.

Mott (Universidade

Estadual de

Campinas), Nader AfsharNaderi

(Iranian Institute

or

Peasant and

Rural Studies), Chie Nakane

(University f

Tokyo),

Carlos

BuitragoOrtiz

University

f Puerto

Rico),

Lita

Osmundsen

(Wenner-Gren oundation for

AnthropologicalResearch),

Robert

Petersen

Institute

or

Eskimology, enmark),

Gunnar Sorbo (Uni-

versityof Bergen), and ArturoWarman (University f Mexico).

The

participants xtendtheir

gratitude o Lita Osmundsen nd

the

entire castle staff, n particular

the director,Karl Frey, and

the

symposiumecretary, ristina

Baena.

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