ESSAY
antonio74123
22.docx2.2: The Aborigines
Section 2: The "Aborigines"?
Overview
In this section we will explore the ways in which a blending of the past with the present influences and defines French culture. We will also look at cave paintings that attest to early life in the region that is now France.
Key terms and concepts: Aborigines, cave paintings
Table of Contents:
· Chapter 1: Meet the Aborigines ( Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, pp. 1-12)
|
After completing the following readings, see if you are able to do these things: |
|
· Define the word "aborigine" and say whether it works as a concept for explaining to North Americans differences in the way they view themselves as opposed to the same spirit of self-recognition that informs a French person's mind-set.. · Cite prehistoric geographical and climatic conditions that made areas of what is present-day France attractive to humans. |
Chapter I: Meet the Aborigines (Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, pp. 1-12)
· List three things that pop into your mind when you think of France. What are they and why do they seem characteristically “French” to you?
· Look at the above photos of Paris imagine yourself there. Disregarding language, imagine yourself there. How does it feel going about your modern life (talking on your cell phone, shopping, etc.) like Parisians do surrounded by Roman ruins, medieval churches, and 19th-century style buildings?
· What does the term “aborigine” mean to you? How would you apply it to your home culture? How might it apply to understanding the customs, beliefs and attitudes of people living in France today?
With Nadeau and Barlow (N-B), we embark on our study of France by looking at the French spirit, or the way the French think. The first factor they point to in this mind-set has to do with the relationship between, the land, the people and history. Where France started is difficult to say since its history as a country is long and complicated. At the same time France has evolved from ancient times to the modern nation we know without interruption, blending peoples of various ethnicities over thousands of years even into the present day. What makes French people French is the culture they share, and that culture is a native one (N-B, p. 9). The word aborigine applies here, but only if taken in the most pristine sense: original, or first ones there, not primitive or backward. Those who inhabit the land and assimilate the ancient ways of thinking become heirs to this culture as well as to the land as they participate in its ongoing evolution.
Proto-History: What Discoveries of Prehistoric Cliff Dwellers and Cave Painters Tell Us Chauvet
Lascaux
Paleontologists trace human existence back as far as 450,000 years to excavations and caves in the south of France. The most ancient of these caves is the Arago Cave, discovered in 1971 in the village of Tautavel, near Perpignan on the Mediterranean coast near Spain. As archeological investigation continues, it's possible that cave painting might have been an activity of Neanderthals before those we usually think of as the ancestors of modern humans who migrated out of Africa to the European continent. Recent evidence of human habitation in the southern regions of France can be explained by changes in the Earth's geological ages. Following reindeer and other game south to warmer climates to escape the glacial effects of the encroaching Ice Age in the north, early men found refuge in the caves and narrow valleys abundant in the region stretching from the Dordogne to Combe d’Arc in the Ardèche near Avignon in Provence. On the walls of special caverns where no one appears to have cooked or slept, these ancient peoples left frescoes depicting a variety of fish and animals (from mammoth and hairy rhinos to bison, cows, and herds of reindeer and horses. The animals were represented in abstract as well as realistic poses, large and small, individually and in groups. Some were gestating females, others were shown pierced by arrows, perhaps of religious symbolism to masculine and feminine powers. To read more about the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc, visit http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/index.html (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Arago Man, Tautavel Neanderthal Cave Paintings
Without a doubt, the best known and most famous discovery of early man's presence in France is that of Cro-Magnon, which dates back to1868 -- long before the discoveries of the Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc. At Les Eyzies, in the Dorgogne area of southwest France, Louis Lartet discovered 4 human skeletons buried in a hole in the back of a rock shelter in a limestone cliff dwelling. One skeleton of an adult male probably less than 50 years old came to be known as Cro-Magnon 1, since his features show the traits unique to modern humans.
Another well-known discovery took place a little more than a generation later not far from Les Eyzies, east of Bordeaux in the Périgord region. As is sometimes the case, it was quite by chance that four schoolboys searching for a lost dog came upon exquisitely preserved cave paintings at Lascaux (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. , which today can only be viewed in a replicated version adjacent to the site where the originals are housed.
· Review the Objectives for this section (top of page).
· Continue to Module 2, Section 3.
· For Section 3 you will read Chapter 2 of Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong, "The Land on their Mind".
· Asselin & Mastron. Au Contraire! The reading assignment for this Module is Part 1: Chapters 1-2. (Pace yourself.)
· You may make Discussion posts when you are ready at any point during this module.
