EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SYMBOLISM

RANDALL WHITE
Professor of Anthropology, New York University

Wednesday 24 October
5:00–6:30 pm
Rainey Auditorium, Penn Museum
3260 South Street, Penn Campus

In Europe between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago, an explosion of symbol-making took place: the invention of material forms of representation such as painting, engraving, sculpture, and personal ornament. The implications of this development for human thought, communication, technological innovation, and social organization could not have been more profound.

Anthropologist Randall White explores the origin of symbolic representation–art–and its significance for human history.