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Many prehistoric handprints show a finger missing. What if this was not accidental?
Canadian scientists say evidence from cave art all over the world shows digits may have been ritually removed to appease deities or aid social cohesion
Several stencils in Cosquer cave appear to be made by hands that have digits missing. Photograph: Fanny Broadcast/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images
An image from Cosquer cave.
Bricks #18
單字解釋
digits ?
數字、手腳指頭(因為以前人是用指頭來數數字)
appease
he government offered concessions to appease the protesters 安撫衝突
deity
神(眾多神 god是用在基督教單一神
(1)interpretation 闡釋 (音樂上演奏)
(2)Silhouette 剪影
Men and women might have had their fingers deliberately chopped off during religious rituals in prehistoric times, according to a new interpretation of palaeolithic(舊石器時代) cave art.
In a paper presented at a recent meeting of the European Society for Human Evolution, researchers point to 25,000-year-old paintings in France and Spain that depict silhouettes of hands.
On more than 200 of these prints, the hands lack at least one digit. In some cases, only a single upper segment is missing; in others, several fingers are gone.
On more than 200 of these prints, the hands lack at least one digit. In some cases, only a single upper segment is missing; in others, several fingers are gone.
(1)frostbite 凍傷(最嚴重到組織而不是表皮)
(2)gruesome血淋淋 恐怖電影形容詞
(3)artistic licence 被特許(自由)
(4)compelling evidence 有說服力的
(5)elicit引出，探出
In the past, this absence of digits was attributed to artistic licence by the cave-painting creators or to ancient people’s real-life medical problems, including frostbite.
But scientists led by archaeologist Prof Mark Collard of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver say the truth may be far more gruesome. “There is compelling evidence that these people may have had their fingers amputated deliberately in rituals intended to elicit help from supernatural entities,” said Collard.
Nor was the habit unique to one time or place, he added. “Quite a few societies encourage fingers to be cut off today and have done so throughout history.”
Nor was the habit unique to one time or place, he added. “Quite a few societies encourage fingers to be cut off today and have done so throughout history.”
artistic licence
Poetic Licence (诗意自由)
Licence to Operate (运营自由)：
在商業或法律上，這可能指一個公司在社會或環境方面的行為得到社區接受和支持，從而有權運營。
Collard cited the Dani people(達尼人) from the New Guinea Highlands.(印尼新幾內亞)
“Women there sometimes have one or more fingers cut off following the death of loved ones, including sons or daughters.
We believe that Europeans were doing the same sort of thing in palaeolithic times, though the precise belief systems involved may have been different. This is a practice that was not necessarily routine but has occurred at various times through history, we believe.”
“Women there sometimes have one or more fingers cut off following the death of loved ones, including sons or daughters.
We believe that Europeans were doing the same sort of thing in palaeolithic times, though the precise belief systems involved may have been different. This is a practice that was not necessarily routine but has occurred at various times through history, we believe.”
Collard and colleagues first published their finger amputation thesis a few years ago but were criticised by other scientists, who argued that the amputation of fingers would have been catastrophic for the people involved. Men and women without fully functioning hands would be unable to cope with the harsh conditions that prevailed millennia ago.
Since then, Collard, working with PhD student Brea McCauley, has gathered more data to back the amputation thesis. In a paper presented at the European Society conference, they said their latest research provided even more convincing evidence that the removal of digits to appease deities explains the hand images in the caves in France and Spain.
These paintings fall into two types: prints and stencils. In the former, a person placed his or her hand in pigment then pressed it on to a wall, creating a handprint. Stencils were created by placing a hand on a wall and then painting pigment over it to create a silhouette. In both cases, hands with missing digits were found among the wall art at four main sites; Maltravieso and Fuente del Trucho caves in Spain, and Gargas and Cosquer caves in France. The Cosquer caves, near Marseille, were the most recently discovered in 1985 by scuba diver Henri Cosquer.
(1)instances 實際例子 example是舉例
(2)skewers 烤肉的串子
The team looked elsewhere for evidence of finger amputation in other societies and found more than 100 instances where it had been practised. “This practice was clearly invented independently multiple times,” they state. “And it was engaged in by some recent hunter-gatherer societies, so it is entirely possible that the groups at Gargas and the other caves engaged in the practice.”
Nor were the examples confined to Europe, they add. Four sites in Africa, three in Australia, nine in North America, five in south Asia and one in south-east Asia contain evidence of finger amputation. “This form of self-mutilation has been practised by groups from all inhabited continents,” said Collard. “More to the point, it is still carried out today, as we can see in the behaviour of people like the Dani.”
Collard pointed to rituals still carried out in Mauritius and other places, such as fire-walking, face-piercing with skewers and putting hooks through skin so a person can haul heavy chains behind them. “People become more likely to cooperate with other group members after going through such rituals. Amputating fingers may simply have been a more extreme version of this type of ritual.”
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