Immortality and the Artist*

In early times magic, art and religion were virtually synonymous. Probably the most primitive form of art was body decoration in the form of claws, skins, feathers, tails, and horns of various animals. Much of the evidence indicates that these were worn for the purpose of magical identification with, and control of, animals. The famous Altamira Cave drawings, made roughly 17,000 years ago, depicting bison and other animals of that time, were painted in the depths of the cave by the light of stone lamps as a purposeful, secret, solemn magical act. 13 The animals depicted were those killed for food; the drawings served to capture and bind the animals—the drawing became the object—and thereby enabled man to establish control over them. This meant control over nature itself, which provided the game to be hunted. But to primitive man, nature and the spirit world were inseparable, and in order to appease nature it was necessary to appease the spirits. If the bison were killed, its spirit would endanger the slayer. Art, however, could give the bison eternal life.

Dancing, too, was involved in the problems of life and death. Wearing animal grab, the dancer imitated the movements of the animal he had slain or wished to slay. If the animal were already slain, the dance represented magical resurrection, an appeasement of the animal's spirit. The dancer became the dead animal, or, in the case of a human victim, the dead person. From the dances at the ceremonials for the dead arose the drama, in which the actors, wearing death masks, were regarded as the incarnate spirits of the dead whom