Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives
International audience Several Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites from the Gravettian period display hand stencils with missing fingers. On the basis of the stencils that Leroi-Gourhan identified in the cave of Gargas (France) in the late sixties, we explore the hypothesis that those stencils r...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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ftunivnantes:oai:HAL:hal-03181202v1 2023-05-15T16:16:52+02:00 Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives Etxepare, Ricardo, Irurtzun, Aritz Centre de recherche sur la langue et les textes basques (IKER) Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Université Bordeaux Montaigne-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 2021-05-10 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/document https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/file/Etx%26Iru2021.pdf https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 en eng HAL CCSD Royal Society, The info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 hal-03181202 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/document https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/file/Etx%26Iru2021.pdf doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess ISSN: 0962-8436 EISSN: 1471-2970 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Royal Society, The, 2021, 376 (1824), ⟨10.1098/rstb.2020.0205⟩ [SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2021 ftunivnantes https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 2022-11-09T00:48:55Z International audience Several Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites from the Gravettian period display hand stencils with missing fingers. On the basis of the stencils that Leroi-Gourhan identified in the cave of Gargas (France) in the late sixties, we explore the hypothesis that those stencils represent hand signs with deliberate folding of fingers, intentionally projected as a negative figure onto the wall. Through a study of the biomechanics of handshapes, we analyze the articulatory effort required for producing the handshapes under the stencils in the Gargas cave, and show that only handshapes that are articulable in the air can be found among the existing stencils. In other words, handshape configurations that would have required using the cave wall as a support for the fingers are not attested. We argue that the stencils correspond to the type of handshape that one ordinarily finds in sign language phonology. More concretely, we claim that they correspond to signs of an 'alternate' or 'non-primary' sign language, like those still employed by a number of bi-modal (speaking and signing) human groups in hunter-gatherer populations, like the Australian first nations or the Plains Indians. In those groups, signing is used for hunting and for a rich array of ritual purposes, including mourning and traditional story-telling. We discuss further evidence, based on typological generalizations about the phonology of non-primary sign-languages and comparative ethnographic work that points to such a parallelism. This evidence includes the fact that for some of those groups, stencil and petroglyph art has independently been linked to their sign language expressions. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376 1824 |
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Université de Nantes: HAL-UNIV-NANTES |
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ftunivnantes |
language |
English |
topic |
[SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics |
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[SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics Etxepare, Ricardo, Irurtzun, Aritz Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
topic_facet |
[SHS.LANGUE]Humanities and Social Sciences/Linguistics |
description |
International audience Several Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites from the Gravettian period display hand stencils with missing fingers. On the basis of the stencils that Leroi-Gourhan identified in the cave of Gargas (France) in the late sixties, we explore the hypothesis that those stencils represent hand signs with deliberate folding of fingers, intentionally projected as a negative figure onto the wall. Through a study of the biomechanics of handshapes, we analyze the articulatory effort required for producing the handshapes under the stencils in the Gargas cave, and show that only handshapes that are articulable in the air can be found among the existing stencils. In other words, handshape configurations that would have required using the cave wall as a support for the fingers are not attested. We argue that the stencils correspond to the type of handshape that one ordinarily finds in sign language phonology. More concretely, we claim that they correspond to signs of an 'alternate' or 'non-primary' sign language, like those still employed by a number of bi-modal (speaking and signing) human groups in hunter-gatherer populations, like the Australian first nations or the Plains Indians. In those groups, signing is used for hunting and for a rich array of ritual purposes, including mourning and traditional story-telling. We discuss further evidence, based on typological generalizations about the phonology of non-primary sign-languages and comparative ethnographic work that points to such a parallelism. This evidence includes the fact that for some of those groups, stencil and petroglyph art has independently been linked to their sign language expressions. |
author2 |
Centre de recherche sur la langue et les textes basques (IKER) Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Université Bordeaux Montaigne-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Etxepare, Ricardo, Irurtzun, Aritz |
author_facet |
Etxepare, Ricardo, Irurtzun, Aritz |
author_sort |
Etxepare, Ricardo, |
title |
Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
title_short |
Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
title_full |
Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
title_fullStr |
Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
title_full_unstemmed |
Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
title_sort |
gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/document https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/file/Etx%26Iru2021.pdf https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
ISSN: 0962-8436 EISSN: 1471-2970 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Royal Society, The, 2021, 376 (1824), ⟨10.1098/rstb.2020.0205⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 hal-03181202 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/document https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03181202/file/Etx%26Iru2021.pdf doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0205 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
376 |
container_issue |
1824 |
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1766002721740029952 |