From the primitive faience to the influence of witchcraft and religion on the origin of Chinese art

Summary. The art of prehistory was mostly combined with religion, and some people even suggested that art originated from religion (which is of course inaccurate, but at least it shows that the two are closely related). Therefore, there are many buildings in prehistoric times, which come from the religious reasons of the time in terms of shape, but it is also a spiritual product of people, which is touching and almost artistic.

Combined with the remains of stoneware, pottery and architecture from the prehistoric period, the relationship between fine arts and primitive religion is briefly explained.

The art of the prehistoric zone was mostly combined with religion, and some people even suggested that art originated from religion (which is of course inaccurate, but at least it shows that the two are closely related). Therefore, there are many buildings in prehistoric times, which are from the religious reasons of the time, but they are also the spiritual products of people, which are touching people with silver and lead, and are almost artistic.

1. Primitive human beings have experienced an era of witchcraft domination, and witchcraft concepts and activities have penetrated into all aspects of human production and life as well as artistic creation. With the help of the supernatural power of imagination, the psychological victory over each other through painting, sculpture, symbols, etc., gave rise to early primitive art, which is the explanation of the influence of witchcraft theory on the origin of art.

2. In primitive societies, human ancestors began to decorate themselves with animal skins, animal bones, ivory, and feathers. In particular, a large number of painted pottery appeared in the Neolithic Age, which is the perfect combination of practicality and artistry, and some unearthed painted pottery still has high aesthetic value. Because in primitive societies, people only built simple tools, so the expression of arts and crafts was expressed through the tools of life and the use of instruments.

British anthropologists Taylor and Fraser.

The theorists of witchcraft regard the spiritual motive as the only motive force for the occurrence of primitive art, and ignore the motive hidden behind the spiritual motive mentioned by Engels, that is, the material production activities of human beings, and thus fail to fundamentally solve the problem of the origin of art.

Witchcraft theory is a popular theory of artistic and aesthetic occurrence in the West in the 20th century, which is mainly based on the theories of primitive culture by the famous British anthropologists Taylor and Fraser. Taylor was the first to lay the theoretical foundations for the theory of witchcraft, while Fraser, in his famous book The Golden Bough, made a very detailed and detailed study of primitive witchcraft activities. He noted

If we analyze the ideological principles on which witchcraft is based, we will find that they can be boiled down to two aspects: the first is that 'the same kind of people will coexist' or that the effect must be the same cause;The second is that 'once objects come into contact with each other, they will continue to interact with each other over a long distance after the actual contact is interrupted'. The former can be called the 'law of similarity', and the latter can be called the 'law of contact' or the law of touch.

Thus, he argues that primitive witchcraft can be divided into two forms: one is "homeopathic witchcraft" or "imitation witchcraft" based on the "law of similarity", in which the shaman can achieve anything he wants by merely imitation; The other is "contact witchcraft", which is based on the "law of contact", in which witchcraft is exercised by influencing a person by having touched an object that he or she has touched. Fraser refers to both types of witchcraft as "sympathetic witchcraft" because they are based on the belief that through some mysterious sense, objects can interact with each other regardless of time and space.

Neither Taylor's "Primitive Culture" nor Fraser's "The Golden Bough" are specifically aesthetic works, but anthropological works. However, their systematic study of primitive witchcraft activities provides very useful insights for understanding primitive aesthetic phenomena. To this, Lukács replied:

The initial impulse to imitate an artistic image arises only from witchcraft drills, which are meant to influence real-world events through imitation. That is to say, witchcraft is the mother body that gives birth to art, and the first art of mankind was only produced in response to the needs of witchcraft and existed as an integral part of witchcraft activity. Thomas Monroe also thinks:

During the early years of village settlement, witchcraft and religion developed and systematized, and what we now call art was used as a tool of witchcraft for the visual or auditory representation of animal figures, human figures, and natural figures (rain or sunny days), often represented by drawings, idols, masks, and mimetic dances, all of which were called sympathetic witchcraft. ”

Sisyphe Enjoyment (2007201) Talk about Western Art History (1) The Origin of Art - Curse.