Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact

Granito, C.; Tehrani, J.; Kendal, J.; Scott-Phillips, T.

doi:10.1017/ehs.2019.8

Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact

Granito, C.; Tehrani, J.; Kendal, J.; Scott-Phillips, T.

Authors

Carmen Granito carmen.granito@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy

Professor Jamshid Tehrani jamie.tehrani@durham.ac.uk
Head Of Department

Dr Jeremy Kendal jeremy.kendal@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

T. Scott-Phillips

Abstract

Pictorial representation is a key human behaviour. Cultures around the world have made images to convey information about living kinds, objects and ideas for at least 75,000 years, in forms as diverse as cave paintings, religious icons and emojis. However, styles of pictorial representation vary greatly between cultures and historical periods. In particular, they can differ in figurativeness, i.e. varying from detailed depictions of subjects to stylised abstract forms. Here we show that pictorial styles can be shaped by intergroup contact. We use data from experimental microsocieties to show that drawings produced by groups in contact tended to become more figurative and transparent to outsiders, whereas in isolated groups drawings tended to become abstract and opaque. These results indicate that intergroup contact is likely to be an important factor in the cultural evolution of pictorial representation, because the need to communicate with outsiders ensures that some figurativeness is retained over time. We discuss the implications of this finding for understanding the history and anthropology of art, and the parallels with sociolinguistics and language evolution.

Citation

Granito, C., Tehrani, J., Kendal, J., & Scott-Phillips, T. (2019). Style of pictorial representation is shaped by intergroup contact. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 1, Article e8. https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.8

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jun 6, 2019
Online Publication Date	Jul 23, 2019
Publication Date	2019
Deposit Date	Jun 26, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Jun 26, 2019
Journal	Evolutionary Human Sciences
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	1
Article Number	e8
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1017/ehs.2019.8
Keywords	cultural evolution, graphical communication, art, style, language evolution

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Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2019. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.