Rock Art Aesthetics and Cultural Appropriation

Marks on rocks, painted, engraved, or sculpted, can be found worldwide, wherever there are suitable surfaces. In modern times, archaeologists and anthropologists increasingly have begun studying such marks in relation to their material and social contexts, insofar as available. Frequently, such marks, moreover, display values such as representational realism, abstraction of figures, attention to line and paint application, concern with the quality of the surfaces upon which paintings or engravings are placed, composition, and so on, any of which values may elicit aesthetic appreciation. 1 Although apparently benign, such attention to marks on rocks from the aesthetic point of view may become subject to criticism, because it may be supposed to entail a (problematic) form of cultural appropriation. In the following, I begin by briefly reviewing the notion of cultural appropriation and the circumstances under which it may be seen as problematic. After this, I take note of claims to the effect that rock art aesthetics entails problematic cultural appropriation and show that, given proper care, the alleged problems can be avoided. I conclude by arguing that a strong case can be made for the aesthetic appreciation of marks on rocks.