Introduction
The Birth of Art

The purpose of this work is to discuss the importance of the transformations in innovation systems brought about by globalization. We understand this term as the existence of new macroeconomic solidarities. These have been problematized since the mid-1980s, with Kenichi Ohmae's assessment of a tripolar world [OHM 85].

However, global macroeconomic solidarities have existed for a very long time. Thus, multiple responses have been offered to the question of when globalization began. The academic debates in economic history put forth a date of origin, either that of the complete coverage of the globe by maritime routes [FLY 04] or that of the start of economic integration throughout the 19th Century [BÉN 08]. Other specialists are interested in the relationships between anatomically modern humans and their environment, and they introduce a caesura that is major in their eyes: that of the birth of the arts [FLO 17b]. The presence of anatomically modern humans in Western Europe is attested by a fossil in a cave in Kent, which dates back to between 44 and 41 kyr (44,000-41,000 years before the present day). The first globalization is that of a terrestrial expanse that spreads anatomically modern humans across every imaginable environment, from Australia to the Arctic Circle. Then came maritime expansion, the Industrial Revolution and contemporary globalization: however, since the first terrestrial expansion, the question of innovation has been asked, because global occupation is only possible because of the discovery of new methods of life that are appropriate for very different environments.

The birth of the arts was thus given its rhythm by successive globalizations and fragmentations. In the 19th Century, the Mediterranean civilization of antiquity was like the cradle of the arts, already associating defragmentation or globalization and birth of the muses. The popular list of the arts generally distinguishes classical arts (architecture, sculpture, graphic arts, music, literature and poetry) and modern arts (those since the invention of photography), thereby setting arts whose invention dates back to the Paleolithic period against those introduced very recently in terms of the history of humanity. Due to this double birth, some approaches will focus on the contemporary aspects and cloud the consideration of origins, as was the case of Theodor Adorno's theory of esthetics [ADO 70]; others, on the other hand, will first question the oldest period, like Georges Bataille shortly after the discovery of the Lascaux cave [BAT 55]. Why art? For contemporary specialists in prehistory, the responses run in two different directions, either referring to cultural evolutionism, a progressive awakening on the occasion of environmental modifications or a history of beliefs and rites in the tradition of Mircea Eliade [ELI 64], which leads to the formulation of a hypothesis associating the translation toward the upper Paleolithic and a spiritualization of the environment [ELI 74].

Cultural evolutionism could provide a reassuring message: the shocks from modifications to the environment lead to innovations. There could be an automatic mechanism associating climatic volatility and innovation. The periods that form critical times for the formation of the arts are those with the maximum climatic instability; it is therefore necessary to explore this first hypothesis.

I.1. Climatic instability and innovation

The birth of the classical arts (music, dance, fine arts and decorative arts) can be presented in two phases with an intermediary "leap". This "leap" took place in the Late Pleistocene (120 to 11.7 kyr), around 45-35 kyr. The Late Pleistocene period was marked by strong climatic instability, more significant volatility than in the warmer period that followed it, the Holocene (starting at 11.7 kyr).

Schematically following a long "ocher age" was the period of territorial expansion for anatomically modern humans, where a procession of the arts is attested. The populations of different human groups are low, with a probable regrowth of the anatomically modern human populations around 50 ka, whereas Eurasia had seen the growth of the Neanderthals in the previous period. One of the longest known sequences of anatomically modern humans occupying a site can be found in the extreme south of the African continent. The Blombos Cave and the Klipdrift Shelter were used between 108 and 59 kyr [ROB 16]. The ocher age started long before any climatic disturbance in Blombos. The so-called "Still Bay" is that of the "stamps", blocks of engraved ocher most likely used for body paintings and sophisticated tools made of up bones. The apogee of the series of cultures on the site can be found between the primary climate change and after the response of adapting subsistence policies. The following period, 66-59 kyr, known as "Howiesons Poort", marked a clear step backwards. Technologies remained stable while the environment was constantly instable [ROB 16]. These two periods include the probable demographic minimum of the modern human species after a mega-catastrophe dating back 72 kyr.

Figure I.1. The ocher age and climatic instability, distance in km from sea sites

(source: [ROB 16])

The period of the "Howiensons Poort" culture is characterized by the presence of ostrich eggs engraved through another very long series, that of the Diepkloof shelter site [TEX 12]. Between 65 kyr and 55 kyr, these eggs were engraved with the same design, made up of hatchwork at a right angle with two most likely circular strokes. The ostrich eggs would contain around 1 L and were used as gourds. This use already seemed to be that of these engraved eggs, some pieces of which formed a mouthpiece.

Creative activities can be divided into "portable" and "immobile". Art from the upper Paleolithic was particularly known for being wall and cave art, thus "immobile". The ocher age stands primarily by "portable" creative activities: jewelry including necklaces, body paints, tools and ostrich eggs were decorated with geometric figures. Anati proposed a 13-item nomenclature for prehistoric and tribal art [ANA 03]; the ocher age is limited to two of these items (artistic decorations and jewelry), all of which were used in the period of the birth of the arts.

Figure I.2. Birth of the types of prehistoric art according to Anati's nomenclature

The early days of Middle Paleolithic art also differed according to the importance of the necessary training. Graphic expression remained very limited in all production found in Blombos, contrary to that from the Aurignacians in Eurasia or the "Apollo 11" cave site in Africa. Musical instruments, like the eight flutes from the Aurignacian sites of Swabian Jura imply training for both their creation and use [FLO 17b]. The start of great immobile art has been dated back 39.9 kyr in Indonesia and 37 kyr in Europe (Castanet shelter); the dates obtained in Africa and Australia are approximately 29 kyr. A study by Helen Anderson [AND 12] indicated a training experience, drawings stemming from a relationship to an element of the environment, thus this would have to be figurative art. This does not explain why these carvings appear, however.

The level of technology reached around 100 kyr in Blombos included carefully made spikes for hunting and the preparation of colored mixtures with pigments [ROB 16]. This level of technology would then decline only to be fully recovered at the end of the glacial period, e.g. with the Lascaux hunters from the last glacial maximum. The small size of the human groups could be an explanation for this decline phenomenon: explorers in the Pacific Islands found themselves face to face with very small populations that had conserved beliefs and cultural objects indicating past experience with dug-out canoes, while this had disappeared due to a rupture in the remission of the know-how necessary for naval construction. Work in genetics indicates the probable presence of a "bottleneck", a disappearance of a large part of the anatomically modern human population due to a mega-catastrophe. The total population of anatomically modern humans had dropped to around 15,000 people, reducing genetic diversity. The date proposed for this minimum level of human demographics is around 72 kyr, with the coldest oscillation for the southern hemisphere and the explosion of the supervolcano Toba located on the Equator coming together. The period of engraved eggs from the Diepkloof shelter corresponds to a warm climatic rebound in the southern hemisphere around 60 kyr.

Another simultaneous occurrence between the explosion of a supervolcano and an extreme cold took place around 39 kyr in the northern hemisphere. On a site located on the Don River in modernday Ukraine, Kostienski, cultures were maintained and later development was more significant. Thus, three kinds of relationships between the large-scale climatic and geological risk and human cultures can be demonstrated in these scenarios. A scenario of resilience for the event of 39 kyr, a scenario of disappearance for that of 72 kyr and a simple procyclic climatic relationship for the engraved eggs around 60 kyr: it became warmer, decorated ostrich eggs that served as gourds were found in large numbers with a simple decoration identically produced, as if "industrially".

In the northern hemisphere,...