The Sinhalese Kastane: Its Development, Decoration and Symbolism

Jim McDougall · 6th February 2014, 06:15 PM

Beautifully added material Ibrahiim, and I do appreciate you following the course of questions I hoped to address here.
No worries on the relatively inconsequential slip in wording as the corpus of material you are searching is of considerable volume and trying to present that much data can be daunting . I commend your courtesy in responding to comments pointing out any errors, and it is always comforting to know that these are being carefully observed to avoid any misperceptions in the data being presented.

I very much agree that it is profoundly difficult to consider what might be in the minds of artists and artisans or long ago, and all we can do is try to consider contextual material and speculate on plausible possibilities.
The concept of therionthropic human/animal beings extends far into prehistory, case in point the 'sorcerer of Les Trois Freres in the cave in France of some 30,000 years ago (attached). We cannot know the exact meaning or metaphoric concept of what this painting meant, but we believe he was a shamanic figure and with totemic value in his characterization.

6th February 2014, 06:15 PM	#10
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Beautifully added material Ibrahiim, and I do appreciate you following the course of questions I hoped to address here. No worries on the relatively inconsequential slip in wording as the corpus of material you are searching is of considerable volume and trying to present that much data can be daunting . I commend your courtesy in responding to comments pointing out any errors, and it is always comforting to know that these are being carefully observed to avoid any misperceptions in the data being presented. I very much agree that it is profoundly difficult to consider what might be in the minds of artists and artisans or long ago, and all we can do is try to consider contextual material and speculate on plausible possibilities. The concept of therionthropic human/animal beings extends far into prehistory, case in point the 'sorcerer of Les Trois Freres in the cave in France of some 30,000 years ago (attached). We cannot know the exact meaning or metaphoric concept of what this painting meant, but we believe he was a shamanic figure and with totemic value in his characterization. Attached Images