Beading for all Time—Caveman Chic

Have you ever wondered when people first begin using and creating decorative objects? Items valued not for practical reasons but simply for their beauty. Helen Banes' book, Fiber & Bead Jewelry, picures amazingly intricate Phoenician glass beads dated 900 BC. Although it's hard to imagine those times, the appeal of beads spans the centuries.

I couldn't begin to know how to discover or create glass, but someone did and soon someone else found a non-useful purpose for it. Beads. You'd think that there wouldn't have been enough hours in the day after the hunting and gathering was done to do something so frivolous as beading. Perhaps it's human nature.

But I wonder if the motivation was just a different form of human nature, i.e. I have something you don't have—na na na na na. Maybe they liked to know that their beads inspired envy in their fellow cavemates. Some things never change.

As much as I appreciate and make use of photography, I think that it changed the way people think about art and artists. Today, we take for granted the ability to capture a scene, memory, event, etc. Before photography you'd need an artist to do that. Their skills satisfied the need for both accuracy and aesthetics. Nowadays, it seems that art has lost its dual purpose and has suffered for it.

Asking which is more important (utility or beauty) is like wondering which came first, the chicken or the egg. Why do we need to rate them? It's hard to imagine a world without either so why not grant them equal value. Maybe our ancestors had that figured out.

Another thought: Were the artists of the cave paintings the hunters, or the gatherers waiting for the hunters to return 'home'?