The silence of Altamira and the sounds of Foz Côa

Abstract

The present paper aims to analyse two moments of change in the study of rock Palaeolithic Art: the discovery and the recognition of Altamira (1879-1895) and the knowledge of open-air art in the context of the Côa Valley debate (1994- 1995). These two events structured, from a historiographic point of view, the understanding of the discipline of Palaeolithic Art, transforming the dominant paradigms at the beginning and the end of the twentieth century, respectively. The paper’s approach will apply Bourdieu´s concept of “scientific field” in order to analyse its internal and external aspect, whose interconnections allow us to explain the current epistemological crisis in the discipline. This breach introduces a final reflection about the possibilities (of construction) of subjectivity that other sciences allow and the possible wealth of shades of meaning when they area pplied to the analysis of palaeolithic society through its graphical expressions.