Hybrid beings and representation of power in the prehistoric period

MÖ 40 binlerde Üst Paleolitik dönemin başlaması ile birlikte, insanın bilişsel ve sembolik dünyasının gelişiminde büyük bir değişim ortaya çıkar. Karışık varlıkların tasvirli sanat eserlerinde ilk defa ortaya çıkışı, Üst Paleolitik avcı kültürlerin gelişimi ile paralellik göstermiştir. Karışık varlık figürlerinin ortaya çıkışında, avcı kültürler içerisinde yaygın bir inanç sistemini oluşturan şamanizmin ilkel biçimlerinin etkisi söz konusudur. Doğada güçlü ve zeki olana özenme, insanın fiziksel ve zihinsel kapasitesini bu güçle birleştirme arzusu, karışık varlık figürlerinin doğuşunun ana dinamiklerinden biridir. Dünyayı türler arası geçirgenliğe sahip, hayvansal bir duyarlılık ve canlılıkla algılayan Üst Paleolitik dönem insanın bilişsel dünyasında şeyler ve insan aynı düzlemde ve bir bütünlük içinde yer alıyor olmalıydı. Bu bütünlüğün ve “birlik” algısının kırılmasında, avcının, aynı düzlemde, aynı ruhsal birlik içerisinde yer alana karşı uyguladığı yasaklanmış şiddet olgusunun yarattığı korku ve gerilim, mitik düşünce yoluyla dengelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Yasaklanmış şiddet, kurban ile özdeşleşen bir bilinç durumu yaratmıştır. Üst Paleolitik ile başlayan bu yeni sembolik bilinç, güçlü ve vahşi olana yönelen şiddetin yarattığı gerilim ve korkunun kontrolünü, kurbanın gücü ile özdeşleşerek dengelemeye çalışmıştır. Başlangıçta insanhayvan karışık varlıkların sunumları söz konusu iken, Neolitik dönem ile birlikte, ilk defa iki farklı hayvan ve insan birleşimi karışık varlıkların da ortaya çıkması, insanın bilişsel gelişiminin ulaştığı seviyeyi göstermesi bakımından önemlidir. Avcı toplayıcı toplumlarda kültürel geçirgenlik, devamlılık ve hareketlilik oldukça yaygın olduğundan bu çalışma, özellikle karışık varlık sembollerinin yoğun olarak görüldüğü iki bölge, Üst Paleolitik Avrupa ve Neolitik dönem Yakındoğu’ya odaklanmıştır

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Karışık Varlıklar, Sembolik Eşik, Avcı Toplayıcı Kültürler

PREHISTORİK DÖNEMDE KARIŞIK VARLIKLAR VE GÜCÜN TEMSİLİ

A great change in humankind's cognitive and symbolic world with the start of the Upper Paleolithic period around 40 thousand B.C.E. Depicted works of art describing hybrid creatures have emerged during the Upper Paleolithic period in parallel with emergence of hunter cultures. Ancient forms of Shamanism, a popular belief system among hunter cultures, had an effect on emergence of these hybrid figures. Imitation of the strong and the intelligent within the animal kingdom and the humankind's thirst for merging developing its physical and intellectual capacity with this power are among the main dynamics behind emergence of hybrid figures. The humankind of the Upper Paleolithic period, which has seen the world with a sense of permeability among species and an animalistic sensitivity and vigor, had a cognitive world within which things and humans must have been at the same level and forming a unity. During breakage of this unity and a sense of "togetherness," the hunter tries to balance the fear and suspense caused by prohibition of violence against those that exist at the same level and spiritual unity with mythical thinking. Prohibition of violence gave way to a cognitive status that identifies with the prey. This new symbolic consciousness which has emerged during the Upper Paleolithic period has tried to find a balance between controlling the suspense and fear caused by violence directed against the strong and the wild and the strength of the victim. While there were human-animal hybrids at first, emergence of hybrids of multiple animals and humans during the Neolithic period is of vital importance, as this shows the level of cognitive development of the humankind. Because cultural permeability, continuity, and mobility were substantially prevalent in hunter-gathering societies this study focused on two regions especially where the hybrid symbols are intensively seen, the Upper Paleolithic Europe and Neolithic Near East

Keywords:

Hybrid Beings, Symbolic Threshold, Hunter-gathering Cultures,

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