CHIMERA, SPANDREL, OR ADAPTATION - CONCEPTUALIZING ART IN HUMAN-EVOLUTION

In every known human society, some kind--usually many kinds--of art is practiced, frequently with much vigor and pleasure, so that one could at least hypothesize that ''artifying'' or ''artification'' is a char acteristic behavior of our species. Yet human ethologists and sociobio logists have been conspicuously unforthcoming about this observably wi despread and valued practice, for a number of stated and unstated reas ons. The present essay is a position paper that offers an overview and analysis of conceptual issues and problems inherent in viewing art an d/or aesthetics as adaptive, and it presents a speculative account of a human behavior of art.