Wilber (2007) explains the difference between the phenomenology of experience and the rules that structure and govern that experience. Only by studying a number games one can determine the rules that govern how the cards are played and then give meaning to a particular game. The images of the Paleolithic animal figures are found in a number of caves that stretch over a 20,000 year period. Each of the major caves shows evidence of the expression of a separate group of shamans. Thus the images of the six body types of the animals in the artwork of these caves can be considered the cards, each animal species the suits and the way the shamans-artists sequence the animal figures identifies the how the meaning of the symbol system is designed to reveal aspects of the worldview of the shamans-artists for that cave.
Then by studying a broad range of figures/panels it is clear that the shamans-artists who were the inspiration and creators of the artwork developed cognitive “conventions” to provide a structure that gave integrity to the artwork over the ages. I have identified seventeen conventions that apply across the cave art during this long period. Here are some examples:
When the figures in the cave art are considered within the context of the cognitive conventions they provides a base from which interpretations can be made with growing certainty. Considered this way the cave art describes a story. In sum the process is to combine the archeological data with the anthrological data integrated with the ethological data to unite the animal and human natures of our Sapiens Species as we move forward.