The ancestress hypothesis. Visual art as adaptation

Evolutionary anthropologists are examining a potential role for art in human evolution. This text looks at the visual arts of traditional societies, because they are passed between generations and offer ways to promote social relationships among kin and codescendants of a common ancestor.

Contents
The ancenstress: hypothesis and visual art: an overview
Visual art techniques and veneration of the dead.
Changing styles of visual art
The definition of visual art: the fisrt step of the scientific method
Underpinnings of the ancestress hypothesis.
Males as ancestors
Visual art theory ancestress strategy or sexual strategy?
Testing the ancestress hipothesis
Modern darwinian theory
Reconciliation: the problem of definition