The Origins of Animal Art

ABSTRACT:Do animals other than humans make what some humans call "art"? What might other animals' graphic and aesthetic behaviors reveal about art's "origins"? In this article, I critically examine the multidisciplinary histories of attempts to answer these questions through two cases: one on nonhuman primate painting and drawing studies, and the other on writing about bowerbirds. Rather than weigh in on the questions myself, I assess the ethical and intellectual stakes and risks the questions pose, particularly given the often cursorily defined significance of "art" in the literature, and the anthropocentrism and Eurocentrism that have lurked in its discourses. More than this, I suggest that while these are questions for which humans should not be assured they can find a definitive answer, they are nonetheless revealing about the ontology and epistemology of art.