What representations tell us about the way we see

Abstract

While acknowledging the value of anthropology-oriented studies of rock art, this paper concerns itself with what might be non-culture-specific, that is, universal examples of both representation and perception. Rock art commentary on entoptics and phosphenes has already alerted us to the likely existence of certain types of representational universals, but my focus is on more complex representational/ perceptual phenomena, whose neural processing might be located not in the primary visual cortex, but in the higher-level areas of the parietal and temporal. I suggest two examples, which I term' narrative' and' performative', in each case analysing with reference to relevant visual markers, that is, cues which encourage us to see, 'something happening', a scene ('narrative') or a representation which most directly engages our attention ('performative' ). In the process I also suggest visual exercises to test these types of representations, such as attempting to read with or against visual markers or to read competing markers simultaneously. I relate these representations and the way we perceive them to reallife perceptual situations over evolutionary time. Finally, I hypothesize as to the possible neurophysiology of the perception of 'narrative' and 'performative', concentrating on one example: the processing of aspects of what I term performative representations in the temporal lobe of monkeys (superior temporal sulcus) and humans (fusiform gyrus), giving an account of relevant scientific experiments, particularly in connection with the so-called fusiform face area (FF A).