Role of tactile perception during creation processes in prehistory – ToucherCréer

This project aims to evaluate the role of tactile perception during production processes in prehistory. If, until the Renaissance period in the Western World, touch occupied the lowest range in the scale of senses (Le Breton 2006, p. 175-243, Classen 2005.) tactile perception was paramount during antiquity. For Aristotle “human crafts, give tangible expression to our inexhaustible trust in the solidity of matter and veracity of touch” (Magna Moralia I, 34, 1197a 4-13) and “tactile acuity reflects superior intelligence” (On the Soul II, 9, 421a 19-26). Our study on the prehistoric polishing techniques at the Cyclades, based on a interdisciplinary approach which combined tribology (Science of friction, lubrication and wear) and archaeology, allowed us to suggest that prehistoric craftsmen were using haptic criteria in order to appreciate polished surfaces and that apprenticeship and know-how transmission required sensory abilities (Procopiou et. al. 2009). By using this methodology, already elaborated and tested, we will enrich our field work with new archaeological and ethnographical case studies. In India, for example, a traditional lapidary craftsmanship, nowadays threatened by mechanization, still exists. The study of these case studies will permit us on the one hand to follow the evolution of tactile perception during production, and to reveal on the other hand trans-cultural rules, associated to cognitive processes occurring during creativity. This study aims at rehabilitating the acquisition of knowledge through the sense of touch which, neglected in western education systems, is now reconsidered thank to the results on cognitive psychology. It aims also at revitalizing ancient polishing techniques, nowadays non-existent, which are able to produce, with environmental friendly natural abrasives, polished surfaces of high quality, comparable with those obtained by industrial processes. It also aims to create a new kind of museum experience offering a sensory perception through the manipulation of replicas of archaeological