Cultural Exploration

Define “prehistory” in one sentence.

Prehistory is a time before we wrote things down and kept records; a time when we were unable to relate things to the past, because there was no evidence of what had happened.

To what degree do you think “French” prehistoric events and national identity are related? In other words, do you believe prehistory truly influences national character or is it used to forge national myths? Give at least one example.

France and the world around them have built France’s identity on symbols that were before the times of written history. One of the prehistoric events that have influenced their identity was the Lascaux caves. These caves give insight into the past and the way of life during that time; however, this has been shut down as access to the caves has since been barred (Ott 39). The lack of prehistoric artifacts in the French capital has shown us that maybe prehistory is “too elusive to serve nationalistic purposes” (Ott 39). Really, these caves represent how the population has evolved, but maybe not so much their identity. However,