The shaman is not merely a medicine man, a doctor or a man with priestly functions, he is above all an artistically productive man, in the truest sense of the word creative -- in fact, he is probably the first artistically active man known to us. In order to understand him it is not enough merely to explain his significance in terms of the history of civilization, or to interpret it psychologically; we must also consider his position and his nature as an artist. From this standpoint we shall then be able to gain insights into the nature of prehistoric art and to understand the Ice Age artist, the man who painted the pictures on the cave walls at Lascaux and Altamira. - Introduction.