Creativity in Society

It is not well understood why in the Neolithic age human beings drew images of prehistoric animals on the walls of their caves, but that was the beginning of artistic creativity. A major motive for doing the drawings was probably to exercise some type of control over the animals, diffuse fears, or to engage in some type of quasi-religious relationship. Whatever the motives, the practice of drawing, coloring, and surveying has continued and developed into the art and sculpture of modern society. All modern religions make use of some kind of art or artistic decoration although the Moslem faith prohibits the depiction of human or animal images in churches and other holy places. Sometime after, or contemporaneous with the development of visual art, came the use of sound for communication in hunting, and the creative development of primitive music, language, and writing developed further as communication and creative literature appeared in early societies and civilizations. But creativity played a role outside of the arts and literature in the development of tools, clothing, and commerce. And creativity, i.e., the production of entities both new and valuable, has continued to be a critical aspect and operation in society up through modern times. Possibly, it is correct to observe that, with the development of commodities, and industry, creativity has been one of the most powerful positive forces in the last two centuries of the world. As with visual art, music of all types, dance, and literature, creativity serves to produce and enhance understanding and gratification in all of the physical and animal world and the operation of human beings and civilization. Creativity is especially important in business in the area of management, advertising, and dissemination of goods and services. Critical for valuable inventions and discoveries, it pervades education regarding teacher preparation and performance as well as in facilitating learning at all levels. Creativity also is a meaningful factor in cooking, sports performance, theatre, film, dance, design, advertising, and politics. In the very important area of human development and civilization, creativity is a key factor in science for the construction of theory, substantive advances, and human survival. In all these areas, the creative processes outlined in this work—homospatial, janusian, and sep-con articulation—operate to produce new and valuable effects.