Working with her husband, the late archaeologist and theologian Kevin J. Sharpe, she spent 10 years developing methodologies to study finger flutings. Their work, building on the internal analysis concepts established by Alexander Marshack, was the first to be able to establish unique identities of cave artists through the study of individual hands and the application of finger digit ratio 2D:4D studies. Their work on finger flutings was the first to show symbolic behavior by children in the Paleolithic through the creation of tectiforms in Rouffignac.[1] Later work showed the role of women and children in the creation of cave art in Rouffignac.[2] Their application of Zipf's Law from communications theory also gave the first replicable methodology for determining whether or not fluted panels represented purposeful communication or a proto form of writing.[3] Today Van Gelder continues to research in Rouffignac and Gargas caves and lectures internationally. Her current research focuses on the role of children in both caves. She is a Program Director at Walden University's Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership.
As of 2025[update] Gelder is resident in Glenorchy, New Zealand,[4] and is the chairperson of both the Glenorchy Heritage and Museum Group and the Glenorchy Dark Skies Sanctuary Group.[5] She has led the Dark Skies Group since 2019 when the initial idea of establishing a certified dark sky place in Glenorchy was formed. After five years of work, the Tāhuna Glenorchy Dark Sky Sanctuary was certified by DarkSky International on 3 February 2025.[6]
Gelder has been active in conservation in the region, and has served as executive officer of the Whakatipu Wildlife Trust.[7] She is also co-chair of the Southern Lakes Sanctuary, and chairperson of the Queenstown-Lakes District Council climate reference group.[5]
Biography
Van Gelder was born in 1969 in Manhattan. As daughter of American Museum of Natural History curator Richard Van Gelder, she spent periods of her childhood involved in field work with him in East Africa and in the U.S. National Parks.[4] From 1985 to 1989 she worked for the Quebec-Labrador Foundation teaching environmental education in outport communities in eastern Canada. Later she taught high school in northern New Jersey and left in 1998 to pursue a PhD in Place Studies at the Union Institute and University for which she was the recipient of the Sussman Award. Her work in Place Studies appeared in a number of journals including the Journal of Implicit Religion, Nature in Story and Legend, Green Letters, as well as within the monograph Weaving a Way Home: A Personal Journey of Place and Story published by the University of Michigan Press 2008.
She is the facilitator of the Roundstone Conversation on Place and Story which has, since 2004, annually brought together writers on the subject of Place and Story to the home of writer cartographer Tim Robinson. Past attendees have included Joseph Meeker, Ron Engel, Patrick Curry, John Elder, Moya Cannon, Patricia Monaghan, Nuala O'Faolin among others.
2010: Paleolithic finger flutings and the question of writing. In Whitehouse, R & Piquette, K. (eds). The materiality of writing. London: Cambria Press.
2010: New methods and approaches in the study of finger flutings. Proceedings from the IFRAO Conference: Pleistocene Art of the World. September 6–11, 2010.
2010: Ten years in Rouffignac Cave, France: A collective report on a decade of finger flutings research. Proceedings from the IFRAO Conference: Pleistocene Art of the World. September 6–11, 2010.
2010: Four forms of finger flutings as seen in Rouffignac Cave, France. In Bahn, P. (ed). An enquiring mind: Studies in honor of Alexander Marshack. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 269–285. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2010: Fluted Animals in the Zone of Crevices, Gargas Cave, France. Proceedings of the Eleventh Congress of the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations, Lisbon, Portugal, September 4–9, 2006. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2009: Paleolithic finger flutings as efficient communication: Applying Zipf’s Law to two panels in Rouffignac Cave, France. Semiotica 177, 171–190. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2009: Women and girls as Upper Paleolithic cave ‘artists’: Deciphering the sexes of finger fluters in Rouffignac Cave, Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 28:4, 323–333. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2009: When the stories fled. Irish Pages. 4:2.
2008: Weaving a Way Home: A Personal Journey Exploring Place and Story (University of Michigan Press).
2007: Human uniqueness and Upper Paleolithic ‘Art’: An archaeologist’s reaction to Wentzel Van Huyssteen’s Gifford Lectures. American Journal of Theology and Philosophy. 28: 3, 311–345. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2007: More about ‘More about finger flutings.’ Rock Art Research 24:1, 133–135. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2006: Evidence of cave marking by Paleolithic children. Antiquity 80:310, 937–947. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2006: The study of finger flutings. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16:3, 281–295. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2006: Finger flutings in Chamber A1 of Rouffignac Cave, France. Rock Art Research 23:2, 179–198. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2006: A method for studying finger flutings. In Exploring the Mind of Ancient Man: Festschrift to Robert G. Bednarik, ed. P. Chenna Reddy. New Delhi: Research India Press.
2005: The gift of the anthropomorphic mind. Nature in Story and Legend. Fall: 8–13.
2005: Techniques for studying finger flutings. Society of Primitive Technology Bulletin 30, 68–74. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2004: Children and Paleolithic ‘art’: indications from Rouffignac Cave, France. International Newsletter on Rock Art 38:9–17. (With Kevin Sharpe)
2004: At the confluence of paradox: Implicit religion and the wild.” Journal of Implicit Religion. 7:3, 207–222.
2004: Childhood in the church of Darwin. In Progress and Process. Terra Nova Monograph Series. Cambridge Mass: MIT Press.
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