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Rock art traditions in southern Africa. (A) San rock painting. The eared cap worn by the bowman indicates that he is a ‘shaman of the game.’ (B) San pecked rock engraving of a rhinoceros. (C) Geometric Khoekhoen rock paintings contrast sharply with two San depictions of eland. (D) A Late White Bantu-speakers’ rock painting of a colonial settler.
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Southern African rock art research has progressed from an essentially denigrating social and political milieu, through an
empiricist period, to contemporary social and historical approaches. Empiricism, once thought to be the salvation of southern
African rock art research, was a theoretically and methodologically flawed enterprise. Attempts to see...
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... The Munda, Birhor and Oraon communities of the study area practice indigenous art in form of Sohrai and Khovar paintings, and they carry on the tradition of spiritual belief and folklore related to rock art present near the modern settlement (Rajak 2019a). Whitley (1992) and Williams (2006), proposed a way in which rock art and ethnographic phenomena can be approached. Rock art ethnography gives us context within which the plausibility of any particular rock art interpretation can be assessed. ...
The present paper aims to interpret the role of symbols in the prehistoric cultural system. In this research, an attempt has been made to understand symbolic behaviour behind rock art activities and for this, theoretical aspects of cognitive science and ethnographic data have been used. The present paper uses deductive reasoning and discusses the methodological aspects to interpret symbols in prehistoric social structures. It is argued that symbols were meaningfully constituted and modified with time. The construction of symbols was as complex as material culture which was a metaphor of socioeconomic life. Symbols in both, the present and past contexts, are not just signs or patterns but are a medium through which different levels of communication carry meanings within a cultural system.
... The Munda, Birhor and Oraon communities of the study area practice indigenous art in form of Sohrai and Khovar paintings, and they carry on the tradition of spiritual belief and folklore related to rock art present near the modern settlement (Rajak 2019a). Whitley (1992) and Williams (2006), proposed a way in which rock art and ethnographic phenomena can be approached. Rock art ethnography gives us context within which the plausibility of any particular rock art interpretation can be assessed. ...
The volume predominantly focuses on various cultural and environmental aspects of the Lower Palaeolithic Acheulian tradition in India, particularly in the peninsular region; however, a few papers are dedicated to the pursuit of other features of Indian prehistory in a broader sense. Cultural typology and technology, adaptive and behavioural strategies, palaeoenvironment, geomorphology and chronology, site distribution and formation processes are a few of the many varied themes that have been addressed along with some, albeit cursory allusions to the cognitive aspects of archaeology.
‘Adaptations Across Antiquity’ is also rendered unique in so far as the voice of experience lent by stalwarts in the field sets the stage or the backdrop for fresh, dynamic and youthful perspectives to take shape. This complimentary approach has been applied to wide geographic areas and distinct ecozones of India including but not limited to sites in the Deccan Trap Region of Upland Maharashtra, the Kaladgi Basin in South India, the greater Narmada Basin in Central India, the Konkan region on the West Coast among others (Odisha, Gujarat, Jharkhand). The resulting discourse provides either an overview; scope for re-appraisal; or even brings into focus new sites and data from these regions that were previously overlooked. In addition, a paper on the Jomon pottery from Japan by (Late) Shrikant Atre has been posthumously featured in this publication. It is therefore intended that this volume serve in posterity as a singular source of recent work in prehistoric and quaternary studies conducted in these regions.
... From the 1970s a shift from describing styles and sequences to an engagement with ethnography led to a globally influential new paradigm (Lewis-Williams, 1981), affording entrée to the social contexts of rock art and the meanings of imagesand from the meanings of images to a new understanding of the art as being essentially shamanistic (Lewis-Williams, 2006). This new appreciation of San rock art drew on the long-neglected late nineteenth century Bleek and Lloyd archive of interviews with Karoo |xam informants, alongside twentieth century ethnographies from the Kalahari; interpreted, in turn, relative to Mircea Eliade's synthesis of material on 'shamanism', a universal category established in anthropology and the history of religion (Tomášková, 2013). ...
... Exemplifying an ascendant rigour and striving after objectivity, the Scherz couple described, traced, photographed, and catalogued images and panels which were systematically numbered. This may not in and of itself have delivered any major breakthrough for understanding rock art (Lewis-Williams, 2006), but the more accurate documentation might have helped to constrain the kind of subjectivity and rampant speculation that most diminished Breuil'sand Mary Boyle'swork. ...
Stone Age and rock art sites that Breuil would visit near Kimberley, South Africa, during and after the 1929 conference of the British and South African Associations for the Advancement of Science, were amongst the first he would see in Africa. Breuil's published observations and an autobiographical account afford a keyhole view on his initial thoughts with hints of ways these would develop, alongside and in relation to the perspectives of contemporaries. The roles of Breuil's field and editorial helpers are highlighted for the insights they provide on his modus operandi. Pratt's concept of ‘discursive polyphony’ is advanced as a useful frame for understanding the range of shifting perspectives that are entangled in these histories. Opportunities are sought, in discussion, to reflect on the Breuil legacy in light of subsequent work in the region.
... Sugirieron que el arte rupestre "ilustraba" relatos de mitos indígenas, escenas de la vida cotidiana, folclore, costumbres o supersticiones (W. Bleek, citado por Lewis-Williams 2006a: 352, véase también Lewis-Williams 2000. ...
... El marcado aumento en el éxito comenzaría a principios de la década de 1970, cuando se comenzó a adoptar un enfoque etnográfico, aderezado con la teoría social, y que, durante las siguientes tres décadas y más, produjo resultados que constituyeron la base de una nueva teoría y método. (Lewis-Williams 2006a: 369) El núcleo de esta nueva base fue el chamanismo, presentado por primera vez como un razonamiento etnográfico analógico sólido y, por lo tanto, una mejora real con respecto a la investigación empirista anterior (Lewis Williams 1991, 2006a. ...
... Sin embargo, es bien sabido que el chamanismo tiene una larga historia de duras, repetitivas y extensas críticas, contracríticas y contrarrespuestas (ver Meighan 1982, Sauvet 1989, Bahn 1993, Demoule 1997, Hamayon 1997, Beaune 1998, Solomon 1998, 2008, Vialou 1998, Taborin 2000, Francfort 2001a, 2001b, Francfort & Hamayon 2001, Le Quellec 2001, Lorblanchet 2001, Helvenston y Bahn 2004, McCall 2007; véanse las respuestas en Lewis-Williams 1991, 2004a, 2004b, 2006a, 2006b, Lewis-Williams & Clottes 1998b, con el ataque más agresivo desatado por la publicación de Les chamanes de la préhistoire, de Jean Clottes y David Lewis-Williams (Clottes & Lewis-Williams 1996). Algunos de los problemas más importantes que se han señalado en este debate se refieren al carácter especulativo del chamanismo,(3) su falta de contexto histórico,(4) su dependencia de la escasa evidencia etnográfica y, lo más importante, su falta de poder explicativo (Francfort 2001a, Bahn 2001, Le Quellec 2001, McCall 2007 y falta de capacidad de prueba (Sauvet 1989, Bahn 1997, Francfort 2001a, 2001b. ...
Evidencia analógica y chamanismo en la Interpretación Arqueológica: Arte rupestre sudafricano y paleolítico europeo MARÍA CRUZ BERROCAL ______________________________________________________ Traducción César Augusto Velandia Jagua Los estudios de arte rupestre han dependido fuertemente de la etnografía en las últimas décadas. Desde la década de 1970, se ha considerado que el (re) giro hacia la etnografía no ha sido un cambio paradigmático y, de hecho, ha suscitado mucha discusión teórica en el campo muy poco teorizado de la investigación del arte rupestre. El giro etnográfico se ha construido principalmente en torno al chamanismo, muy vagamente definido aquí como la asociación causal que los investigadores establecen entre las prácticas chamánicas y el arte rupestre, y de la que se han buscado explicaciones. La aplicación de este enfoque ha cambiado a lo largo del tiempo, dependiendo de 1) el contexto arqueológico en el que se iba a aplicar, 2) el uso de fuentes adicionales de evidencia (a saber, neuropsicología), 3) el papel del chamanismo como hipótesis o como un hecho establecido. Como hipótesis se ha construido sobre la base de tres tipos diferentes de analogías: etnográficas, formales y uniformistas. Este artículo aborda el carácter cambiante del chamanismo en los estudios de arte rupestre del Paleolítico sudafricano y europeo, buscando contribuir al menos en parte a una reflexión más amplia sobre la naturaleza del razonamiento analógico y sus implicaciones. INTRODUCCIÓN Este artículo es una revisión historiográfica de la aplicación de una hipótesis chamánica, en adelante "chamanismo", a los estudios de arte rupestre, especialmente en los corpus de arte rupestre del Paleolítico de Sudáfrica y Europa Occidental. El chamanismo se entiende aquí como la asociación que los investigadores han establecido desde la década de 1970 entre las prácticas chamánicas(1) y el arte rupestre, aunque no fuera etiquetado explícitamente como tal.(2) Esta asociación implica una relación causal, porque el arte rupestre se explicó como producto de prácticas chamánicas. Este artículo destaca el papel que juega la analogía en el chamanismo y su naturaleza cambiante a través del tiempo.
... The importance of landscape context in the interpretation of hunter-gatherer rock art is also reflected in the location of mythic and historic events, cosmological structures, wisdom teaching and 28 ritual symbolism within specific landscapes. Rock art sites represented human knowledge about the past, and when associated with specific myths 29 the art served to facilitate sacred communications in ritual contexts. 30 Catherine Bell developed a framework for defining relational aspects of ritual and defined rituals as those activities that address the gods and other supernatural forms. ...
... In limiting the descriptive fields for recording rock paintings, the model recognises the inherent flaws, highlighted by Lewis-Williams (2006), of recording rock art details without a clear idea of what they might have meant to the original artists. The surveys are therefore not designed for interpreting rock paintings or for testing hypotheses about the role of rock art in huntergatherer or herder society, although some of the data could be used in the first phase of an academic research proposal. ...
The rock art survey and recording project described in this paper was designed for volunteers and heritage professionals involved in locating and mapping the position of rock art and other archaeological sites in the field, recording basic details for conservation and management, and making these details accessible in digital format for researchers who might want to undertake further investigation. An OpenDataKit (ODK) App with a digital site recording form was designed for mobile phones to be used in the field and to send data directly to the digital inventory of the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS). The inventory has accumulated over 3000 sites with Later Stone Age rock paintings in the mountainous terrain of the Cederberg, a region that includes properties in the serial Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site in the Western Cape Province. More than a third of these rock art sites have been added to the database since 2007 by the members of the South African Archaeological Society. The information forms the basis for rock art management plans that are given to property owners to guide them in maintaining the value of the rock art. Interpretation of the information has raised awareness of the significance of the rock art in its historical and landscape setting with a trail and information boards. Local residents and CapeNature staff, who have received training in rock art monitoring and tourist guiding, play a key role in implementing the management plans for CapeNature properties, and monitoring individual sites and trails. The broader international context of volunteer programmes for archaeological site recording suggests that this type of programme has the potential to raise awareness of rock art beyond books and visits to museums and public lectures.
... Éste se concibe como un elemento simbólico esen- cial en la transmisión de información y en la defini- ción de la identidad individual y étnica de los gru- pos humanos del Paleolítico (e.g., Boyd y Richerson 1987;Bvocho 2005;Hill et al. 2009;Kuhn y Stiner 2007;McElreath et al. 2003;Nowell 2006; Soressi y D' Errico 2007;Taborin 2004;Vanhaeren 2005;Vanhaeren y D'Errico 2006;White 2007;Zilhao 2007). También se ha estudiado desde un punto de vista tecnológico (Farbstein 2011;White 1995White , 2006White , 2007) o ha servido para señalar la relación existente entre materialidad y significado Fritz 1999b;. En tercer lugar, la unión entre arqueología cognitiva y arte paleolítico se ha hecho evidente en los deba- tes referidos a los orígenes del comportamiento sim- bólico complejo del Homo sapiens (Bar-Yosef 2002;2007;Jelinek 1994;Klein 1994Klein , 2000Mellars 2005;Noble y Davidson 1993;White 1982) o de los neandertales Soressi y D'Errico 2007;Vanhaeren 2005; Vanhae- ren y D 'Errico 2006;Zilhao 2007). ...
La historia del descubrimiento, estudio e interpretación del arte paleolítico por parte del pensamiento contemporáneo de los siglos XIX y XX resulta apasionante. Pero ésta no se compone sólo de las expediciones y hallazgos de los prehistoriadores, sino también de los debates suscitados al tratar de ordenar e interpretar esas nuevas revelaciones del pasado. De hecho, la génesis y transformación de la idea de “arte paleolítico” pueden ser interpretadas como una respuesta a todos estos debates.
Este libro es una reflexión crítica sobre la manera en que se han conceptuado las imágenes y representaciones paleolíticas desde su descubrimiento a finales del siglo XIX hasta las décadas finales del siglo XX. Desde el punto de vista de la historia de las ideas y de la historia de las mentalidades, el autor profundiza en cómo ciertas concepciones del pensamiento occidental establecieron el marco de interpretación general que sirvió para explicar los grabados, pinturas y esculturas del Paleolítico durante más de un siglo. Las categorías en las que se expresó esa explicación fueron las de “arte”, “sociedad primitiva” y “evolución”.
... The first was that there appeared to be substantial differences between the Strandberg engravings and the imagery associated with the painted art of the Maloti-Drakensberg. This latter body of art has clear associations with altered-states of consciousness and shamanistic activity (as described above, although see Lewis-Williams & Pearce 2015 for discussion on this topic in particular), and, accordingly, the dominant motifs relate in an appreciable way to Bushman religious practice (see Lewis-Williams 2006b). Amongst this common body of symbols is the eland (and/or ontologically equivalent animal symbols; e.g. ...
... That said, it would be irresponsible to discuss the Strandberg without a general sense of what constitutes the site. While the statistical models have been shown to be problematic in the case of the paintings in the Maloti-Drakensberg, this is in part a product of the physical form of the art being interpreted.The lowest common unit of interpretation in the Maloti-Drakensberg tends to be a 'panel'; a researcher-designated frame, containing images on a (usually) contiguous rock-face.Although general discussions are available on the development of theory and practice in southern African rock art (seeBlundell 1998;Lewis-Williams 2006b; B. Smith 2010;, they tend to focus on the various issues of analogy, chronology, and historicity described at various points in the opening chapters of this project. Very little discussion touches more than fleetingly on the units of analysis, describing the 'panel' variably as "an expanse of rock bearing rock paintings"(Ouzman 1997:232; Russell 2000:61), or as 'episodes', "groups of paintings created within a particular period of time" (Pearce 2010:148; seeLewis-Williams 1992:2). ...
Southern Africa’s Orange River has been a frontier-zone for centuries, acting as a socially formative and often volatile expression of its surrounds. Communities of the region have competed, compounded, and admixed for as long as competing influences have obliged it, contributing over hundreds of years to a background milieu of generally-coherent beliefs and practices; ‘frontier ideologies’ that dealt in the expression and mediation of identity, and the configuration of responses to tumultuous social and ecological conditions. The common core of these ideologies allowed frontier societies to respond to one another in familiar terms, even if other channels of meaning were inaccessible. One of the contributors to these ideologies were the |Xam, most well-known for their contributions to the shamanistic approach to interpretation of rock art in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains of South Africa. While analogy has allowed them to speak on behalf of the artists of this disparate tradition, they are products of the area surrounding the Orange River during the nineteenth century. Accordingly, they demonstrate the fundamental features of a frontier society; they evaluate contact with other communities relative to themselves, and formulate appropriate expressions of identity to enact in response. The application of their ethnography is somewhat burdened by their application to the rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg, however, which casts their motivations in specific, ritualised terms. This thesis considers a very different body of rock art to the one conventionally interpreted by the shamanistic approach, but located in a historical and regional context intimately linked to the |Xam informants; specifically, the rock art of the Strandberg hills, in the Northern Cape province, South Africa. This body of art is one dominated by horses, distributed as a structure that spans much of the site, and manufactured with visibility in mind. This thesis finds that these images were products of the frontier ideologies that inhabited the region, and the adaptive practices that emerge from them. Accordingly, the art is characterised as a record of inhabitation, an expression of identity, and the mediation of contact with a changing landscape, in keeping with the behaviours that had marked interactions between communities in the region for long before many of the images were placed on the Strandberg.
... Depictions of Europeans and other agriculturalists, therefore, represent the San negotiation of power with those settlers in the spirit world; there is no evidence to suggest that actual (historical) events-whether antagonistic or not-are depicted. Moreover, the production of rock art-both before and after the arrival of European settlers-was an engaging process; paintings were not simply illustrative, commemorative, representative, or reflective depictions-they were powerful things in themselves, and reservoirs of potency (Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1989;Lewis-Williams 1995;Lewis-Williams 2006). Paintings also helped to "dissolve" the rock face membrane between this world and the next (Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1990; Lewis-Williams and Pearce 2004). ...
A San rock art site near the town of Wepener (Free State Province, South Africa) is considered by local inhabitants to depict specific historical events of the nineteenth century. This chapter describes the paintings and—using ethnographic evidence—dispels romantic myths: the site is not a mere “narrative” of actual events but rather a manifestation of the cosmological belief systems of the San.
... Depictions of Europeans and other agriculturalists, therefore, represent the San negotiation of power with those settlers in the spirit world; there is no evidence to suggest that actual (historical) events-whether antagonistic or not-are depicted. Moreover, the production of rock art-both before and after the arrival of European settlers-was an engaging process; paintings were not simply illustrative, commemorative, representative, or reflective depictions-they were powerful things in themselves, and reservoirs of potency (Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1989;Lewis-Williams 1995;Lewis-Williams 2006). Paintings also helped to "dissolve" the rock face membrane between this world and the next (Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1990; Lewis-Williams and Pearce 2004). ...
