Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T12:06:29.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

San rock art: evidence and argument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2015

J. David Lewis-Williams  and
David G. Pearce
J. David Lewis-Williams
Affiliation:
Rock Art Research Institute, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa (Email: davidp@rockart.wits.ac.za)
David G. Pearce
Affiliation:
Rock Art Research Institute, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa (Email: davidp@rockart.wits.ac.za)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whether or not a ‘trance-dance’ akin to that of today's Kalahari San (Bushmen) was performed by southern /Xam San in the nineteenth century has long been the subject of intense debate. Here the authors point to parallels between nineteenth-century records of San life and beliefs and twentieth-century San ethnography from the Kalahari Desert in order to argue that this cultural practice was shared by these two geographically and chronologically distant groups. More significantly, it is suggested that these ethnographic parallels allow a clearer understanding of the religious and ritual practices depicted in the southern San rock art images.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 345 , June 2015 , pp. 732 - 739
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arbousset, T. & Daumas, F.. 1846. Narrative of an exploratory tour to the north-east of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town: A.S. Robertson.Google Scholar
Barnard, A. 2007. Anthropology and the Bushman. Oxford: Berg.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biesele, M. 1993. Women like meat: the folklore and foraging ideology of the Kalahari Ju/’hoan. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Biesele, M. 1996. ‘He stealthily lightened at his brother-in-law’ (and thunder echoes in Bushman oral tradition a century later), in Deacon, J. & Dowson, T.A. (ed.)Voices from the past: /Xam Bushmen and the Bleek and Lloyd Collection: 142–60. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Bleek, W.H.I. & Lloyd, L.C.. 1911. Specimens of Bushman folklore. London: George Allen.Google Scholar
Blundell, G. 2004. Nqabayo's Nomansland: San rock art and the somatic past. Uppsala: Uppsala University.Google Scholar
Challis, W. 2005. ‘The men with rhebok's heads; they tame elands and snakes’: incorporating the rhebok antelope in the understanding of southern African rock art. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 11–20.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 1994. Rock engravings and the folklore of Bleek and Lloyd's /Xam San informants, in Dowson, T.A. & Lewis-Williams, J.D. (ed.) Contested images: diversity in southern African rock art research: 237–56. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 2001. A /Xam San conundrum: what comes first, the art or the place?, in Helskog, K. (ed.) Theoretical perspectives in rock art research: 242–50. Oslo: Novus.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. & Foster, C.. 2005. My heart stands in the hill. Cape Town: Struik.Google Scholar
Dowson, T.A. 1992. Rock engravings of southern Africa. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Dowson, T.A. 1994. Reading art, writing history: rock art and social change in southern Africa. World Archaeology 25: 332–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1994.9980249 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eastwood, E. & Eastwood, C.. 2006. Capturing the spoor: an exploration of southern African rock art. Cape Town: David Philip.Google Scholar
Eliade, M. 1964. Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Guenther, M. 1989. Bushman folktales: oral traditions of the Nharo of Botswana and the /Xam of the Cape. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner.Google Scholar
Guenther, M. 1994. The relationship of Bushman art to ritual and folklore, in Dowson, T.A. & Lewis-Williams, J.D. (ed.) Contested images: diversity in southern African rock art research: 257–74. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Guenther, M. 1996. Attempting to contextualise /Xam oral tradition, in Deacon, J. & Dowson, T.A. (ed.) Voices from the past: /Xam Bushmen and the Bleek and Lloyd Collection: 77–99. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Guenther, M. 1999. Tricksters and trancers: Bushman religion and society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Hampson, J. 2013. The materiality of rock art and quartz: a case study from Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23: 363–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774313000498 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hays-Gilpin, K.A. 2004. Ambiguous images: gender and rock art. Walnut Creek (CA): Altamira.Google Scholar
Hollman, J.C. 2002. Natural models, ethology and San rock-paintings: pilo-erection and depictions of bristles in south-eastern South Africa. South African Journal of Science 98: 563–67.Google Scholar
Hollman, J.C. 2013. Exploring the Gestoptefontein-Driekuil complex (GDC): an ancient women's ceremonial centre in the North West Province, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 68: 146–59.Google Scholar
Huffman, T.N. 1983. The trance hypothesis and the rock art of Zimbabwe. South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 4: 49–53.Google Scholar
Laue, G.B. 2000. Taking a stance: posture and meaning in the rock art of the Waterberg, Northern Province, South Africa. Unpublished MSc dissertation: University of the Witwatersrand.Google Scholar
Lee, R.B. 1967. Trance cure of the !Kung Bushmen. Natural History 78 (40): 14–22.Google Scholar
Lee, R.B. 1993. The Dobe Ju/’hoansi. New York: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1975. The Drakensberg rock paintings as an expression of religious thought, in Anati, E. (ed.) Les religions de la préhistoire: 413–26. Capo di Ponte: Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1981. Believing and seeing: symbolic meanings in southern San rock paintings. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1982. The economic and social context of southern San rock art. Current Anthropology 23: 429–49. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/202871 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1986. The last testament of the southern San. South African Archaeological Bulletin 41: 10–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3887711 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1987. A dream of eland: an unexplored component of San shamanism and rock art. World Archaeology 19: 165–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00438243.1987.9980032 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1992. Ethnographic evidence relating to ‘trance’ and ‘shamans’ among northern and southern Bushmen. South African Archaeological Bulletin 47: 56–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888993 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1996. A visit to the lion's house: the structure, metaphors and socio-political significance of a nineteenth-century Bushman myth, in Deacon, J. & Dowson, T.A. (ed.) Voices from the past: /Xam Bushmen and the Bleek and Lloyd Collection: 122–41. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1997. The Mantis, the Eland and the Meerkats: conflict and mediation in a nineteenth-century San myth, in McAllister, P. (ed.) Culture and the commonplace: anthropological essays in honour of David Hammond-Tooke: 195–216. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1998. Quanto? The issue of ‘many meanings’ in southern African San rock art research. South African Archaeological Bulletin 53: 86–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3889183 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 2003. Images of mystery: rock art of the Drakensberg. Cape Town: Double Storey.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 2006. Debating rock art: myth and ritual, theories and facts. South African Archaeological Bulletin 61: 105–14.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 2013. From illustration to social intervention: three nineteenth-century /Xam myths and their implications for understanding San rock art. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23: 241–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959774313000401 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Biesele, M.. 1978. Eland hunting rituals among northern and southern San groups: striking similarities. Africa 48: 117–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1158603 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Challis, S.. 2011. Deciphering ancient minds: the mystery of San Bushman rock art. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Loubser, J.H.N.. 1986. Deceptive appearances: a critique of southern African rock art studies. Advances in World Archaeology 5: 253–89.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Pearce, D.G.. 2004a. San spirituality: roots, expressions, and social consequences. Walnut Creek (CA): Altamira.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Pearce, D.G.. 2004b. Southern African rock paintings as social intervention: a study of rain-control images. African Archaeological Review 21: 199–228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10437-004-0749-2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Pearce, D.G.. 2012. The southern San and the trance dance: a pivotal debate in the interpretation of San rock paintings. Antiquity 86: 696–706. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00047852 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loubser, J.H.N. 2006. Rock art, physical setting, and ethnographic context: a comparative perspective, in Keyser, J.D., Poetschat, G. & Taylor, M.W. (ed.) Talking with the past: the ethnography of rock art: 225–53. Portland: Oregon Archaeological Society.Google Scholar
Marshall, L. 1969. The medicine dance of the !Kung Bushmen. Africa 39: 347–81. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1157382 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazel, A. 2009. Unsettled times: shaded polychrome paintings and hunter-gatherer history in the south-eastern mountains of southern Africa. Southern African Humanities 21: 85–115.Google Scholar
Mguni, S. 2004. Cultured representation: understanding ‘formlings’, an enigmatic motif in the rock-art of Zimbabwe. Journal of Social Archaeology 4: 181–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469605304041074 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orpen, J.M. 1874. A glimpse into the mythology of the Maluti Bushmen. Cape Monthly Magazine (n.s.) 9 (49): 1–13.Google Scholar
Schaafsma, P. 2013. Images and power: rock art and ethics. New York: Springer. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5822-7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schapera, I. 1930. The Khoisan peoples of South Africa. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Smith, B.W. & Ouzman, S.. 2004. Taking stock: identifying Khoekhoen herder rock art in southern Africa. Current Anthropology 45: 499–526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/422081 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smits, L.G.A. 1993. Rock paintings in Lesotho: form analysis of subject matter in Ha Baroana, in Lorblanchet, M. & Bahn, P.G. (ed.) Rock art studies: the post-stylistic era, or where do we go from here?: 127–42. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Solomon, A. 2008. Myths, making and consciousness: dynamics and differences in San rock arts. Current Anthropology 49: 59–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/523677 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solomon, A. 2013. The death of trance: recent perspectives on San ethnographies and rock arts. Antiquity 87: 1208–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049978 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, J. 2000. Shaman images in San rock art: a question of gender, in Donald, M. & Hurcombe, L. (ed.) Representations of gender from prehistory to present: 45–66. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinnicombe, P. 1976. People of the eland: rock paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a reflection of their life and thought. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.Google Scholar
Vinnicombe, P. 2001. Forty-odd years down the track. The Digging Stick 18 (2): 1–2.Google Scholar
Vitebsky, P. 1995. The shaman: voyages of the soul, trance, ecstasy and healing from Siberia to the Amazon. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Walker, N. 1996. The painted hills: rock art of the Matopos. Gweru: Mambo.Google Scholar
Whitley, D.S. 2006. Is there a shamanism and rock art debate? Before Farming 4: article 1.Google Scholar
Wright, J. & Mazel, A.. 2007. Tracks in a mountain range: exploring the history of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Yates, R. & Manhire, A.. 1991. Shamanism and rock paintings: aspects of the use of rock art in the south-western Cape, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 3–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3889007 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yates, R., Golson, J. & Hall, M.. 1985. Trance performance: the rock art of Boontjieskloof and Sevilla. South African Archaeological Bulletin 40: 70–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888450 CrossRefGoogle Scholar