Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T16:15:06.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Engraved art and acoustic resonance: exploring ritual and sound in north-western South Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Riaan F. Rifkin
Riaan F. Rifkin*
Affiliation:
*Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

At a hill-top site in the Korrannaberg, where there is a water source and a sandy arena embraced by a rocky ridge, the author persuasively evokes a lively prehistoric ritual centre, with rock gongs, reverberating echoes, dancing and trance.

Keywords

South AfricaKorannaberg MountainsprehistorySan peopleshamanismrock artmusicrhythmtrancedance
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 83 , Issue 321 , September 2009 , pp. 585 - 601
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2009

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] 1968. Narrative of an exploratory tour to the north-east of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Cape Town: Robertson.Google Scholar
Arsenault, D. 2004. From natural settings to spiritual places in the Algonkian sacred landscape: an archaeological, ethnohistorical and ethnographic analysis of Canadian Shield rock-art sites, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 69–84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barac, V. 2004. From primitive to pop: foraging and post-foraging hunter-gatherer music, in Lee, R. B. & Daly, R. (ed.) The Cambridge encyclopaedia of hunters and gatherers: 434–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barnard, A. 1979. Nharo Bushman medicine and medicine men. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 49(1): 68–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beentje, H. I. 1999. The genus Tarchonanthus (Compositae-Mutisieae). Kew Bulletin 54(1): 81–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biesele, M. 1978. Sapience and scarce resources: communication systems of the !Kung and other foragers. Social Science Information 17: 921–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biesele, M. 1993. Women like meat: the folklore and foraging ideology of the Kalahari Jul'hoan. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Blacking, J. 1987. Games and sport in pre-colonial African societies, in Baher, W. J. & Mangan, J. A. (ed.) Sport in Africa: essays in social history. New York: Africana Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Bleek, D. F. 1933. Beliefs and customs of the /Xam Bushmen. Part V: The rain; Part VI: Rain-making. Bantu Studies 7: 297-312, 375–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleek, D. F. 1935. Beliefs and customs of the /Xam Bushmen. Part VII: Sorcerers. Bantu Studies 9: 1–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleek, D. F. 1936a. Beliefs and customs of the /Xam Bushmen. Part VIII: More about sorcerers and charms. Bantu Studies 10: 131–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleek, D. F. 1936b. Notes on the Bushmen photographs. Bantu Studies 10: 200–204.Google Scholar
Bleek, W.H.I. & Lloyd, L. C.. 1911. Specimens of Bushmen folklore. London: George Allen.Google Scholar
Brewer, C. 2003. Vibroacoustic therapy: sound vibration in medicine. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Therapies 9: 5.Google Scholar
Burchell, W. J. 1953. Travels in the interior of southern Africa. London: Batchworth.Google Scholar
Carpenter, E. & Mcluhan, M.. 1960. Acoustic space, in Carpenter, E. & McLuhan, M. (ed.) Explorations in communication: 65–70. Boston (MA): Beacon.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C.. 2002. The many ways of dating Arnhem Land rock-art, north Australia, in Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C. (ed.) The archaeology of rock-art: 90–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C. & Nash, G.. 2004. Pictures in place: approaches to the figured landscapes of rock-art, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 1–36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Connell, J. & Gibson, C.. 2003. Sound tracks: popular music, identity and place. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooke, C. K. 1964. Rock gongs and grindstones: Plumtree area, southern Rhodesia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 19: 70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawley, A. E. 1912. Drums and cymbals. Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics 5: 89–94.Google Scholar
David, B. 2004. Rock art and the experienced landscape: the emergence of late Holocene symbolism in north-east Australia, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 153–81. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Deacon, J. 1988. The power of place in understanding southern San rock engravings. World Archaeology 20: 129–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devereux, P. 2001. Stone Age soundtracks: the acoustic archaeology of ancient sites. London: Vega.Google Scholar
Durie, B. 2005. Doors of perception. New Scientist 2484: 34–6.Google Scholar
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. 1989. Human ethology. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Eliade, M. 1964. Shamanism: archaic techniques of ecstasy. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
England, N. M. 1968. Zuiwasi music of south-west Africa and Botswana. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Fachner, J. & Rittner, S.. 2004. Sound and trance in a ritualistic setting visualised with EEG brain-mapping. Music Therapy Today 5: 2.Google Scholar
Feld, S. 1994. From ethnomusicology to echo-muse-ecology: reading Murray R. Schafer in the Papua New Guinea rainforest. The Soundscape Newsletter 8: 4–6.Google Scholar
Flood, J. M. 2004. Linkage between rock-art and landscape in Aboriginal Australia, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 182–200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fock, G. J. 1972. Rock gongs at Keurfontein. South African Journal of Science 49: 2.Google Scholar
Furst, P. T. (ed.) 1972. Flesh of the gods: the ritual use of hallucinogens. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Geana, G. 1980. On mindscapes. Current Anthropology 21(6): 803.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C. 1993. Religion as a cultural system, in Geertz, C. (ed.) The interpretation of cultures: selected essays: 87–125. Oxford: Fontana.Google Scholar
Goldhahn, J. 2002. Roaring rocks: an audio-visual perspective on hunter-gatherer engravings in northern Sweden and Scandinavia. Norwegian Archaeological Review 35(1): 30–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, F. D. 1986. Body posture and the religious altered states of consciousness: an experimental investigation. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 26(3): 81–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, A.J.H. 1957. Rock gongs, chutes, paintings and fertility. South African Archaeological Bulletin 45: 37–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harner, M. J. (ed.) 1973. Hallucinogens and shamanism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hartley, R. & Wolley Vawser, A. M.. 2002. Spatial behaviour and learning in the prehistoric environment of the Colorado River drainage (south-eastern Utah), western North America, in Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C. (ed.) The archaeology of rock-art: 185–211. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heinz, H. J. 1972. Territoriality among the Bushmen in general and the !Ko in particular. Anthropos 67: 405–16.Google Scholar
Hewitt, R. L. 1986. Structure, meaning and ritual in the narratives of the southern San. (Quellen zur Khoisan-Forschung 2). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.Google Scholar
Hoff, A. 1998. The water bull of the /Xam. South African Archaeological Bulletin 53: 109–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howes, D. 1991. The varieties of sensory experience: a sourcebook in the anthropology of the senses. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Hyder, W. D. 2004. Locational analysis in rock-art studies, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 85–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ivade, P. 1994. The place of music: a conference. Popular Music 13(1): 105–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, D. 1999. Noise, water, meat. A history of sound in the arts. Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, R. 1982. Boiling energy: community healing among the Kalahari Kung. Cambridge (MA): Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Keeney, B. 2003. Ropes to god: experiencing the Bushman spiritual universe. Philadelphia (PA): Ringing Rocks Press.Google Scholar
Kirby, P. R. 1972. Musical character of some South African rock gongs. South African Journal of Science 49: 2.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1968. The sociology of !Kung Bushman trance performance, in Prince, R. (ed.) Trance and possession states: 35–54. Montreal: R. M. Bukce Memorial Society.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 1979. The !Kung San: men, women, and work in a foraging society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, R. B. 2003. The Dobe Jul'hoansi. London: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Leeds, J. 2001. The power of sound: how to manage your personal soundscape for a vital, productive and healthy life. New York: Healing Arts.Google Scholar
Lenssen-Erz, T. 2004. The landscape setting of rock-painting sites in the Brandberg (Namibia): infrastructure, gestaltung, use and meaning, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 131–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1984. Ideological continuities in prehistoric Southern Africa: the evidence of rock art, in Schrire, C. (ed.) Interfaces: the relationship of past and present in hunter-gatherer studies: 225–52. New York: Academic Press.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. & Biesele, M.. 1978. Eland hunting rituals among northern and southern San groups: striking similarities. Africa 48(2): 117–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Dowson, T. A.. 1990. Through the veil: San rock paintings and the rock face. South African Archaeological Bulletin 45: 5–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. & Pearce, D. G.. 2004. San spirituality: roots, expression, and social consequences. Cape Town: Double Storey.Google Scholar
Malan, B. D. 1959. A rock gong and rock slide in the Parys district, Orange Free State. South African Journal of Science 55: 29.Google Scholar
Marshall, L. 1969. The medicine dance of the !Kung Bushmen. Africa 39: 347–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, P. J. 2002. The archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morris, C. & Peatfield, A.. 2002. Feeling through the body: gesture in Cretan age religion, in Hamilakis, Y., Pluciennik, M. & Tarlow, S. (ed.) Thinking through the body: archaeologies of corporality: 105–20. London: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Needham, R. 1967. Percussion and transition. Man 2(4): 606–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouzman, S. 2001. Seeing is deceiving: rock art and the non-visual. World Archaeology 33(2): 237–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ouzman, S. 2002. Towards a mindscape of landscape: rock-art as expression of world-understanding, in Chippendale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C. (ed.) The archaeology of rock-art: 30–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pocock, D. 1993. The senses in focus. Area 25(1): 11–16.Google Scholar
Reznikoff, I. & Dauvois, M.. 1988. La dimension sonore des grottes ornées. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française 85: 238–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rifkin, R. F. 2005. Rock engravings of the Korannaberg: an analysis of engraved imagery from the south-eastern Kalahari. Unpublished Honours dissertation, University of Witwatersrand.Google Scholar
Robinson, K. R. 1958. Venerated rock gongs and the presence of rock slides in southern Rhodesia. South African Archaeological Bulletin 13(50): 75–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, J. & Davidson, I.. 2006. Rock art and ritual: an archaeological analysis of rock art in arid central Australia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13(4): 305–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scarre, C. 1989. Painting by resonance. Nature 338: 382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, S. 1979. The rain bull of the South African Bushmen. African Studies 38(2): 201–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schafer, R. M. 1985. Acoustic space, in Seamon, D. & Mugerauer, R. (ed.) Dwelling, place and environment: towards a phenomenology of person and world: 87–98. Boston (MA): Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeger, A. 1987. Why Suya sing: a musical anthropology of an Amazonian people. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, B. W. & Blundell, G.. 2004. Dangerous ground: a critique of landscape in rock-art studies, in Chippindale, C. & Nash, G. (ed.) The figured landscapes of rock-art: looking at pictures in place: 239–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Solomon, T. 2000. Duelling landscapes: singing places and identities in highland Bolivia. Ethnomusicology 44(2): 257–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinbring, J. 1992. Phenomenal attributes: site selection factors in rock art. American Indian Rock Art 17: 102–13.Google Scholar
Steyn, H. P. 1984. Southern Kalahari subsistence ecology: a reconstruction. South African Archaeological Bulletin 39: 117–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, M. 1994. Ethnicity, identity and music: the musical construction of place. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Stoller, P. 1989. The taste of ethnographic things: the senses in anthropology. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Thackeray, A. I., Thackeray, J. F., Beaumont, P. B. & Vogel, J. C.. 1981. Dated rock engravings from Wonderwerk Cave, South Africa. Science 214: 64–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thackeray, J. F. 2005. The wounded roan: a contribution to the relation of hunting and trance in southern African rock art. Antiquity 79: 5–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuan, Y. 1974. Topophilia: a study of environmental perception, attitudes and values. Englewood Cliffs (NJ): Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Tuan, Y. 1993. Passing strange and wonderful: aesthetics, nature, and culture. Washington (DC): Island Press.Google Scholar
Valentine, G. 1995. Creating transgressive space: the music of Lang K. D.. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20(4): 474–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vansina, J. 1985. Oral tradition as history. Madison (WI): University of Wisconsin Press.Google 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
Waller, S. J. 1989. Sound and rock art. Nature 338: 384.Google Scholar
Waller, S. J. 1993. Sound reflection as an explanation for the content and context of rock art. Rock Art Research 10: 91–101.Google Scholar
Waller, S. J. 2001. Sounds of the spirit world: auditory perceptions of depth at rock art sites. American Indian Rock Art 28: 53–6.Google Scholar
Waller, S. J. 2002. Rock art acoustics in the past, present, and future. International Rock Art Congress Proceedings 2: 11–20.Google Scholar
Watt, J. M. 1967. African plants potentially useful in mental health. Lloydia 30: 1–22.Google Scholar
Wendt, W. E. 1976. Art mobilier from the Apollo 11 cave, South West Africa: Africa's oldest dated works of art. South African Archaeological Bulletin 31: 5–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitley, D. S. & Annegarn, H. J.. 2001. Cation-ratio dating of rock engravings from Klipfontein, Northern Cape, in Dowson, T. A. & Lewis-Williams, J. D. (ed.) Contested images: diversity in southern African rock art research: 189–97. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Yellen, J. E. 1976. Settlement patterns of the !Kung: an archaeological perspective, in Lee, R. B. & De Vore, I. (ed.) Kalahari hunter-gatherers: studies of the !Kung San and their neighbours: 47–72. Cambridge (MA) & London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar