Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:31:39.415Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On concepts expressed in southern African rock art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

J. F. Thackeray
J. F. Thackeray*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, 7700 Rondebosch, South Africa
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prehistoric rock art in southern Africa has been studied — with remarkable success — in the light of ethnographic data obtained from modern ‘San’ or ‘Bushmen’. Yet examples of rock paintings reflect conceptual associations similar if not identical to those identified among Bantu-speakers. It is recommended that the art be studied in the light of linguistic as well as ethnographic data without adopting a ‘San-centric’ stance.

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 64 , Issue 242 , March 1990 , pp. 139 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1990

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

Botha, L.J. & Thackeray, J.F.. 1987. A note on southern African rock art, medicine-men and Nguni diviners, South African Archaeological Bulletin 42: 71–3.Google Scholar
Kropf, A. 1899. A Kaffir-English dictionary. Lovedale: Lovedale Missionary Press.Google Scholar
Kropf, A. & Godfrey, R.. 1915. A Kaffir-English dictionary. Lovedale: Lovedale Missionary Press.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1981. Believing and seeing: symbolic meanings in southern San thought and art, Man 15:467–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1985. The San artistic achievement, African Arts 18: 54–9.Google Scholar
Lewis-Williams, J.D. 1986. Cognitive and optical illusions in San rock art research, Current Anthropology 27: 171–8.Google Scholar
Manhire, A.H., Parkington, J.E. & Yates, R.. 1985. Nets and fully recurved bows: rock paintings and hunting methods in the western Cape, South Africa, World Archaeology 17: 161–74.Google Scholar
McLaren, L. 1984. A new concise Xhosa-English dictionary. Reprint. Maskew Miller: Cape Town.Google Scholar
Pager, H. 1971. Ndedema. Graz: Akademische Druck- u Verlagsanstalt.Google Scholar
Siegel, R.K. 1977. Hallucinations, Scientific American 237(4): 132–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thackeray, A.I. 1983. Dating the rock art of southern Africa, South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 4: 21–6.Google Scholar
Thackeray, J.F. 1985. The search for conceptual associations: ethnographic, linguistic, and ethological approaches to southern African rock art, Khoisan Special Interest Group Newsletter 4: 22–8.Google Scholar
Thackeray, J.F. 1987. Conceptual associations and southern African rock art, Pictogram 1(1): 3–6.Google Scholar
Thackeray, J.F. 1988a. Southern African rock art and Xhosa beliefs associated with abantubomlambo, Pictogram 1(2): 2–3.Google Scholar
Thackeray, J.F. 1988b. Comets, meteors and trance: were these conceptually associated in southern African prehistory?, Monthly Notes of the Astronomical Society of South Africa 47: 49–52.Google Scholar
Van der Riet, J., Van, M. der Riet & Bleek, D.F.. 1940. More rock paintings in South Africa. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Vinnicombe, P. 1976. People of the eland. Pieter-maritzburg: Natal University Press.Google Scholar