Contested Images: Diversity in Southern African Rock Art Research

The work of David Lewis-Williams, as it has been developed through the Rock Art Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, has been seminal in providing a paradigm which places the problems of the interpretation of South African rock art in an entirely new light. This volume brings together the work of a number of scholars in the field of rock art studies who engage the so-called "trance hypothesis" in terms of their own empirical data and theoretical interests. The consensus is that the hypothesis is basically correct, but questions are raised about points of detail and the applicability of the hypothesis to all paintings and engravings. Many of the chapters engage in wider issues that impinge on other disciplines, such as linguistics and folklore studies, and demonstrate the relationship between them and the art. The editors give an overview of the development of rock art studies which aims to provide a contribution to the epistomological problems of this type of research, showing how the approach has been modified in the light of criticisms and new insights.

Table of Contents:
Introduction - diversity in Southern African rock art research, Thomas A. Dowson and David Lewis-Williams. Part 1 Regional and social issues - portable rock engravings at Springbokoog and the archaeological contexts of rock art of the Upper Karoo, South Africa, David Morris and Peter Beaumont; rock painting and history in the South-Western Cape, Royden Yates, Anthony Manhire, and John Parkington; images of interaction - rock art and sequence in the Eastern Cape, Simon L. Hall; depictions of domestic ungulates and shields - hunter/gatherers and agro-pastoralists in the Caledon River Valley area, Jannie Loubser and Gordon Laurens; painting and ceremonial activity in the later Stone Age of the Matopos, Zimbabwe, Nic Walker; paintings like engravings - rock art at Tsodilo, Alec Campbell, James Denbow and Edwin Wilmsen; rock art - the question of authorship, W.J.J. Van Rijssen; a stow site revisited - Zastron district, Orange Free State, Thomas A. Dowson, Sven Ouzman, Geoff Blundell and Anne L. Holliday; cation-ratio dating of rock engravings from Klipfontein, Northern Cape, David S. Whitely and Harold J. Annegarn. Part 2 Theory, method and interpretation - aspects of rock art research: a critical retrospective, David Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson; animals, conceptual associations and Southern African rock art - a multidisciplinary, exploratory approach, Francis Thackeray; rock engravings and the folklore of Bleek and Lloyd's/Xam San informants, Janette Deacon; the relationship of Bushman art to ritual and folklore, Mathias Guenther; jumping about - Springbok in the Brandberg rock paintings and in the Bleek and Lloyd collection; an attempt at correlation, Tilman Lenssen-Erz; zigzag rock art - an ethnological perspective, Joanna Uher; the visual as a site of meaning - San Patietal painting and the experience of modern art, Pippa Skotnes; "Mythic women" - a study in variability in San rock art and narrative, Anne Solomon; metaphors of space - rock art and territoriality in Southern Africa, Andrew B. Smith; myths, museums and Southern African rock art. Thomas A. Dowson and David Lewis-Williams.