From girls to women: female imagery in the San rock paintings of the Central Limpopo Basin, southern Africa

The Dancing Kudu: women's initiation in the Namib Desert during the second millennium AD

“…When courting, for example, the female lowers her neck and stretches forward (Estes 1991: 171)—as shown in Figure 3—thus hollowing the back and raising the hindquarters. Eastwood (2006: 35) points out that kudu in oestrus have swollen vulvae, and this may be indicated here by the slightly raised tail. Most conclusive, however, is the heavily distended belly, showing that the kudu is at an advanced stage of pregnancy, thus linking womanhood and fecundity.…”

“…There are, however, marked regional variations in the content of the art, and the significance of some motifs has only begun to emerge (Hampson et al 2002). In the Limpopo Valley, Eastwood (2006) noted the association of kudu, primarily females, with paintings of women moving in file as if dancing, and depictions of the apron worn in girls’ puberty or initiation rites, as observed in ethnographic field studies. The paintings of kudu displayed a number of characteristic postures that suggested oestrus and mating behaviour, and these corresponded to several specimens of historical San folklore relating to initiation rites.…”

“…To resolve this Durkheimian polarity it is necessary to explore evidence and arguments that bridge the two domains. This problem is addressed here by pursuing the line of research pioneered by Eastwood (2005, 2006), who found a link between women's initiation and the female kudu ( Tragelaphus strepciceros ).…”

The Evolution of Theory, Method and Technique in Southern African Rock Art Research

“…They referred to rites of passage as well as movement to the spirit world (Lewis-Williams, 1981). But their context on the walls of rock shelters ('veils' between this world and the spirit realm; Lewis-Williams and Dowson, 1990) focussed on one segment of their semantic spectrum-potency-while referring more obliquely to a range of values, including those associated with rites of passage (Parkington, 1989;Eastwood, 2005;Eastwood and Smith, 2005;Lewis-Williams, 1981LewisWilliams and Pearce, 2004a). Some of these values were directly associated with rain-making images ( Fig.…”

Natural and Supernatural Convergences

“…Furthermore, those species considered liminal were believed to have the ability to move between the underground, the earth's surface, and the sky (Whitley 1994, 24, 26), thereby moderating these spheres. Southern African hunter-gatherer studies have, implicitly or explicitly, explored principal ideas of this model in interpreting animal metaphors in rock art and belief (see, for example, Lewis-Williams 1981;Mguni 2002Mguni , 2006bHollmann 2003;Eastwood 2005Eastwood , 2006. Such metaphors were not restricted to animals but also applied to inanimate subjects as well, such as the arboreal world.…”