Images of Power: Understanding San Rock Art

Eastwood, Edward B.; Lewis‐Williams, J. D.; Dowson, Thomas A.

doi:10.2307/3889298

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…(LL.VI.1.3941') Significantly, the water and its children are non-real rather than biological animals. Although neither van der Kemp's Khoekhoe informants nor ǃKweiten-ta-ǁken mentions horns, the creatures they describe resemble rain-animals, well-known in San ethnography and rock art (Lewis-Williams 1981, 103-6; Lewis-Williams & Challis 2011; Lewis-Williams & Dowson [1989Dowson [ ] 1999Lewis-Williams & Pearce 2004a;2004b, 141). Their accounts go some way to explaining why unicorns in colonial reports are striped horse-like animals.…”

Section: Revisiting the South African Unicornmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…VIII.17.7473-7519;Guenther 1989, 106-9;Hewitt [1986Hewitt [ ] 2008, he referred to a one-horned rain-animal. |Han ǂkass'o's mention of a one-horned creature was no coincidence: most |Xam narratives about horned rainanimals describe them as bull-like creatures with two horns (Lewis-Williams 1981, 103-6; Lewis-Williams & Challis 2011; Lewis-Williams & Dowson [1989Dowson [ ] 1999Lewis-Williams & Pearce 2004a;2004b, 141).…”

Section: Revisiting the South African Unicornmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Revisiting the South African Unicorn: Rock Art, Natural History and Colonial Misunderstandings of Indigenous Realities

Witelson

2023

CAJ

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European ideas about unicorns spread across the world in the colonial era. In South Africa, hunts for that creature, and indigenous rock paintings of it, were commonplace. The aim was proof from ‘terra incognita’, often with the possibility of claiming a reward. There has, however, been little consideration of the independent, local creature onto which the unicorn was transposed. During cross-cultural engagements, foreign beliefs in the mythical unicorn and a desire for evidence of its natural history intermixed to an extraordinary degree with local beliefs in a one-horned animal. For over two centuries, colonists and researchers alike failed to realize that the local creature, by chance, resembled the European unicorn. A new synthesis of southern African ethnography, history and the writings of early travellers, missionaries and colonial politicians provides unambiguous evidence that one-horned creatures obtained in local beliefs before the arrival of colonists. Moreover, it shows that these creatures are depicted in South African rock art, and that they are a manifestation of San (Bushman) rain-animals. By ignoring relevant beliefs and images, previous scholars have failed to acknowledge that the South African unicorn was, apart from its four legs and single horn, a creature wholly different from the European one.

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Section: Revisiting the South African Unicornmentioning

confidence: 99%