Reproductive Symbolism in Great Basin Rock Art: Bighorn Sheep Hunting, Fertility and Forager Ideology

Abstract

Coso Range rock drawings are a central subject and focus for debates positing alternative meanings and agents responsible for animal depictions in Great Basin prehistoric rock art. We present new evidence offering a middle ground between the divergent views of the 'hunting religion, increase rites and overkill' and the 'shaman, visions and rain-making' models. We argue that rock-art images, in general, possess multivocality and manifest imbricated conceptual metaphors operating on a variety of scales simultaneously. We recognize that Coso pictures, in one sense, metaphorically represent increase and renewal, human and animal fertility, and game animal magnification. Evidence for that perspective is presented including Coso bighorn with up-raised tails, 'spirit arrows', animals giving birth, those that appear pregnant, and an abundance of animals evidencing vitality and movement. Ritually adept shamans also appear to have often been the religious specialists or agents responsible for Coso rock art and the sources for fashioning these images were frequently visionary experiences.

New insights into palaeo‐distributions based on Holocene rock art

“…The bighorn sheep has been a cultural symbol of great importance to Native Americans and is widely represented in petroglyphs and rock art (Murray & Espinosa, 2006). In addition to being an important element of the diet of these people, it was closely linked to local culture as an element of prestige and was fundamental to certain religious ceremonies (Garfinkel & Austin, 2011). We used this species because it is easily recognized in rock art.…”

Information and Its Role in Hunter-Gatherer Bands

“…The first Numic spread is the movement of Proto-Numic into the southern and eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the Mojave Desert, probably by 2,500 years ago, and its breakup into Proto-Western, Proto-Central, and Proto-Southern Numic. The second is the move along the Sierra Crest and into the Great Basin, which probably began about A.D. 600 (Garfinkel 2007), and divided the three groups into the California languages and the Basin languages. 6 Southern Numic languages have a neologism for tobacco formed with native-language materials, shown in (3).…”