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

Abstract

Southern African rock art research has progressed from an essentially denigrating social and political milieu, through an empiricist period, to contemporary social and historical approaches. Empiricism, once thought to be the salvation of southern African rock art research, was a theoretically and methodologically flawed enterprise. Attempts to see the art through an emic perspective facilitated by copious nineteenth-and twentieth-century San ethnography is a more useful approach. It began briefly, but was then abandoned, in the nineteenth century. Today, diverse theoretical and methodological approaches are being constructed on an ethnographic foundation. The centrality of the San in South African national identity has been recognized.

Analogical Evidence and Shamanism in Archaeological Interpretation: South African and European Palaeolithic Rock Art

“…This had positive political consequences in the long run (Lewis-Williams 1995b, 2006a since respect was now granted to those 'primitive' communities who created the artworks. Currently, rock art is clearly a most conspicuous element of South African heritage (Fig.…”

“…It is well known, however, that shamanism has a long history of harsh, repetitive and extensive criticisms, counter-criticisms, replies and counter-replies (see Meighan 1982, Sauvet 1989, Bahn 1993, Demoule 1997, Hamayon 1997, Beaune 1998, Solomon 1998, 2008, Vialou 1998, Taborin 2000, Francfort 2001a, 2001b, Francfort & Hamayon 2001, Le Quellec 2001, Lorblanchet 2001, Helvenston and Bahn 2004, McCall 2007; see replies in Lewis-Williams 1991, 2004a, 2004b, 2006a, 2006b, Lewis-Williams & Clottes 1998b, with the most aggressive attack unleashed by the publication of Les chamanes de la préhistoire, by Jean Clottes and David Lewis-Williams (Clottes & Lewis-Williams 1996). Some of the most important problems that have been pointed out in this debate refer to the speculative character of shamanism, 3 its lack of historical context, 4 its reliance on scarce ethnographic evidence and, most importantly, its lack of explanatory power (Francfort 2001a, Bahn 2001, Le Quellec 2001, McCall 2007 and lack of testability (Sauvet 1989, Bahn 1997, Francfort 2001a, 2001b.…”

“…Some radical proposals ask for a return to empiricism in light of the problems of shamanism (Bahn 2001:81). As a whole, however, the debate on shamanism has been useful because it has helped to address issues about cultural contact and cultural continuity/rupture of hunter-gatherers' lifeways, and about the need to make explicit our research procedures (Lewis-Williams 1984, 2006a, Dowson 1994). I do not wish to engage in a general critique or defense of shamanism in this paper, but in a discussion on its use of analogical reasoning.…”

“…Ethnographic information from disparate parts of the world was employed in rock art research in Europe and was also essential to its early study in places such as South Africa, as researchers recorded the San language and its related oral history at the end of the 19th century. They suggested that the rock art 'illustrated' accounts of indigenous myths, daily-life scenes, folklore, customs or superstitions (W. Bleek, cited by Lewis-Williams 2006a:352, see also LewisWilliams 2000).…”

“…marked rise in success would begin in the early 1970s, when an ethnographic approach, seasoned with social theory, began to be adopted and which, over the next three decades and more, produced results that constituted the foundation for new theory and method. (Lewis-Williams 2006a:369) The core of this new foundation was shamanism, presented as sound ethnographic analogical reasoning for the first time, and therefore a real improvement over the previous empiricist research (Lewis-Williams 1991, 2006a.…”