The bwili or ‘flying tricksters’ of Malakula: a critical discussion of recent debates on rock art, ethnography and shamanisms

Abstract

The use of 'shamanism' and/or neuropsychology in the interpretation of rock art imagery has been much contested, with opinions often polarized between so-called 'shamaniacs' and 'shamanophobes' who support or oppose these lines of enquiry, respectively. Ethnographic analyses have, arguably, suffered most in this controversy. In this article I explore Layard's ethnography of the bwili or 'flying tricksters' of Malakula, Melanesia, to interpret rock art in the northwest of the island -in the same region and, apparently, of the same era as Layard's bwili. In contrast to uncritical shamaniac interpretations and their misleading equation of 'entoptics = shamanism', and as a challenge to the criticisms of shamanophobes, I theorize the term 'shamanisms', scrutinize Layard's ethnography, and critically apply LewisWilliams and Dowson's (1988) neuropsychological model to interpret the rock art of northwest Malakula. The article therefore seeks to reinstate these approaches -ethnography and neuropsychology -as complementary elements in the interpretation of rock art.

Testing the ‘Three Stages of Trance’ Model

“…In conclusion, what Chippindale sees as an 'imaginative, original and persuasive' idea, has in fact done a great deal of pernicious damage to rock-art studies because it was not grounded in accurate facts regarding naturally-occurring trance states or hallucinogens, their effects on subjective experience, or their geographical distribution. To give just one among countless examples: in a recent paper, Wallis (2002) applies the neuropsychological model to the rock art of NW Malakula, Melanesia, seeking to make ethnography and neuropsychology complementary in his interpretation. But, in fact, he merely combs the art in search of motifs which he can fit to the different stages of the TST model.…”

A Unique Assemblage of Engraved Plaquettes from Ein Qashish South, Jezreel Valley, Israel: Figurative and Non-Figurative Symbols of Late Pleistocene Hunters-Gatherers in the Levant

“…To give some examples: a man with a bird-like head lying next to a “staff” with a bird mounted on top of it, from the Lascaux cave, has been interpreted as a shaman in a state of trance wearing a mask [ 38 ]. Birds represented on cave walls in Malakula, Melanesia are believed to embody spirit-helpers or to be an expression of experience of trance or weightlessness [ 39 ]. Pendants depicting selected aspects of seabirds’ anatomy such as feathers, webbed feet and bodies in flight created by the indigenous Beothuk of Newfoundland in Canada, reflect their belief that these birds were spiritual messengers capable of navigating through sky and over sea to the elated island of afterlife [ 40 ].…”

Art and Influence, Presence and Navigation in Southern African Forager Landscapes

“…The hermeneutic model is not uncontested (e.g., Bahn 1988;Solomon 2000;Helvenston and Bahn 2003;Hodgson 2006), though its neuropsychological implications are among its strongest facets (discussion in Froese et al 2014;Froese et al 2016) and there is good reason to continue self-aware implementation of its general principles (see discussion in Wallis 2002). In this critical spirit, we are obliged to consider the representations the approach makes of both the ethnographic source domain-Qing in the Maloti-Drakensberg (Orpen 1874); the Xam in the Karoo (e.g., Bleek and Lloyd 1911;Hollmann 2004) and the many extant groups of the Kalahari (e.g., Marshall 1976;Katz 1982;Guenther 1999)-and the art to which it is applied in interpretation.…”