Trivial pursuit? Interpreting San rock art in terms of the mystical bond between hunter and prey

Abstract

For more than three decades now, researchers supporting the mainstream theoretical orientation in the field of rock art studies, the shamanistic model, have largely ignored the possibility that the idiom of the hunt could contribute meaningfully to the task of deciphering the often complex and enigmatic masterpieces of the San hunter-gatherers. They may have been mistaken all along. This paper argues that a good deal of the art produced by the hunters related intimately to the hunt, even though this may seem, to some, too obvious or inconsequential an objective to pursue. Importantly, the alternative vantage point on the paintings of the San which is introduced here aligns itself with the spiritual thinking of the creators of the art. While it is not the intention of the authors of this paper to present a systematic critique of the leading paradigm, they feel strongly that the discussion will benefit from a dialectical engagement with the latter. A selection of five rock art panels is first examined conventionally, i.e. in terms of the shamanistic model. The very same art works are revisited subsequently in order to explore them from an alternative, animistic perspective. It is concluded, tentatively, that the artists’ visual language emphasized the significance of the narrative focus of their work, namely the various manifestations of hunter-prey sociability, the spiritual grounding of which characterized, if not defined life in traditional hunting communities across the globe.