San Rock Art

Author : J.D. Lewis-Williams
Publisher : Ohio University Press
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2013-02-15
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780821444580

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San Rock Art by J.D. Lewis-Williams Pdf

San rock paintings, scattered over the range of southern Africa, are considered by many to be the very earliest examples of representational art. There are as many as 15,000 known rock art sites, created over the course of thousands of years up until the nineteenth century. There are possibly just as many still awaiting discovery. Taking as his starting point the magnificent Linton panel in the Iziko-South African Museum in Cape Town, J. D. Lewis-Williams examines the artistic and cultural significance of rock art and how this art sheds light on how San image-makers conceived their world. It also details the European encounter with rock art as well as the contentious European interaction with the artists’ descendants, the contemporary San people.

Author : Anne Solomon
Publisher : New Africa Books
Page : 94 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Art, Prehistoric
ISBN : 0864864302

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The Essential Guide to San Rock Art by Anne Solomon Pdf

Richly illustrated in colour and black and white, this guide provides a clear understanding of a cultural treasure.

Author : David Lewis-Williams,Sam Challis
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2011-06-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780500770467

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Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushmen Rock Art by David Lewis-Williams,Sam Challis Pdf

Goes to the heart of contemporary arguments about the "primitive" and the "modern" minds, and draws new social, anthropological, and ethnographic conclusions about the nature of ancient societies. How did ancient peoples—those living before written records—think? Were their thinking patterns fundamentally different from ours today? Researchers over the years have certainly believed so. Along with the Aborigines of Australia, the indigenous San people of southern Africa—among the last hunter-gatherer societies on Earth—became iconic representatives of all our distant ancestors and were viewed as either irrational fantasists or childlike, highly spiritual conservationists. Since the 1960s a new wave of research among the San and their world-famous rock art has overturned these misconceived ideas. Here, the great authority David Lewis-Williams and his colleague Sam Challis reveal how analysis of the rock paintings and engravings can be made to yield vital insights into San beliefs and ways of thought. This is possible because we possess comprehensive transcriptions, made in the nineteenth century, of interviews with San informants who were shown copies of the art and gave their interpretations of it. Using the analogy of the Rosetta Stone, the authors move back and forth between these San texts and the rock art, teasing out the subtle meanings behind both. The picture that emerges is very different from past analysis: this art is not a naive narrative of daily life but rather is imbued with power and religious depth.

Author : Patricia Vinnicombe
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 414 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Art
ISBN : STANFORD:36105133359435

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People of the Eland by Patricia Vinnicombe Pdf

The cornerstone of current understanding of rock art of the San of Drakensberg First published in 1976, People of the Eland was the first major step away from the outsider's view upon San rock art that had dominated studies of rock art for nearly a century. The book, an account of the rock art of the San of the Drakensberg Range, was also about the mountain San themselves: their lives, their beliefs, their culture and their history during colonisation. The book not only brought an extraordinary and dynamic body of art to the attention of a global audience, but also helped to lay the foundations for a new generation of research into the meaning of prehistoric art. People of the Eland aimed to gain an insider's view of the rock art using San understandings of the world. While following this approach, it quickly became clear to Vinnicombe that the art was very far from simple depictions of daily life as had once seemed likely, but instead reflected the most deeply held San beliefs and symbols. This approach and this understanding has now become the standard for all those working with San rock art. Whilst this early knowledge of San art has been built upon considerably since 1976, People of the Eland remains a cornerstone of our current understanding. Reprinted here in full color, with the original artwork and photographs, People of the Eland remains a seminal work, the impact of which cannot be underestimated.

Author : Renaud Ego
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 371 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2019-01-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781776142330

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Visionary Animal by Renaud Ego Pdf

An illustrated collection that takes stock of current knowledge and proposes a new way of reading indigenous art For thousands of years, nomadic hunter-gatherers assigned a fundamental role to the visualization of the animals who shared their lives. Some, such as the Cape eland, the largest of antelopes, were the object of a fascinated gaze, as though the graceful markings and shapes of their bodies were the key to secret knowledge safeguarded by the animals’ unsettling silence. Renaud Ego posits that the artists sought to steal the animals’ secret through an act of rendering visible a vitality that remained hidden beneath appearances. In this process, the San themselves became the visionary animal who, possessing the gift of making pictures, would acquire far-seeing powers. Thanks to the singular effectiveness of their visual art, they could make intellectual contact with the world in order better to think and,ultimately, to act. They gained access to the full dimension of their human condition through painting scenes that functioned like visual contracts with spiritual and ancestral powers. Their art is an act that seeks to preserve the wholeness of existence through a respect for the relationships linking all beings, both real and imaginary,who partake of it. The fundamentally ecological dimension of this message confers on San art its universality and contemporary relevance.Visionary Animal is a translation of L’Animal voyant, published in France in 2015. This rich collection of essays is beautifully illustrated with the author’s photographs of rock art from across southern Africa.

Author : David J. Lewis-Williams
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2002-04-16
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780759116719

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A Cosmos in Stone by David J. Lewis-Williams Pdf

J. David Lewis-Williams is world renowned for his work on the rock art of Southern Africa. In this volume, Lewis-Williams describes the key steps in his evolving journey to understand these images painted on stone. He describes the development of technical methods of interpreting rock paintings of the 1970s, shows how a growing understanding of San mythology, cosmology, and ethnography helped decode the complex paintings, and traces the development of neuropsychological models for understanding the relationship between belief systems and rock art. The author then applies his theories to the famous rock paintings of prehistoric Western Europe in an attempt to develop a comprehensive theory of rock art. For students of rock art, archaeology, ethnography, comparative religion, and art history, Lewis-Williams' book will be a provocative read and an important reference.

Author : Harry W. Crosby
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015051117136

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The Cave Paintings of Baja California by Harry W. Crosby Pdf

Author : Geoffrey Blundell,Christopher Chippindale,Benjamin Smith
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 632 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2016-06-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781315420318

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Seeing and Knowing by Geoffrey Blundell,Christopher Chippindale,Benjamin Smith Pdf

The purpose of Seeing and Knowing is to demonstrate the depth and wide geographical impact of David Lewis-Williams’ contribution to rock art research by emphasizing theory and methodology drawn from ethnography. Contributors explore what it means to understand and learn from rock art, and a contrast is drawn between those sites where it is possible to provide a modern, ethnographic context, and those sites where it is not. This is the definitive guide to the interplay between ethnography and rock art interpretation, and is an ideal resource for students and researchers alike.

Author : David Coulson,Alec C. Campbell
Publisher : Harry N Abrams B.V.
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : Art
ISBN : UCSC:32106015220954

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African Rock Art by David Coulson,Alec C. Campbell Pdf

Contains more than two hundred photographs of Africa's rock art, coupled with historical and interpretive analyses, compiled to raise public awareness of the variety, importance, and frailty of these works.

Author : Benjamin Smith,Knut Helskog,David Morris
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2012-12-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781868148073

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Working with Rock Art by Benjamin Smith,Knut Helskog,David Morris Pdf

Cutting edge contributions that consider new approaches to the documentation of rock art; its interpretation using indigenous knowledge; and the presentation of rock art. This volume contains contributions that consider new approaches to three areas: the documentation of rock art; its interpretation using indigenous knowledge; and the presentation of rock art. Working with Rock Art is the first edited volume to consider each of these areas in a theoretical rather than a technical fashion, and it therefore makes a significant contribution to the discipline. The volume aims to promote the sharing of new experiences between leading researchers in the field. While the geographic focus is truly global, there is a dominant north-south axis with strong representation from researchers in southern Africa and northern Europe, two leading centres for new approaches in rock art research. Working with Rock Art opens up a long overdue dialogue about shared experiences between these two centres, and a number of the chapters are the first published results of new collaborative research. Since this volume covers the recording, interpretation and presentation of rock art, it will attract a wide audience of researchers, heritage managers and students, as well as anyone interested in the field of rock art studies.

Author : David Mendel Witelson
Publisher : Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Page : 164 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2019-06-27
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781789692457

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A Painted Ridge: Rock art and performance in the Maclear District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa by David Mendel Witelson Pdf

This book explores a suite of spatially close San (Bushmen) rock painting sites in the Maclear District of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. As a suite, the sites are remarkable because, despite their proximity to each other, they share patterns of similarity and simultaneous difference.

Author : Geoffrey Blundell
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Art, San
ISBN : 9197321206

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Nqabayo's Nomansland by Geoffrey Blundell Pdf

Author : Bruno David,Ian J. McNiven
Publisher : Oxford Handbooks
Page : 1185 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780190607357

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The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art by Bruno David,Ian J. McNiven Pdf

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.

Author : Siyakha Mguni
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2015-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781868147779

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Termites of the Gods by Siyakha Mguni Pdf

In Termites of the Gods, Siyakha Mguni narrates his personal journey, over many years, to discover the significance of a hitherto enigmatic theme in San rock paintings known as ?formlings?. Formlings are a painting category found across the southern African region, including South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, with its densest concentration in the Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe. Generations of archaeologists and anthropologists have wrestled with the meaning of this painting theme in San cosmology without reaching consensus or a plausible explanation. Drawing on San ethnography published over the past 150 years, Mguni argues that formlings are, in fact, representations of flying termites and their underground nests, and are associated with botantical subjects and a range of larger animals considered by the San to have great power and spiritual significance. This book fills a gap in rock art studies around the interpretation and meaning of formlings. It offers an innovative methodological approach for understanding subject matter in San rock art that is not easily recognisable, and will be an invaluable reference book to students and scholars in rock art studies and archaeology.

Author : Donna L. Gillette,Mavis Greer,Michele Helene Hayward,William Breen Murray
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 287 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2013-10-16
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781461484066

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Rock Art and Sacred Landscapes by Donna L. Gillette,Mavis Greer,Michele Helene Hayward,William Breen Murray Pdf

Social and behavioral scientists study religion or spirituality in various ways and have defined and approached the subject from different perspectives. In cultural anthropology and archaeology the understanding of what constitutes religion involves beliefs, oral traditions, practices and rituals, as well as the related material culture including artifacts, landscapes, structural features and visual representations like rock art. Researchers work to understand religious thoughts and actions that prompted their creation distinct from those created for economic, political, or social purposes. Rock art landscapes convey knowledge about sacred and spiritual ecology from generation to generation. Contributors to this global view detail how rock art can be employed to address issues regarding past dynamic interplays of religions and spiritual elements. Studies from a number of different cultural areas and time periods explore how rock art engages the emotions, materializes thoughts and actions and reflects religious organization as it intersects with sociopolitical cultural systems.