Rock art and changing perceptions of southern Africa's past: Ezeljagdspoort reviewed.

Rock art and changing perceptions of southern Africa's past: Ezeljagdspoort reviewed. Africa 48: 117-34.LEWIS-WILLIAMS, J.D. & T.A. DOWSON. 1988. Signs of all times:entoptic entoptic/en��top��tic/ (en-top��tik) originating within the eye. ent��op��ticadj.Occurring or located within the eyeball.entopticoriginating within the eye. phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic art, Current Anthropology Current Anthropology, published by the University of Chicago Press and sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, is a peer-reviewed journal founded in 1959 by the anthropologist Sol Tax (1907-1995). 29:201-45.1989a. Images of power: understanding Bushman rock art. Johannesburg:Southern Book Publishers.1989b. Theory and data: a brief critique of A. Marshack'sresearch methods and position on Upper Palaeolithic shamanism shamanism/sha��man��ism/ (shah��-) (sha��mah-nizm?) a traditional system, occurring in tribal societies, in which certain individuals (shamans) are believed to be gifted with access to an invisible spiritual , Rock ArtResearch 6: 38-53. Since copies of Bushman (San) rock paintings werefirst published just over a century and a half ago, approaches to theart have undergone significant changes: at different times, differentaspects have been singled out for comment and interpretation. Thesechanges did not happen randomly. Rock-art research, like any otheracademic pursuit, is historically situated: changes in researchstrategies and explanations are implicated in ideology and politics.This paper therefore investigates the kind of knowledge rock-artresearch produces and its relevance to contemporary thought.(1)In South Africa South Africa,Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. , knowledge of indigenous peoples has beenappropriated and used in political manoeuvres (Smith 1983; Parkington& Smith 1986; Wright & Mazel 1987; Hall 1988). In educationalpropaganda the Bushmen have long been presented as simple, helplessnomads, wandering aimlessly aim��less?adj.Devoid of direction or purpose.aimless��ly adv.aim across a landscape they did not own. Becausethey are said to be inherently 'primitive', their artists aredescribed as naive chroniclers of daily events. So conceived, theirstature as human beings capable of creative thought and controllingtheir own destiny is obscured.Today a new colonial ideology is building on this picture ofprimitiveness by holding them up as exemplars of natural ecologists.They are now said to live 'in harmony with nature', using butnot destroying the bounty of their environment. Along with this emphasison admirable people-nature relationships there is a concomitantportrayal of the Bushmen's supposed child-like, mystical wisdom,spiritual insight and almost supernatural powers. As presented bywriters such as Laurens van der Post, they have been made to speak as iffrom an innocent Garden of Eden Garden of Edenn.See Eden.Noun 1. Garden of Eden - a beautiful garden where Adam and Eve were placed at the Creation; when they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were ; Jungian archetypes According to Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and his school of analytical psychology, archetypes are innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic themes of human life emerge. come easily andplatitudinously. Although this new ideology appears to exalt them, it isactually presenting them as an indissoluble in��dis��sol��u��ble?adj.1. Permanent; binding: an indissoluble contract; an indissoluble union.2. part of primeval pri��me��val?adj.Belonging to the first or earliest age or ages; original or ancient: a primeval forest.[From Latin pr circumstances, a mystical people unable to look after themselves in thematerialistic modern world. The spiritualizing of the Bushmen is simplya more palatable way of rendering the reality of their immediateday-to-day needs invisible and marginalizing them in political debates(Voss 1987; Barnard 1989; Biesele & Weinberg 1990; Marshall &Ritchie 1984; Mazel 1992).Recent rock-art research has explicitly challenged both the primitiveand the other-worldly stereotypes by revealing the complexity andsubtlety of Bushman thought and art (cf. Lewis-Williams 1989; 1990). Therock paintings and engravings do not record a child-like interest in theevents of nomadic See nomadic computing. life; nor are they reflections of an innate, romanticempathy with 'nature'. This research has been based on thecopious 19th- and 20th-century Bushman ethnography. The complex anddetailed fit between the ethnography from both centuries and specificfeatures of the art confirms its relevance and suggests that the rockpaintings and engravings can be explained, at least in part, in terms ofwidely held Bushman beliefs and widely practised rituals (Lewis-Williams& Biesele 1978; Lewis-Williams 1972; 1980; 1981a; Vinnicombe 1972a;1976; Dowson & Deacon in press). The centrality of the ethnographyin any study of the 'meaning' of Bushman rock art is nowaccepted by virtually all researchers.As a contribution to rock-art research's challenge to demeaningstereotypes we consider a single rock painting in some detail. We beginby examining straightforward narrative views of the painting. We thenshow that ethnographic research can reveal otherwise unsuspectedcomplexities. Finally, we argue that the results of neuropsychological neu��ro��psy��chol��o��gy?n.The branch of psychology that deals with the relationship between the nervous system, especially the brain, and cerebral or mental functions such as language, memory, and perception. research into altered states of consciousness altered states of consciousness,n.pl the various states in which the mind can be aware but is not in its usual wakeful condition, such as during hypnosis, meditation, hall-ucination, trance, and the dream stage. See also alternative states of consciousness. , carefully situated in thespecific historical circumstances of the Bushmen, can lead us stillfurther towards a better grasp of what they achieved in their remarkableart and so challenge some current ideas about them.Narrative viewsIn 1835 Sir James Alexander James Alexander may be: Earls James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon (1730-1802) James Alexander, 3rd Earl of Caledon (1812-1855) James Alexander, 4th Earl of Caledon (1846-1898) Others James Alexander (lawyer) (c. visited the Langkloof, a long, broadvalley near present-day Oudtshoorn, to see 'drawings executed bythe former occupiers of the country' (Alexander 1837: 314, 315). Hewas surprised to find that 'these rude attempts of uncivilisedartists are not utterly devoid of merit'. When he came to commenton the paintings individually, he accepted each as a depiction of'real life' and wrote about the use of the bow and arrow bow and arrow,weapon consisting of two parts; the bow is made of a strip of flexible material, such as wood, with a cord linking the two ends of the strip to form a tension from which is propelled the arrow; the arrow is a straight shaft with a sharp point on one and,more elaborately, about one painting which he thought depicted 'anembassy of females suing for peace'. He went on to assert, 'Noone can deny that their reception is a gracious one, to judge by thepolite attitudes of the male figures, perhaps chiefs' (Alexander1837: 316). Although the sex of none of the figures is clearly shown,Alexander saw one group as women, the other as men: in accordance with19th-century colonial perceptions of gender, the women are subservientsuppliants, the men gracious, polite chiefs.But Alexander's approach ran into trouble when he saw thestrange painting of apparently fish-tailed figures at Ezeljagdspoort(FIGURES 1 & 2; for colour photographs see PLATE II, page 222, thisnumber; also Willcox 1963: plate 11 and Lewis-Williams & Dowson1989a: figure 87e). He had to admit, 'We are unable to assist thereader, even by a conjecture, in elucidating the meaning of that whichhe here sees represented' (Alexander 1837: 317). Yet he went on tosuggest that the painting may allude to allude toverb refer to, suggest, mention, speak of, imply, intimate, hint at, remark on, insinuate, touch upon see see, elude 'the amphibious natureattributed to the whites by the natives in the olden old��en?adj.Of, relating to, or belonging to time long past; old or ancient: olden days.[Middle English : old, old; see old + -en, adj. day'.Despite his bafflement baf��fle?tr.v. baf��fled, baf��fling, baf��fles1. To frustrate or check (a person) as by confusing or perplexing; stymie.2. To impede the force or movement of.n.1. , Alexander tended to see the painting in termsof race. Since his time, southern African rock-art researchers haveoften tried to identify different races supposedly represented in theart and to interpret specific paintings as depictions of racial conflict(e.g. Dart 1925; Willcox 1984; Woodhouse 1987; for further comment onthis trend see Posnansky 1985; Lewis-Williams 1989; 1990). By the middleof the 20th century racial conflict had become the key tenet of a widelyaccepted 'stylistic' classification of the art (Lewis-Williams1990). Researchers proposed that the art could be divided into two majorperiods, an earlier 'pre-Bantu' period comprising peacefulpaintings and a later 'post-Bantu' period comprising restlesspaintings and scenes of conflict (van Riet Lowe 1952: 7; today'Bantu' is used in a linguistic sense only.). Some rock-artresearch has thus presented the black farmers as intrusive disturbers ofthe Bushmen's Garden of Eden and, in doing so, supported thecolonial segregationist seg��re��ga��tion��ist?n.One that advocates or practices a policy of racial segregation.segre��ga ideology.At the same time, the paintings themselves were seriouslymisrepresented. Because researchers were interested mostly in'simple' paintings that seemed to fit their conception of theart as narrative, they overlooked puzzling features that did not appearto 'tell a story'. This can be seen in the copies Major C.Michell made for Alexander. In dealing with the Ezeljagdspoort group, heconcentrated on getting the 'amphibious' aspects right, but heomitted other details such as the fingers at the ends of the elongatedfigure's arms. He also left out the two straight lines at thisfigure's shoulder, and he rather confused the undulating lines.Because these features were less comprehensible than the supposedfish-tails, which he could understand in terms of Western stories aboutmermaids and myths about people coming out of the sea, he did not takeas much care with them. Far from being 'objective', his copyof the painting was skewed by his limited understanding of the Bushmenand their art.When writers who see the art as principally narrative confront apatently 'non-real' painting like this they frequentlyidentify it, as Alexander did, as a 'scene' from a myth ratherthan from daily life and so preserve their position, albeit in a broadersense. Indeed, a mythical interpretation of the Ezeljagdspoort paintingthat has become widely accepted seems to be strongly suggested by a'fine old legend' that Wilhelm Bleek Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (March 8, 1827 - August 17, 1875) was a German linguist. His work included A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages and his great project jointly executed with Lucy Lloyd: The Bleek and Lloyd Archive of |xam and !kun texts. and Lucy Lloyd Lucy Catherine Lloyd (7 November 1834 - 1914) was the creator along with Wilhelm Bleek of the 19th century archive of |xam and !kun textsLucy Catherine Lloyd was born in Norbury in England on 7 November 1834. obtainedfrom a Mr D. Ballot who had, in the 1870s, noted it down fromAfrikaander, 'a very old Bushman still surviving in thoseparts' (Bleek 1875: 20). It tells of a young girl who was draggedinto a dark pool by water-maidens (watermeide). When her mother foundwhat had happened to her, she collected some herbs and ground them to apowder. She then scattered the powder on the surface of the water. As aresult, the girl came out of the pool unharmed, though the water-maidenshad licked her cheeks white because they loved her so much (Leeuwenburg1970). (For more on the 12,000-page Bleek and Lloyd collection ofBushman ethnography see Lewis-Williams 1981a: 25-37; Deacon 1986; Dowson& Deacon in press.)Leeuwenburg has argued that this legend, together withAfrikaander's claim to know many other stories about water-maidens,'adds weight to the theory that the hunters had an extensive fundof folk-tales, and that pictorial representations of these tales can befound amongst the paintings' (Leeuwenburg 1970: 146). In his view,the legend shows that even 'non-real' paintings can besubsumed under the narrative rubric RUBRIC, civil law. The title or inscription of any law or statute, because the copyists formerly drew and painted the title of laws and statutes rubro colore, in red letters. Ayl. Pand. B. 1, t. 8; Diet. do Juris. h.t. .All too easily this kind of approach asserts rather than explicatesassociations between depictions and 'tales'. Ezeljagdspoort isno exception. A close reading of Bleek's (1875: 20) report showsthat Afrikaander explained only the 'subject' of the painting.This is why he ignored the curious elongated figure and the'fish-tails', the feature in which Alexander, Bleek, Lloyd,Ballot and others were most interested. Indeed, the manuscript of thetale does not mention the painting at all; on the contrary, Ballotstates explicitly that the legend was obtained in response to thequestion, 'Do you believe in Watermeide?' Ballot then linkedthe legend to the Ezeljagdspoort depiction. Bleek (1874: 13), who, as aresult of Orpen's (1874) work on the Bushman folk-tales and rockart of the southeastern mountains, believed that some paintingsillustrated 'Bushman mythology', readily acceptedBallot's association. We, on the other hand, believe thatAfrikaander may never have seen the painting and that there are nocompelling reasons for linking his legend to it.Ritual and artRight or wrong about a connection between the legend and theEzeljagdspoort painting, Bleek (1875: 13) realised, as long as 120 yearsago, that Bushman rock art could be understood only from within, and notby taking an outsider's view and describing it in Western terms.Although this principle was lost sight of after his death, it laterbecame central to southern African rock-art research. When, in the1960s, rock-art researchers (e.g. Maggs 1967; Vinnicombe 1967; 1972a;1972b; Lewis-Williams 1972; 1974b) tried to follow the quantitativetechniques then being explored by 'mainstream' archaeology,they discovered that the numbers remained silent and that'laws' were not forthcoming. While many archaeologistspersevered with the admittedly exciting promise of the New Archaeology,some rock-art workers adopted a different position and sought what hassince become known as an 'insider's view' (Lewis-Williams1972; 1974a; 1974b; Vinnicombe 1972a; 1972b; 1975; 1976).In southern Africa that view could be realised through 19th- and20th-century Bushman ethnography. But it was soon recognized that theethnography is 'fragmentary' (Lewis-Williams 1972: 64):extensive as it is, it is, of course, not a complete inventory ofBushman life and belief. Moreover, the ethnography provides no simple,straightforward explanations of the art. Bushman ethnography, like theart itself, is a text that requires close, critical reading andinterpretation: the art does not 'illustrate' the ethnography,nor does the ethnography 'explain' the art in any directsense. Both contain, in their own ways, metaphors that lay at the heartof Bushman belief (Lewis-Williams 1980). Meaning is created every time aresearcher, in an effort to plumb these metaphors, interacts with theethnography on the one hand and the art on the other, and then attemptsto bring the two texts into mutually illuminating conjunction.Interaction between researcher and text, being always historicallysituated and specific, is as much an artefact See artifact. of social circumstances asof data. These caveats, now becoming widely accepted in archaeology, areentered here to show that we are aware that our own interpretations ofrock paintings are as complexly constituted as, say, Alexander's;the difference between our position and Alexander's is that werecognize at least some of the social and ideological factors bearingupon our work. Acknowledging these predispositions, we now explorechanging ethnographic understandings of the Ezeljagdspoort'mermaid' painting.An initial ethnographic account was made possible by a Bushman'scomment on a copy of the painting that Ballot made in the 1870s and thatwas then 'recopied from his sketches by Mr H.Ch. Schunke'(note on folder in South African Library). Like Michell's copy,this one was also made in the narrative, literalist lit��er��al��ism?n.1. Adherence to the explicit sense of a given text or doctrine.2. Literal portrayal; realism.lit tradition. Again,the 'fish-tails' are fairly accurate, but the copy omitsentirely the puzzling undulating lines, the dots and the two straightlines at the elongated figure's shoulder; it does, however, showthis figure's fingers. In 1878, three years after Bleek'sdeath, Lloyd showed it to /Han=kass'o, a /Xam Bushman who came fromthe Kenhardt area (for further details of the informant's hometerritory, see Deacon 1986) and who was familiar with at least someaspects of rock art (Lewis-Williams 1981a: 30-31). Comments like his areso rare and valuable that each demands the closest possible analysis(Vinnicombe 1976: 314); a superficial reading can easily be misleadingand fail to detect all-important metaphors (Lewis-Williams 1980; 1988)./Han=kass'o's observations, as recorded by Lloyd (MS pp.L.VIII.1.6063-6068) and with her parentheses, run as follows:I think that the rain's navel is that which goes (along here). Ithink that these people, they address the rain that the rain'snavel may not kill them, that the rain's navel may be favourabletowards them. That the rain's navel may not kill them. That therain's navel might keep favourable towards them. This man he hashold of a thing which resembles a stick. I think that they arerain's people. I do not know them, for I behold that they arepeople. For, they have their arms: they resemble people. They feel thatthey are sorcerers, the rain's sorcerers they are: for this man isholding a thing which resembles /khoe (a curved stick used in making aBushman house). I do not know whether it is a /khoe, for I see the thingresembles a /khoe. These people (i.e. those on the lower side of theline in the picture) I do not know whether the rain's navel dividesthem from the other people. People (they) are, sorcerers, rain'ssorcerers. They make the rain to fall and the rain's clouds comeout on account of them. Hence the rain falls, .... and the place becomesgreen on account of it. This thing (i.e. what we should have called theright arm of the rain figure), it is the one which resembles acaterpillar, the rain's caterpillar.Unfortunately, Lloyd did not record the questions she put to/Han=kass'o, so we do not know how she may have directed hisattention. We may, however, be fairly confident that she would haveasked him about Afrikaander's watermeide legend. That he did nottouch on this theme in any way suggests that his remarks can probably beseen as a denial of the watermeide interpretation. Instead he said,first, that the painting, in general and despite details he did notunderstand, had something to do with weather control and, secondly, thatthe figures were 'rain's sorcerers', that is shamanswhose task it was to make rain and to protect people from thunderstorms(Bleek 1933a; 1933b; Lewis-Williams 1981a: 103-16). Parts of hisexplanation are enigmatic and require detailed exegesis exegesisScholarly interpretation of religious texts, using linguistic, historical, and other methods. In Judaism and Christianity, it has been used extensively in the study of the Bible. Textual criticism tries to establish the accuracy of biblical texts. . (For more onthe essentially shamanistic nature of Bushman rock art throughoutsouthern Africa see e.g. Huffman 1983; Lewis-Williams 1983a; 1983b;1984; Maggs & Sealy 1983; Yates et al. 1985; Garlake 1987; Deacon1988; Dowson 1992; Hall 1986; 1990; Manhire et al. 1986; Parkington1989; Kinahan 1989; Mazel 1989; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1989a.)In the first remark Lloyd recorded, probably a response to a questionfrom her, /Han=kass'o identified what we see as a greatlyattenuated human figure as 'the rain's navel', saying'that which goes (along here)'. His use of 'goes'and Lloyd's parenthesis suggest he was actually pointing to thelong, curving line; he did not use the word 'man' as he didwhen he referred to other figures in the group. Furthermore, at the endof his statement he said, 'This thing (i.e. what we should havecalled the right arm of the rain figure), it is the one which resemblesa caterpillar, the rain's caterpillar'. (A few pages later heexplained that the 'rain's caterpillar' was large andpoisonous and that it came out of the water.) If he thought that an armof the elongated figure was a caterpillar, he clearly did not perceivethe image in any way as human. When he used the phrase 'therain's navel', he was thus referring only to the line withoutrealizing it was an attenuated human figure. All his subsequent remarksmust be read in the light of his perception of the curved figure.The linear form of this depiction suggests that 'umbilicalcord' would be a more apposite ap��po��site?adj.Strikingly appropriate and relevant. See Synonyms at relevant.[Latin appositus, past participle of app phrase, but Lloyd gives all the fewrecorded uses of the /Xam word (! hain) as 'navel'. 'Therain's navel' is in fact one of a set of anatomical metaphorsthat included 'the rain's legs', 'the rain'shair' and 'the rain's blood' (Lewis-Williams 1981a:104). To clarify /Han=kass'o's metaphor we note an associationbetween the human navel and the work of rain-shamans. In a statementgiven independently of the Ezeljagdspoort painting, Dia!kwain, anotherof Bleek and Lloyd's /Xam informants, said that people wishing toprotect their camp from an 'angry' rain (a thunderstorm thunderstorm,violent, local atmospheric disturbance accompanied by lightning, thunder, and heavy rain, often by strong gusts of wind, and sometimes by hail. ) dothree things.First, they stand in front of their dwellings, facing the directionfrom which storms come, and 'strike their (?navels) with theirfists' and 'press their hand in their ?navel'(L.V.3.4993-4994; Lloyd's parenthesis). Lloyd placed aquestion-mark before 'navel' here, but the manuscript showsthat it is the same /Xam word that /Han=kass'o used. Almostcertainly Dia!kwain would have assisted with the translation by agesture, and the word must, at the very least, have something to do withthe general area of the stomach. On the other hand, Lloyd'squestion-mark suggests that 'navel' is not an exact equivalentof the /Xam word: if the word meant no more than 'navel', itwould have been easy enough for him to indicate this by pointing. It isin fact possible that the /Xam word meant the stomach and diaphragm, notjust the navel itself, because this part of the body, known to themodern Kalahari !Kung Bushmen as the g//abesi, is believed to be theseat of a shaman's potency and the place where it starts to'boil' when he enters trance (Katz 1982). As the'boiling' increases, the stomach muscles contract painfully,and the shaman bends forward (Marshall 1969: 363). It is thereforesignificant that the large, central 'fish-tailed' figure inthe Ezeljagdspoort group is bending forward (for more paintings offorward-bending figures see Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1989a: figures15, 20, 28, 29). The striking of the navel and the pressing of a handinto the stomach in the face of a thunderstorm may thus have been aritual dramatization dram��a��ti��za��tion?n.1. The act or art of dramatizing: the dramatization of a novel.2. A work adapted for dramatic presentation: of some of the physical effects Physical effects is the term given to a sub-category of special effects in which mechanical or physical effects are recorded. Physical effects are usually planned in preproduction and created in production. of trance: peopleperformed these actions to evoke the power of trance experience as theytried to control the storm.Secondly, Dia!kwain said that the shamans of the rain 'snaptheir fingers at the rain' while they are facing the threateningstorm and pressing 'their hand in their ?navel' (L.V.3.4995).Snapping the fingers, or simply pointing, was a way of shootingsupernatural potency into a person or an animal (Marshall 1969: 351-2;Katz 1982: 46, 168, 263; Lewis-Williams 1986b; for more on supernaturalpotency see Marshall 1969; Biesele 1978; Lewis-Williams 1981a; Katz1982). Finger-snapping was therefore related to the striking of thenavel in that both gestures were involved in ritual protection fromstorms.Thirdly, Dia!kwain said that they apostrophized the rain: 'Thoushall falling turn back ... for thou dost not a little lighten, for itseems as if thou art very angry.' This is exactly what/Han=kass'o said when he commented on the figures in theEzeljagdspoort painting: 'They address the rain that therain's navel may not kill them, that the rain's navel may befavourable towards them' (L.VIII.1.6063-6064).In sum, Dia!kwain's statements and !Kung beliefs about theg//abesi show that the 'navel' was probably associated, inways that we do not fully understand, with supernatural power andshamanistic altered states of consciousness. Thus, when /Han=kass'opointed to 'the rain's navel' in the picture, he wasthinking, at least in part, of the 'angry' rain from whichshamans of the rain protected people by shooting their power at it andapostrophizing it. He was saying that what he saw as a long, curvingline (not as an attenuated human figure) represented the power of therain: 'the rain's navel' was, in some respects, ametaphorical way of talking about that power. This reading of/Han=kass'o's phrase clearly accords well with the independentinterpretation of the so-called 'thin red line' as a way ofdepicting supernatural power (Lewis-Williams 1981b), though the line canalso be seen as a transformed shaman (Dowson 1988a).Be that as it may, the most important point arising from/Han=kass'o's comment on the painting is that he recognized itas depicting the activities of shamans, despite his inability to providean interpretation of all its various features. These activities go someway towards clarifying a number of features, including the two straightlines at the elongated figure's shoulder. Schunke's version ofBallot's copy omits these lines altogether. Wilman, who copied thepainting in about 1917, seems to have mistaken the lines for the legs ofanother but partially faded elongated figure. Both Ballot and Wilmanwere puzzled by these lines, but ethnographic evidence and comparisonswith other paintings suggest that they depict sticks. Two other figuresin the group are holding similar pairs of sticks. When Bushman trancersbend forward acutely, they sometimes support their weight on twodancing-sticks (Wilmsen pers. comm.), a posture observed long ago byBurchell (1822: 63) and often depicted in rock paintings where thesticks are sometimes meticulously decorated with small red marks. Today!Kung healers do not seem to attach any special significance todancing-sticks, though Marshall (pers. comm.) noticed that theysometimes wave them over their patients. An early-19th-century report,however, describes Bushman women placing 'two bits of reed acrosseach other' on the back of a man who had collapsed during whatappears to have been a curing, or trance, dance (Arbousset & Daumas1846: 247). Using ostrich ostrich,common name for a large flightless bird (Struthio camelus) of Africa and parts of SW Asia, allied to the rhea, the emu and the extinct moa. It is the largest of living birds; some males reach a height of 8 ft (244 cm) and weigh from 200 to 300 lb feathers, they then wiped the sweat off him,all the while 'leaping backwards and forwards across hisback'. Their manipulation of two pieces of reed in cases of severesickness and their own statement that their use 'exerts a salutaryinfluence on the sick person' led Arbousset & Daumas to suggestthat the use of reeds was part of a 'religious rite'. Notingtheir observations and the frequent depiction of two sticks in paintingsof dances, Vinnicombe (1976: 314) concluded that they 'wereconnected with protective and curing medicine'. The ethnographicand painted evidence thus suggests that the sticks depicted in theEzeljagdspoort painting, though meaningless to the early copyists, werehighly significant for the artist and original viewers.The positions of the pairs of sticks in the painting are alsosignificant. Two pairs are held as if by dancers, but the pair Schunkeomitted and Wilman misinterpreted are closely associated with theelongated figure's shoulder. Held sticks were in some general senseintelligible to the copyists, but their detached position next to theelongated figure meant nothing to them. The sticks, as well as oneundulating line, are, however, close to the figure's n//ao, a'hole' at the nape of the neck and between the shoulder-bladesfrom which !Kung shamans say they expel the sickness they have removedfrom people (Biesele 1978: 929). This expelled sickness can be'seen' by shamans but not by ordinary people (Biesele 1978:929; England 1968: 427). Numerous trance figures, especially trance-buck(e.g. Lewis-Williams 1981a: figure 33e), have lines or dots emanatingfrom this area, and these have been interpreted as part of theshaman-artists' perception of spiritual reality (Lewis-Williams1981a: 93-101). In the light of /Han=kass'o's statement thatthe painting depicts rain-shamans, it is highly significant that then//ao is closely associated with n!ao, a power that changes the weatherand, in certain circumstances, brings rain (Biesele 1978; 1992; Marshall1957). The placing of a pair of sticks near the elongated figure'sn//ao may thus have held some special significance for the shaman-artistthat linked trance dancing with n!ao and weather control. Thisinterpretation of the sticks thus accords well with/Han=kass'o's statement that the painting depicts'rain's sorcerers'.All the ethnographic evidence we have adduced so far points towardsthe Ezeljagdspoort painting being in some way associated with theactivities, beliefs and metaphors of Bushman rain-shamans, but it stillleaves the matter of the curious 'fish-tails' unexplained. Adecade and a half ago, Lewis-Williams (1977: 167) argued that/Han=kass'o's failure to comment on the ichthyoid feature,together with the similar appearance of some other paintings in the sameregion (Lewis-Williams 1977: figure 2), suggests that 'the mermaideffect has been created by poor draughtsmanship Draughts´man`shipn. 1. The office, art, or work of a draughtsman.draughtsmanship, draftsmanship (US) n (= drawing) → dibujo lineal;(skill rather than an intentionto depict human beings with ichthyoid tails'. Since then ourincreasing understanding of Bushman shamanism, metaphors and the rockart itself has led us to accept the draughtsmanship of these paintingsand to advocate a more comprehensive interpretation. The route to thismore persuasive explanation is via an until recently unexplored field ofresearch.Neuropsychology neuropsychologyScience concerned with the integration of psychological observations on behaviour with neurological observations on the central nervous system (CNS), including the brain. Once the ethnographic and painted evidence for believing Bushman rockart to be essentially shamanistic had been accepted, research turned toneuropsychological studies of altered states of consciousness (e.g.Thackeray et al. 1981; Maggs & Sealy 1983; Lewis-Williams 1986a;Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1988; 1989b; Dowson 1989; 1992). Because thenervous system is a human universal and because the visual, somatic somatic/so��mat��ic/ (so-mat��ik)1. pertaining to or characteristic of the soma or body.2. pertaining to the body wall in contrast to the viscera.so��mat��icadj. ,aural, gustatory gus��ta��to��ryor gus��ta��tiveadj.Of or relating to the sense of taste. and olfactory olfactory/ol��fac��to��ry/ (ol-fak��ter-e) pertaining to the sense of smell. ol��fac��to��ryadj.Of, relating to, or contributing to the sense of smell. hallucinations it produces are verysimilar in form whether they are induced by hallucinogens,hyperventilation hyperventilation/hy��per��ven��ti��la��tion/ (-ven?ti-la��shun)1. abnormally increased pulmonary ventilation, resulting in reduction of carbon dioxide tension, which, if prolonged, may lead to alkalosis.2. , sensory deprivation sensory deprivationn.The reduction or absence of usual external stimuli or perceptual opportunities, commonly resulting in psychological distress and sometimes in unpleasant hallucinations. and so forth, neuropsychology cangive some idea of the structure and nature of hallucinations that isindependent of cultural circumstances (e.g. Eichmeier & Hofer 1974;Siegel & Jarvik 1975; Reichel-Dolmatoff 1969; 1978; Lewis-Williams& Dowson 1988). On the other hand, much of the content ofhallucinations is culturally controlled and therefore varies fromsociety to society. Neuropsychological research may explain the originof some forms, but it cannot explain the meanings and associations thatthese hallucinations had for those who experienced them (Dowson 1989).The meanings attached to hallucinations and the social function ofaltered states of consciousness are always culture-specific andhistorically situated. Our recourse to neuropsychology should not beseen as the reduction of all rock art to universal constants of anysort. Culture is always paramount. As we now show, neuropsychology andethnography facilitate different but complementary approaches tointerpretation.Visual hallucinationsThe earliest copy of the Ezeljagdspoort group, the one made byMichell, shows an undulating line curving round the top of the elongatedfigure. Schunke's version of Ballot's copy omits all thelines. Wilman combined one of the undulating lines with the two sticksassociated with the elongated figure's n//ao so that they resemblethe faded remains of a second elongated figure. Johnson's copyomits the undulating lines altogether and has the two sticks lower downthe elongated figure's right (?) arm. In contrast to these copies,a recent tracing by Dowson shows two undulating lines and at least fourdots. Acknowledging ever-present human error, we believe this copy to bemore accurate than the earlier ones.As we have argued, the reason why previous copyists omitted theundulating lines and dots is that they do not fit an essentiallynarrative view of the art. Today we have a better grasp of the'non-real' elements of Bushman rock art, and it is these thatexplain the undulating lines and dots. In an early stage of trance,subjects 'see' luminous, pulsating geometric forms known asentoptic phenomena, form constants or phosphenes (e.g. Siegel &Jarvik 1975; Kluver 1942; Knoll & Kugler 1959; Horowitz 1975; Oster1970; Eichmeier & Hofer 1974). The forms include zig-zags, grids,nested catenary curves, filigrees and, significantly, undulating linesand dots. Because these entoptic phenomena derive from the human nervoussystem, they may be experienced by all people who enter a trance state,no matter what their cultural background. In a deeper stage of tranceentoptic elements combine with culturally determined hallucinations ofanimals, people, monsters and so forth.Because we know from the ethnography that Bushman rock art isessentially shamanistic, it seems highly probable that the geometricmotifs that are common among the rock engravings (Dowson 1992) but whichare also found among the paintings derive from entoptic experiences. Insome paintings deriving from deeper trance the entoptic elements arevery prominent (e.g. Dowson & Holliday 1989); in other panels theyhave been more subtly blended with iconic elements (e.g. Dowson 1989).Indeed, numerous paintings throughout southern Africa combine zig-zags,dots, U-shapes and other entoptic forms with people and animals. Theundulating lines and dots in the Ezeljagdspoort painting are thusconsistent with deeper trance visions (Lewis-Williams & Dowson1988). Just what shaman-artists thought about them is, of course,another matter. Perhaps they thought the lines and dots weresupernatural potency, as they seem to have thought about dots andzig-zags in other paintings (see examples in Dowson 1989; Dowson &Holliday 1989).Somatic hallucinationsNeuropsychology also informs on somatic hallucinations that involvealterations to a subject's perception of his or her body. Sometimesthese alterations are radical, even to the extreme of dismemberment dismemberment/dis��mem��ber��ment/ (dis-mem��ber-ment) amputation of a limb or a portion of it. dismembermentamputation of a limb or a portion of it. (Eliade 1972). In other instances they take the form of pricklingsensations or the feeling that one has extra limbs and digits, acondition known as polymelia (e.g. Emboden 1979: 44).One of the most common somatic hallucinations is associated with thesensation of rising up until one towers above and looks down onone's surroundings and one's body and limbs feel extremelyattenuated. This feeling is one of the most frequently depictedhallucinations in Bushman rock art: shamans are often shown with long,thin bodies and limbs. One particularly clear example shows three suchfigures, each in a distinctive trancing posture: the middle one has itshands raised to shoulder height in a typical dancing position, and theone on the right has its arms in the backward posture that some !KungBushman shamans adopt when they are asking G//aoan (God) to put morepotency into their bodies (Lewis-Williams 1986b). The figure on the lefthas its hands placed on its chest, a less well understood gesture thatmay be related to the prickling sensation Bushman shamans say theyexperience in their breastbones.We suggest that this kind of somatic hallucination hallucination,false perception characterized by a distortion of real sensory stimuli. Common types of hallucination are auditory, i.e., hearing voices or noises and visual, i.e., seeing people that are not actually present. explains thecurving, slightly undulating elongated human figure in theEzeljagdspoort painting -- the one that /Han=kass'o did not realizewas human and called 'the rain's navel'. Contrary to hisinterpretation, the figure is probably cognate with many others insouthern Africa that depict trancing shamans experiencing the somatichallucination of attenuation Loss of signal power in a transmission. AttenuationThe reduction in level of a transmitted quantity as a function of a parameter, usually distance. It is applied mainly to acoustic or electromagnetic waves and is expressed as the ratio of power densities. .Metaphor and neuropsychologyOne of the most useful results of the dual ethnographic andneuropsychological research programme has been the recognition that anumber of Bushman metaphors originate in Verb 1. originate in - come fromstem - grow out of, have roots in, originate in; "The increase in the national debt stems from the last war" the strange and overwhelmingsensations of trance experience, just as Westerners who have experiencedcertain altered states of consciousness resort to metaphors like'high' (rising up and attenuation) and 'trip'(out-of-body experiences). Prominent among the Bushman metaphors fortrance experience was 'under water' (Lewis-Williams 1980;1988). Trance and submersion submersionthe act of placing, or the condition of being under, the surface of a liquid. both involve feelings of weightlessness weightlessness,the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravitational field. ,affected vision, difficulty in breathing, the sense of being in anotherworld, sounds in the ears and, finally, unconsciousness. Bushman shamansrecounting their trance experiences therefore spoke of travelling underwater (Biesele 1975; 1980) and diving into water-holes (Orpen 1874: 2,10; Bleek 1935: 28, 32).When individual shaman-artists came to paint their experiences, theyexplored the pictorial potential of trance metaphors, especially throughanimal behaviour (Dowson 1988b; Lewis-Williams 1981a; 1988). Oneparticularly explicit painting shows fish associated with human figures,one of whose arms end in fish-tails. A combination of ethnographic,neuropsychological and painted evidence thus leads us towards acceptingthe Ezeljagdspoort 'fish-tails' as another depiction of the'under water' experience.Allowing that the Ezeljagdspoort figures may be ichthyanthropes, weargue that a more persuasive interpretation has been obscured becauseAlexander and all subsequent commentators set our minds running alongamphibious lines. Our interpretation comes from neuropsychology, similarpainted figures some of which are in the same region and Bushman beliefsabout birds. We consider each of these three sources of evidence.Neuropsychological and ethnographic research has shown that flight isanother common (indeed, world-wide) metaphor for trance that arises fromsensations of weightlessness, dissociation from one's body,journeys to distant places and changes in perspective that includelooking down on one's surroundings (e.g. Barber 1971: 103; Siegel1977). The Tukano shamans of the Amazon Basin “Amazonian” redirects here. For other uses, see Amazonian (disambiguation).The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. , for instance, say thatthey fly on the winds and visit far-off places (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1978:291).Some paintings not far from Ezeljagdspoort take up this theme; theyare very like the Ezeljagdspoort figures but they also have long armscurving back parallel to their sides. Another more recently recordedpainting, in the adjacent Cango Kloof kloof?n. South AfricanA deep ravine.[Afrikaans, from Middle Dutch clove, cleft, ravine; see gleubh- in Indo-European roots. , shows 'diving' figureswith aliform aliform/ali��form/ (al��i-form) shaped like a wing. a��li��formadj.Shaped like a wing; alar.aliformshaped like a wing. arms and forked tails. One of these has a conventionalizedhuman head with the two antelope ears of a shaman's cap (Bleek1935: 43-7; Lewis-Williams 1981a: 77). Such paintings, though notcommon, are widespread. One in the north-eastern Cape shows a fantasticbird standing on a man's head. In the Natal Drakensberg paintingsshow what appear to be human beings blended therianthropically withbirds; these figures also have 'arms' in the backward trancingposture (Lewis-Williams 1981a: 88). Another brings together the'flight' and 'underwater' metaphors by associating abird and fish with trance dancers.Do these paintings imply that Bushmen conceived of trance in terms ofavian flight? To answer this question we return to the ethnography. Oneof Lloyd's informants said that Bushman shamans 'turnthemselves into little birds' (Bleek 1956: 119). Dia!kwain alsospoke of a shaman who turned himself into 'a little bird' thatsometimes alighted on a person's head (Bleek 1935: 18-19). He didnot say what species he meant by 'little bird', but inanother, unpublished, statement he was more specific and said that theswallow was 'the rain's thing' (L.V.21.5698-5707). Theword he used for swallow was !kwerri-/nan. The second part of this wordis obscure, but the first part means to thunder or to strike withlightning. In /Xam idiom it was the rain (!khwa) that was said to strike(!kwerriten) (Bleek 1956: 465). Another /Xam word for swallow was/kabbi-ta-/khwa (Bleek 1956: 296). Here the first part of the word isobscure, but /khwa is another (perhaps erroneous) form of !khwa, rain(Bleek 1956: 296, 431); ta forms the possessive case Noun 1. possessive case - the case expressing ownershipgenitive, genitive case, possessiveoblique, oblique case - any grammatical case other than the nominative . Thus whatever/kabbi and /nan may have meant, both words point to a close associationbetween swallows and rain. Dia!kwain expressed this association when hesaid that swallows 'come when the rain clouds are in the sky'(L.V.21.5698-5699). In !Kung, swallows are g!ace'mhsi,'children of the rain' (Biesele pers. comm.).But the association goes further. Dia!kwain said that people shouldnot throw stones (a sign of disrespect) at swallows because 'theswallow is with the things which the sorcerers take out |/ki, which alsomeans 'to possess', as a shaman possesses potency~, which theysend about. Those are the things which the swallow resembles'(L.V.21.5701-5702). A man who did not heed this injunction fellunconscious because 'the swallow had entered into him'(L.V.21.5706). Dia!kwain then clearly established the notion ofshamanistic transformation into swallows by explaining that 'asorcerer (tool) SORCERER - A simple tree parser generator by Terence Parr <parrt@s1.arc.umn.edu>.SORCERER is suitable for translation problems lying between those solved by code generator generators and by full source-to-source translator generators. had come out of the swallow into him' (L.V.21.5706-5707).For the Bushmen, a swallow could be the embodiment of a shaman. Therelevance of these beliefs to the Ezeljagdspoort painting becomesinescapable when we recall that /Han=kass'o identified the figureswith forked tails as 'the rain's sorcerers' and addedthat they 'make the rain to fall and the rain's clouds comeout on account of them' (L.VIII.1.6067-6068).We therefore argue that the close links between shamans of the rain,swallows and clouds, should be seen together with statements aboutshamans turning into birds and paintings such as the ones in FIGURES 5and 6. The ethnographic, neuropsychological and painted data thuscombine to suggest very strongly that the Ezeljagdspoort group depictsnot fish-people, as has generally been thought, but ratherswallow-people, that is, shamans of the rain in the form of swallows,and that they are engaged in some sort of activity in the spiritual(hallucinatory hal��lu��ci��na��to��ryadj.1. Of or characterized by hallucination.2. Inducing or causing hallucination. ) realm to protect people from the dangers ofthunderstorms. The painting is thus a graphic realization of visual andsomatic hallucinations that have been given content and meaning by thespecific cultural and cognitive situation of the painter.Beyond narrationSo far we may have given the impression that our interpretations ofthe 'graphic realizations' of Bushman religion are in thenarrative tradition. Whereas earlier writers saw the art as a narrativeof daily or mythical events, we may seem to be arguing that the art is,in large measure, a narrative of hallucinatory experiences. In some waysthis is true: the art does sometimes, though not always, recordshaman-artists' visions. On the other hand, ethnographic andneuropsychological data together with features of the art itself showthat both the paint and the rock face to which it was applied weresignificant (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990).In the first place, the paint was more than prosaic colouring matter.The evidence for this comes from two ethnographic sources. In 1930 How(1962: 26-42) asked Mapote, an old man of Sotho and Pondomise descentwho had learned to paint with Bushmen in their caves, to make somepaintings for her. He said he would need qhang qhang, a glistening glis��ten?intr.v. glis��tened, glis��ten��ing, glis��tensTo shine by reflection with a sparkling luster. See Synonyms at flash.n.A sparkling, lustrous shine. haematite, and that it would have to be prepared at full moon out ofdoors by a woman who would have to heat it over a fire until it wasred-hot and then grind it to a powder. This pigment would then have tobe mixed with the blood of a freshly killed eland eland(ē`lənd), large, spiral-horned African antelope, genus Taurotragus, found in brush country or open forest at the edge of grasslands. Elands live in small herds and are primarily browsers rather than grazers. . In the event, few ofthese conditions could be met, but Mapote none the less produced a fewpaintings for How. Some 50 years later an old woman of mixed Bushmandescent then living in Transkei confirmed the use of eland blood as amedium (Jolly 1986; Lewis-Williams 1986c; Prins 1990; see alsoEllenberger 1953). She explained that artists used eland blood to infuse in��fusev.1. To steep or soak without boiling in order to extract soluble elements or active principles.2. To introduce a solution into the body through a vein for therapeutic purposes. their paint with supernatural power. Clearly, the preparation of paintwas, at least in some circumstances, much more than a simpletechnological procedure.Other ethnographic evidence suggests that the rock walls to which thepaint was applied were also significant. A !Kung shaman said that histeacher, an older and more experienced shaman, had told him that hewould enter the earth, that he 'would travel through the earth andthen emerge at another place' (Biesele 1980: 56). This undergroundjourney involved a passage through water, a belief recorded in the 19thcentury as well (Orpen 1874: 7; Bleek 1924: 17). These reports andindeed the world-wide occurrence of shamanistic subterranean andsubaquatic journeys can probably be ascribed to the neuropsychologicallydetermined experience of a vortex that engulfs subjects as they moveinto deep trance. Eventually, as they are drawn into the vortex, theyfeel dissociated from their bodies, and they become part of their ownmental imagery (e.g. Siegel & Jarvik 1975: 128, 139; Siegel 1977:134, 136).The relevance of this experience to the rock art is suggested by theway in which paintings emerge from or enter into the rock face.Sometimes red lines fringed with white dots (Lewis-Williams 1981b;Dowson 1988a), depictions of therianthropes, fantastic eared and tuskedserpents and also 'realistic' animals appear to enter andleave cracks or other inequalities in the rock face. In other instancesdepictions emerge from smears of paint. Many of these paintingsincorporate elements that are clearly diagnostic of Bushman shamanism: akneeling posture, arms held backwards, lines extending back from thenose that probably represent nasal haemorrhage, and fly-whisks(Lewis-Williams 1981a; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1989a). For somesouthern Bushmen, the entrance to the tunnel, or vortex, seems to havebeen in the walls of rock shelters (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990).The rock itself was like a veil suspended between this world and thespirit world: it was not a neutral tabula rasa on which artists couldpaint whatever they pleased. Rather, it was a significant andconstraining context, in some ways like stained glass windows in achurch: whatever appears in the windows, even apparently secular itemssuch as animals or boats, are given, by their context, restrictedsymbolic meaning and heightened affective impact.The active role which both rock and paint played in shamanisticrituals was suggested by the old Transkei woman of mixed Bushman descentto whom we have referred. She explained that, as shamans danced, theyturned to face the paintings. It seems that potency went from an eland,via its blood, into the paintings and then, in other ritualcircumstances, it flowed from the paintings into the shamans.Something of what trancing Bushman shamans experienced as, seekingpotency, they turned to the rupestral veil is suggested byneuropsychological research. A hallucinating Western subject, looking ata picture of a waterfall, said that he saw 'a remarkablebrilliance' and a 'three-dimensionality'. 'Thepicture appeared to have a depth found in stereoscopic stereoscopic/ster��eo��scop��ic/ (ster?e-o-skop��ik) having the effect of a stereoscope; giving objects a solid or three-dimensional appearance. ster��e��o��scop��icn.1. pictures'(Cohen cohenor kohen(Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. 1964: 133). Other subjects have reported similar changes in depthrelations and the way in which two-dimensional objects are seen in threedimensions (Kieffer & Moritz 1968). At the same time, hallucinationsare projected on to walls and ceilings (Kluver 1926: 505, 506; Knoll etal. 1963: 208; Hofer & Osmond 1967: 13). Significantly, Szuman(cited by Siegel & Jarvik 1975: 109) described this experience as'pictures painted before your imagination', and Siegel (1977:134) likened it to 'a motion picture or a slide show'. Thesereports suggest that, as trancing Bushman shamans looked at the paintedwalls of rock shelters, their own hallucinations would have beenprojected on to and would have mixed with the paintings, themselvesbrilliant, animated and three-dimensional in their trance vision. Then,like some of the painted visions, the shamans would have penetrated theveil on their way to the spirit world.The paintings were not merely a record or narrative of past religiousexperience, depictions of things that existed elsewhere or at anothertime, as a photograph represents a person or object that has its realitysomewhere else. The paintings were things in themselves with their ownpower and life and which played an active role in shamanistic rituals.Probably, for trancing shamans, paintings were arrested visions withwhich they could articulate their own experiences. Each ritualperformance gathered up past visions reified on the rock face and,combining them with visions of the moment, created a new experience: thepaintings were, in this sense, living, powerful and active earnests ofspiritual transcendence.The Ezeljagdspoort painting was thus much more than a narrativerecord of a vision of shamans protecting people from the dangers ofthunderstorms. It probably played an active role in the rituals ofhallucination: trancing shamans were drawn into and through it as theyjourneyed to the spirit world to battle with the weather and the powersthat threatened human existence. Through its immanent im��ma��nent?adj.1. Existing or remaining within; inherent: believed in a God immanent in humans.2. Restricted entirely to the mind; subjective. potency it bothtriggered and informed spiritual experience.ConclusionWe have not explored all the possible connotations and implicationsof the Ezeljagdspoort painting. Shamanism is a highly complex phenomenonthat permeates every part of a society and every part of a world view.Moreover, rain-making, a component of shamanism, is itself a complexactivity with rich connotations and associations (Lewis-Williams 1981a:103-16). All these connotations, together with some related to theritual of painting itself rather than to specific depictions, probablyresonated in the Ezeljagdspoort rock shelter A rock shelter is a shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. Another term is rockhouse.Rock shelters form because a rock stratum such as sandstone that is resistant to erosion and weathering has formed a cliff or bluff, but a softer stratum, more subject .Our preferred interpretation of the Ezeljagdspoort painting as anintrinsically powerful reification re��i��fy?tr.v. re��i��fied, re��i��fy��ing, re��i��fiesTo regard or treat (an abstraction) as if it had concrete or material existence.[Latin r of a Bushman shaman-artist'shallucination of swallow-shamans engaged in a rain-protection ritual is,of course, a hypothesis, but one that differs from the essentiallyWestern speculation of the narrative approach. By contrast, ourethnographic and neuropsychological hypothesis is more complex and is,moreover, supported by diverse evidence. We argue that the diversity ofthe evidence contributes to our hypothesis and, indeed, whole approachto southern African rock art in five ways. Most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent"above all, most especially , we knowfrom the ethnography that Bushman rock art was, at least in very largemeasure, closely associated with trance experience. Secondly, we know,again from the ethnography, many of the metaphors Bushmen used to speakabout this experience. Thirdly, we know, from the art itself, some ofthe diverse and often idiosyncratic id��i��o��syn��cra��sy?n. pl. id��i��o��syn��cra��sies1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity.3. ways in which Bushman shaman-artistsdepicted these metaphors. Fourthly, we know, from neuropsychology, thekinds, though not the 'meanings', of the somatic and visualhallucinations Bushman shamans experienced. Finally, we know from theethnography, neuropsychology and the art that the paintings were notjust pictures: they were powerful ritual objects, things in themselves.We are thus able to contain our interpretations within the milieu ofBushman experience, and this, of course, increases their acceptability.Our interpretation of the Ezeljagdspoort painting is not simply a new'guess'; it has more supportive ethnographicneuropsychological evidence than competing explanations, and it isconsistent with what we already know about the art. Most significantly,it draws our attention to and explains more features of the painted datathan did the older narrative interpretations.The methodology we have exemplified here enables us to uncoveraspects of southern African rock art that eluded copyists andresearchers for many years. We are beginning to understand some of thereligious experiences of Later Stone Age hunter-gatherers that, not longago, would have been considered forever lost. The task of rock-artresearch is, in the last analysis, to recover those 'lost'subjectivities; they are as central to our understanding of the past astechnology, subsistence strategies and ancient climates. Today there isa welcome and growing emphasis in southern African Later Stone Agearchaeology on social analysis (e.g. Wadley 1987; Kinahan 1989; Mazel1989), but some accounts still give scant attention to the cognitivepast.Prehistoric people were no different from historical people; indeed,a distinction between prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to and history subverts our attitude tothe past, especially in South Africa. Without wishing in any way todiminish traditional archaeological concerns, we believe that, byexcluding belief, ritual and 'spiritual' experience, asuncovered by rock-art research, from accounts of the southern Africanpast or by restricting these components to a brief coda to atechnological symphony, writers create, albeit inadvertently, anideological view that separates the indigenous Khoisan inhabitants ofthe subcontinent from the stream of human history: thus dispossessed,they appear to be insentient in��sen��tient?adj.Devoid of sensation or consciousness; inanimate.in��sentience n.Adj. 1. pawns on an ecological chess board, movedhither and thither Adv. 1. hither and thither - from one place or situation to another; "we were driven from pillar to post"from pillar to post by factors beyond their control (Lewis-Williams 1985;Wadley 1987; Mazel 1989). With their ancestors bereft ofquintessentially human feelings and beliefs and any truly humanehistory, modern people are easy prey to political positions that seethem as expendable in an inexorable process of 'development'.On the other hand, by analysing individual rock-art depictions andpanels of depictions in the detail that our method allows, we canrecover some of the religious and intellectual experiences of the peoplewho constituted at least the last phases of the southern African LaterStone Age. We can thus move towards restoring their full humanity and sodissolving the boundary between history and prehistory. SouthernAfrica's past need no longer be seen as sharply divided into twodifferent kinds of discourse by the arrival of white settlers. Thatevent was but one intervention in a long and varied human history.Acknowledgements. We thank Thomas Huffman, Megan Biesele, Lyn Wadley,Anne Holliday, Geoff Blundell and Sven Ouzman who read drafts of thispaper and offered useful comments. Lorna Marshall, Megan Biesele (whostandardized our spelling of Bushman words), Mathias Guenther, EdWilmsen and Polly Wiessner have generously shared their work with us.The Librarian, Jagger Library (University of Cape Town Coordinates: “UCT” redirects here. For other uses, see UCT (disambiguation). ), permittedquotation from the Bleek and Lloyd Collection, and the Director, SouthAfrican Library, granted access to collections. We are grateful to anumber of people who kindly typed a long series of drafts. The Rock ArtResearch Unit is funded by the Centre for Science Development and theUniversity of the Witwatersrand Due to the 1959 Extension of University Education Act the school was only allowed to register a small number of black students for most of the apartheid era, even though several notable black anti-apartheid leaders graduated from the university. .1 Some writers prefer 'San' to 'Bushmen' onaccount of the latter's pejorative pejorativeMedtalk Bad…real bad associations for some people insouthern Africa. Unfortunately, 'San', a Nama word, also hasnegative connotations: it could be translated 'vagabond', andits use by archaeologists and anthropologists ascribes to the Namaantagonistic attitudes towards Bushmen. Because there are so manyBushman languages, there is no generic word to cover all groups. Alongwith writers such as Lorna Marshall, Megan Biesele, Rob Gordon and AlanBarnard, we retain 'Bushman' but explicitly reject allpossible pejorative associations.ReferencesALEXANDER, J.E. 1837. Narrative of a voyage of observation among thecolonies of western Africa, in the flag-ship Thalia; and of a campaignin Kaffir-land, on the staff of the commander-in-chief, in 1835. London:Henry Colburn.ARBOUSSET, T. & F. DAUMAS. 1846. Narrative of an exploratory tourto the north-east of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope Noun 1. Cape of Good Hope - a point of land in southwestern South Africa (south of Cape Town)2. Cape of Good Hope - a province of western South AfricaCape of Good Hopen → . Translatedfrom the French of the Rev. T. Arbousset by John Croumbie Brown. CapeTown Cape Townor Capetown,city (1991 pop. 854,616), legislative capital of South Africa and capital of Western Cape, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. 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