Reading art, writing history: Rock art and social change in Southern Africa

TLDR

The traditional view of rock art as a mere pictorial record of Stone Age life is outdated, as it actually reflects socially situated processes involving makers and neighboring peoples. The paper proposes a new role for rock art in writing southern African history. Rock art evidence shows historically situated social processes and became a site of struggle where egalitarian values eroded and shamans gained political control of resources.

Abstract

Abstract This paper outlines a new role for rock art in the writing of southern African history. The old view of the art as a pictorial record of Stone Age life needs to be discarded. What has been learned about southern African rock art has raised the status of its images from objects in need of explanation to evidence for historically situated social processes. These processes implicated not only the makers of the art but also neighbouring peoples with whom they interacted. The art became a site of struggle as 'egalitarian' values were eroded and shamans assumed political roles that included control of resources.