Revelations of religious reality: The individual in San rock art

Abstract

Abstract San ethnography concerning the personal nature of religious beliefs contradicts the view that San rock art, essentially a religious art, is uniform due to social control. There are, however, rare paintings and engravings that show that some idiosyncrasy does exist. Because these idiosyncratic depictions were created under certain social conditions and constraints, they are explicable within the framework of the San cognitive system. They are thought to be expressions of religious beliefs comparable with the ethnographic accounts of individual religious revelations. San rock art comprises depictions which are uniform, resulting from a combination of neurological and cultural factors, as well as idiosyncratic or nonce depictions resulting from idiosyncratic revelations.