'The men with rhebok's heads; they tame elands and snakes': Incorporating the rhebok antelope in the understanding of Southern African rock art

Abstract

Rhebok are most commonly painted in naturalistic attitudes. Rhebok are indistinguishable from reedbuck and other small antelope'. Beyond such hackneyed associations that seem always to crop up when grey rhebok (Pelea capreolus) are mentioned, they are seldom tackled in the literature of southern African rock art. At first, it may perhaps be a surprise that this antelope, given so little attention, is the second most frequently painted in the southeastern mountains - the Malotis and Drakensberg - which is the most densely painted region of southern Africa. On closer examination, however, it may be clearer as to why the rhebok has been given a wide berth: because there is insufficient ethnography to get to grips with it. This paper attempts to show that there are several handles by which one can grasp how and why the rhebok was as important to the artists of the southeastern mountains as the numerical emphasis they gave it suggests.