Seeing and knowing: Rock art with and without ethnography

by Geoffrey Blundell, Christopher Chippindale, Jean Clottes, Margaret W. Conkey, Edward B. Eastwood, Julie E. Francis, Knut Helskog, Imogene L. Lim, Lawrence L. Loendorf, and Johannes Loubser

Geoffrey Blundell (Editor), Christopher Chippindale (Editor), and Benjamin Smith (Editor)

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This collection focuses on David Lewis-Williams and the extent of his personal impact on the field of rock art research. It is largely through his work that San rock art has come to be understood so well, as a complex symbolic and metaphoric representation of San religious beliefs and practices. The purpose of this volume is to demonstrate the depth and wide geographical impact of Lewis-Williams' contribution, with particular emphasis on the use of theory and methodology drawn from ethnography that he has used with inspirational effect in understanding the meaning and context of rock art in various parts of the world. Seeing and Knowing explores how best archaeologists study rock art when there exist ethnographic or ethno - historic bases of insight, and how they study rock art when there do not appear to exist ethnographic or ethnohistoric bases of insight - in short, how to understand and learn from rock art with and without ethnography. Because many of the chapters are based on solid fieldwork and ethnographic research, they offer a new body of work that provides the evidence for differentiation between knowing and simply seeing.
  • ISBN10 1868145131
  • ISBN13 9781868145133
  • Publish Date 1 January 2010
  • Publish Status Active
  • Out of Print 11 August 2021
  • Publish Country ZA
  • Imprint Wits University Press
  • Format Paperback
  • Pages 328
  • Language English