Altered states, dreams and archives
This course will describe a history of attempts to understand rock paintings, particularly those from the Cederberg, moving further into the minds and intentions of the painters.
ALTERED STATES, DREAMS AND ARCHIVES
Emeritus Professor John Parkington; Dr Siyakha Mguni, archaeologists, University of Cape Town
Monday 19–Wednesday 21 January 9.15 am COURSE FEES R345; Staff and students R173
This course will describe a history of attempts to understand rock paintings, particularly those from the Cederberg, moving further into the minds and intentions of the painters. We associate our understandings with ethnographic records of hunters and gatherers from southern Africa and beyond who do or do not paint. Although we highlight the Western Cape, there will be many more examples of rock art from other parts of the subcontinent and beyond. The primary conclusion is that rock art was a complex meaning-making tradition rather than one that merely depicted objects from the artists’ surroundings. In order to elaborate on the social and ritual contexts that the images revealed, the artists’ painting choices were thus more purposeful and deliberate than arbitrary and fanciful.
Lecture titles
- Fifty years of construing rock art through the lens of the San trance dance Dr Siyakha Mguni
- Understanding San rock paintings: what can we learn from dreams? Dr Siyakha Mguni
- Interpreting Cederberg rock paintings: a panoramic view from archival perspectives
Recommended reading
Garlake, PS. 1995. The Hunter’s Vision: The Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Lewis-Williams, D and Dowson, TA. 2000. Images of Power: Understanding San Rock Art. Cape Town: Struik Publishers.
Mguni, S. 2015. Termites of the Gods: San Cosmology in Southern African Rock Art. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Parkington, JE. 2003. Cederberg Rock Paintings: Follow the San. Clanwilliam: Living Landscape Project. Rusch, N and Parkington, JE. 2010. San Rock Engravings: Marking the Karoo Landscape. Cape Town: Struik
Travel & Heritage.
Solomon, A. 1998. Ethnography and Method in Southern African Rock Art Research. In: Chippindale, C and Taçon, PSC (eds). The Archaeology of Rock Art, pp. 268–284. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575455779