Rock art and ritual: Southern Africa and beyond

Summary

Southern African rock art provides a starting point for arguing that European Upper Palaeolithic parietal art had a shamanic character. The author identifies different stages in the production and consumption of rock-art depictions, all embedded in rituals that constituted, reproduced, and sometimes subverted power relations. Multiple ethnographic analogies are used to build an account of the changing association between art and ritual in the Upper Palaeolithic of Western Europe.

Study at a glance

Abstract

ABsTR4CZ-Southern African Rock Art is taken as a starting point in order to argue the shamanic character of European Upper Palaeolithic Parietal Art.The author identWes c4fferent stages of production and consumption ofrock-art depictions.AII ofthem are embedded in rituals that constituted, reproduced and sometimes subverted poiver relations.Multiple ethnographic analogies are useful in order to buld up an account ofhe changing association between art and ritual in the Upper Palaeolithic of Westem Europe.REsusar.-El arte rupestre sudafricano sirve de punto de partida para argumentar el carcter chamnico del arte parietal paleoltico.El autor identfica los dWerentes estadios de produccin y consumo de las representaciones rupestres.Todos ellosforman parte de rituales que conforman, reproducen y a veces subvierten las relaciones de poder El empleo de la analoga etnogrfica mltiple es extremadamente til si se quieren detectar las transformaciones en la asociacin entre arte y ritual durante el Paleoltico Superior en Europa OccidentaL