Undesrstanding variation: A stylistic ethnographic analysis of rock art from the Makgabeng Plateau, Limpopo province, South Africa
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Date
2019
Authors
Pinto, Lourenco Casimiro
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Abstract
Recent rock art studies have earmarked certain finger-painted geometric rock art
motifs and attributed these to herder, or Khoekhoe, groups across southern
Africa. This study investigated the authorship, spatial and temporal distribution,
interaction and possible meanings of these geometric rock art motifs. Focusing on
a specific area, the Makgabeng, Limpopo Province, South Africa, the relationship
between two corpora (finger-painted geometric and fine-line naturalistic rock art)
was investigated using a stylistic ethnographic method. A method that allows for a
contextual understanding of change through time and space, a method that
considers historicity, change and the complex interaction between groups in the
area. A comparative study of motifs in the two styles was undertaken at 44 sites in
the Makgabeng. In this area, the ethnographies support interpretations that
emphasise specific ideas around the body and phenomenological approaches of
embodiment for each motif cluster. Through statistical and comparative studies, it
was found that it was unlikely that two distinct ethnic groups created two rock art
syles. Rather than an introduction of new meanings with the migration of herders,
a continuity in beliefs, shared by assimilated Khoe-San groups once extant in the
Makgabeng, is demonstrated.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy