Painting postures: body symbolism in San rock art of the North Eastern Cape, South Africa
Date
2013-04-25
Authors
George, Leanne
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Abstract
Certain postures and gestures of the human body recur in fine-line San rock art.
Students of southern African rock art are introduced to a number of classic postures
and features of human figures during the trance dance. The movement and posture
of the human body is significant during the ritual trance dance, yet the reasons for
painting certain postures over and over again have not been discussed often. This
dissertation examines the symbolic meaning behind painting certain recurring
postures in the Maclear and Barkly East Districts of the north Eastern Cape
Province. This thesis examines sets of similar pointing and gesturing postures of the
human body in rock art, and also examines the symbolic role of recurring postures
in both the ritual trance dance and rock art. I argue that the painters used these
similar sets of images (and others) in rock art to actively maintain and negotiate the
flow of supernatural potency from the spirit world into the body of the shaman to
utilise in this world and that the images were not static depictions of fragments of
the trance dance, and did not only represent the process, but were viewed as actively
participating in this process.
Description
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science
Johannesburg, January 2013