Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Image and Identity: Modelling the Emergence of a 'New' Rock Art Tradition in Southern Africa

Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde

Geoffrey Blundell [+-]
KwaZulu-Natal Museum, South Africa
Geoffrey Blundell in Principal Curator of the Human Science Department, KwaZulu-Natal Museum, South Africa. His research interests include the use of rock art as a historical resource, rock art as resistance, and the politics of exhibiting archaeology. Ghilraen Laue is curator and rock art specialist in the Human Sciences Department of the KwaZulu-Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Her research interests are in interpretation and regional differences in southern African San rock art.

Description

Research into the rock art of southern Africa has tended to make links between traditions that are not ‘San’ and some putative ethnic identity. At best, these research efforts lean towards essentialism; at worst, they end up making simplistic correlations between material culture and cultural identity. Scholars rarely attempt the complex issue of how image and identity are intertwined. By considering rock paintings that are different to ‘San’ imagery, from Nomansland in the south-eastern mountains of South Africa, and by situating those images within a historical context, I argue that it is possible to model the entanglement between image and identity for at least some parts of southern Africa.

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Citation

Blundell, Geoffrey . Image and Identity: Modelling the Emergence of a 'New' Rock Art Tradition in Southern Africa. Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 302-319 Apr 2021. ISBN 9781781795606. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=31932. Date accessed: 05 Oct 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.31932. Apr 2021

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