Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde
Rethinking Variability in Rock Art in the Northern Cape, South Africa: Empirical and Theoretical Considerations
Perspectives on Differences in Rock Art - Jan Magne Gjerde
David Morris [+]
Sol Plaatje University, South Africa.
Description
No two rock art sites, nor indeed any two individual engravings or paintings, are ever the same. In the Northern Cape, South Africa, the dynamism in rock art expression is palpable through both time and from place to place. Conventionally, scholars discern stylistic or cultural threads in temporal or regional traditions in the rock art, lately variously hybridized; and the resultant schemes are the stuff of on-going discussion. Empirical problems, notably dating, persist and impede resolution in debates about spatial and temporal patterning. While clearly it is critical to continue tackling the empirical issues and constraints, this chapter suggests that theoretical considerations are equally crucial. Case studies based on sites in the Northern Cape and an assessment of theoretical insights from Tarde serve in modelling the mechanisms of repetition and innovation in rock art making through time and place to argue, after Ingold, that process, rather than social or cultural entities, is the driving force resulting in the observed variability.