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International African Institute
Rock Paintings in South Africa from Parts of the Eastern Province and Orange Free StateReview by: Hanns VischerAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 4, No. 4 (Oct., 1931), pp. 516-518Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1155443 .
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5i6 REVIEWS OF BOOKS Er macht dann auf folgende Erscheinungen aufmerksam: I. Terrassenan- lagen, die dem Ackerbau und zwar wahrscheinlich dem heute ausgestorbenen Reisbau gedient haben. 2. Kellerbauten, die er als tiefgelegte Wohnungsan- lagen deutet und zum Vergleich an die versenkten Temben im abflusslosen Gebiet erinnert. 3. Die Hochbauten, d. h. Bauten vom eigentlichen Zim- babwestil, deren er zwei Gattungen unterscheidet, eine aus zufallig geformten rohen Bruchsteinen und die zweite, feinere, mit Mauern aus Spaltsteinen, die von beiden die altere ist. Nur in Gebiuden dieser Art fanden sich Schnit- zereien aus Speckstein, chinesische Porzellane, indische Perlen, Goldarbeiten, Bronzegerate, Scherben feinerer Keramik und Spuren eines echten Makadam- Fussbodens. 4. Das Baumaterial der Hochbauten: Spaltsteine und Makadam oder ' Zement'. 5. Grabh6hlen in Felsen mit Urnen in Tierform. 6. Die Tiervasen. Ein eigenes Kapitel ist den Minen und Metallen gewidmet. Dies Gebiet war das einzige im ganzen Negerafrika, in dem, offenbar in sehr friiher Zeit, wirkliche Bronze hergestellt wurde, und zwar nach Frobenius' Berechnungen in so erstaunlicher Menge, dass sie unm6glich im Lande selber verbraucht sein kann, sondern zur Ausfuhr gedient haben muss.
Andere Kulturelemente, die Frobenius in seine Untersuchung bezieht, sind die Schmiedegeblise, die Felsbilder, die Sitte des K6nigsmordes und
iiberhaupt das sakrale K6nigtum mit den vier Erzamtern, die in ihren
Entstehungen mit gewissen Himmelserscheinungen (Mond und Venus) in
Zusammenhang stehen. Alles dies sind nach Frobenius wesentliche Elemente des erythraischen Kulturkreises, der seinen Ursprung im vorderen Asien hat.
Das Buch ist geistvoll geschrieben. eine Menge Einzeldinge aus den verschiedensten Lebensgebieten werden behandelt und beurteilt, wobei einzelne Fehlurteile kaum ausbleiben k6nnen; so haben wir z. B. keinerlei
Anhaltspunkte dafiir, dass in der von Vedder (nicht Vetter wie Frobenius
schreibt) erforschten Sprache der Bergdama (die Nama sprechen) Reste der
Sudansprachen vorhanden sind. Aber bei alien Einzelheiten ist das Buch aus einem Guss, ein geschlossenes Ganzes, in dem alle Einzelheiten zuletzt straff zusammengefasst werden und das sich den in anderen Werken nieder-
gelegten Ergebnissen Frobenius' einrundet. D. WESTERMANN.
Rock Paintings in South Africa from Parts of the Eastern Province and Orange Free State, copied by GEORGE WILLIAM STOW, with an Introduction and
descriptive notes by DOROTHEA F. BLEEK. 72 plates and a map. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd. 42s. THIS book will be greeted with joy by every student of early African
history and art. It serves a further purpose in supplying most valuable material to the student of the art of drawing and painting and the mentality and conception of prehistoric people. The seventy-two coloured plates, each
5i6 REVIEWS OF BOOKS Er macht dann auf folgende Erscheinungen aufmerksam: I. Terrassenan- lagen, die dem Ackerbau und zwar wahrscheinlich dem heute ausgestorbenen Reisbau gedient haben. 2. Kellerbauten, die er als tiefgelegte Wohnungsan- lagen deutet und zum Vergleich an die versenkten Temben im abflusslosen Gebiet erinnert. 3. Die Hochbauten, d. h. Bauten vom eigentlichen Zim- babwestil, deren er zwei Gattungen unterscheidet, eine aus zufallig geformten rohen Bruchsteinen und die zweite, feinere, mit Mauern aus Spaltsteinen, die von beiden die altere ist. Nur in Gebiuden dieser Art fanden sich Schnit- zereien aus Speckstein, chinesische Porzellane, indische Perlen, Goldarbeiten, Bronzegerate, Scherben feinerer Keramik und Spuren eines echten Makadam- Fussbodens. 4. Das Baumaterial der Hochbauten: Spaltsteine und Makadam oder ' Zement'. 5. Grabh6hlen in Felsen mit Urnen in Tierform. 6. Die Tiervasen. Ein eigenes Kapitel ist den Minen und Metallen gewidmet. Dies Gebiet war das einzige im ganzen Negerafrika, in dem, offenbar in sehr friiher Zeit, wirkliche Bronze hergestellt wurde, und zwar nach Frobenius' Berechnungen in so erstaunlicher Menge, dass sie unm6glich im Lande selber verbraucht sein kann, sondern zur Ausfuhr gedient haben muss.
Andere Kulturelemente, die Frobenius in seine Untersuchung bezieht, sind die Schmiedegeblise, die Felsbilder, die Sitte des K6nigsmordes und
iiberhaupt das sakrale K6nigtum mit den vier Erzamtern, die in ihren
Entstehungen mit gewissen Himmelserscheinungen (Mond und Venus) in
Zusammenhang stehen. Alles dies sind nach Frobenius wesentliche Elemente des erythraischen Kulturkreises, der seinen Ursprung im vorderen Asien hat.
Das Buch ist geistvoll geschrieben. eine Menge Einzeldinge aus den verschiedensten Lebensgebieten werden behandelt und beurteilt, wobei einzelne Fehlurteile kaum ausbleiben k6nnen; so haben wir z. B. keinerlei
Anhaltspunkte dafiir, dass in der von Vedder (nicht Vetter wie Frobenius
schreibt) erforschten Sprache der Bergdama (die Nama sprechen) Reste der
Sudansprachen vorhanden sind. Aber bei alien Einzelheiten ist das Buch aus einem Guss, ein geschlossenes Ganzes, in dem alle Einzelheiten zuletzt straff zusammengefasst werden und das sich den in anderen Werken nieder-
gelegten Ergebnissen Frobenius' einrundet. D. WESTERMANN.
Rock Paintings in South Africa from Parts of the Eastern Province and Orange Free State, copied by GEORGE WILLIAM STOW, with an Introduction and
descriptive notes by DOROTHEA F. BLEEK. 72 plates and a map. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd. 42s. THIS book will be greeted with joy by every student of early African
history and art. It serves a further purpose in supplying most valuable material to the student of the art of drawing and painting and the mentality and conception of prehistoric people. The seventy-two coloured plates, each
This content downloaded from 188.72.127.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:31:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
REVIEWS OF BOOKS 5 17
with a note opposite the illustration giving the locality and site of the drawing, a description and explanation of the drawing and dimensions, and a map showing the location of the paintings by A. E. Taylor, are preceded by a very carefully written preface by Dorothea F. Bleek.
A number of books have been published from time to time on South African rock paintings, such as Bushman Paintings copied by M. Helen Tongue, with a preface by Henry Balfour, Clarendon Press, Oxford, I909, with 74 coloured plates, The Origin of the Bushmen and the Rock Paintings of South Africa, by S. P. Impey, Capetown, 1926, and South Africa's Past in Stone and Paint, by M. C. Burkitt, Cambridge University Press, I928, while the Delphinverlag in Munich has given us Herbert Kuhn's beautifully illustrated Malerei der Eiszeit, with drawings and reproductions in colour of prehistoric paintings found in Europe. Finally, students of Africa and prehistoric art had a unique opportunity of seeing in Frankfurt the complete collection of copies of African rock paintings and engravings collected and produced by Professor Leo Frobenius in South Africa, Rhodesia, and other parts of the African continent.
In the preface Miss Bleek tells us how the trader and geologist George William Stow between 1876 and I882 in the course of his travels through South Africa became interested in these paintings and gradually collected exact reproductions of them drawn to scale and carefully copied in colour and line by himself. Stow took a special interest in the native races in South Africa and evidently managed by his sympathetic way of dealing with the Bushmen to gain their confidence. We are told how, when he showed some of the drawings depicting some dances to an old Bushman and his wife, they recognized an old dance and remembered the song, and how eventually both of them, man and woman, sang the old tune together. The last Bushman painter, it is related, was killed in 866; he still had with him on his belt little horns, each containing a different colour. Following the general description of the ob- jects depicted and their sites there is an account of the nature of the caves and rock shelters. The author finds it impossible to distinguish different styles in the paintings, while it is recognized that in colour and design the paintings vary according to locality. The explanations of the drawings given by Bushmen who were shown the pictures in 1874 by those well-known students of the Bushman language, Dr. W. H. I. Bleek and Miss L. C. Lloyd, are interesting. The author refrains from drawing any conclusions as to the mythological or symbolical nature of the paintings and looks on them simply as the development of prehistoric art which had lost its meaning. We can, however, congratulate her on the way she presents her dates and facts and assembles them in a relatively short preface, containing a wealth of interesting information.
As to the reproduction of the paintings, one has to admire the minute care with which the sympathetic trader and geologist copied these works of art
This content downloaded from 188.72.127.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:31:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
and the way in which they have been reproduced by the publishers. The drawings are shown separately, evidently leaving out other paintings on which they were superimposed. This, it is true, makes it easier to study the form and lines of the various animals and human beings, while it does not
give one the impression of looking upon the written history of people extending over thousands of years which one experiences when seeing the original or the
reproductions made by Professor Frobenius. Students of anthropology may regret that all the symbols dealing with the sexual life of these people have been left out. The author in her preface tells us that the Bushmen when in-
terrogated about these drawings always stated that they knew nothing about the mysterious, symbolic signs or the mythological objects which Professor Frobenius has reproduced and from which he draws such interesting con- clusions. This, those who have to deal with primitive people of an alien race know well, is not surprising and does not mean that there is no symbolic or mythical meaning in a drawing. To a student of art this book, especially when compared with copies of our own European prehistoric drawings, contains a wealth of interesting material, and one is somehow brought up against the question whether such art was the result of long ages of gradual growth and development of the human mind or whether art irrespective of
surroundings and worldly happenings reveals itself under certain conditions which we have not yet been able to determine.
We congratulate the author and the publishers on the production of the book and thank them for adding to our knowledge and understanding of the African people, and we would like to express our gratitude to the Carnegie Trustees, who, besides assisting African study and research as well as African education in many ways, have made the production of this book possible by financing its publication. HANNS VISCHER.
Zwischen Nil und Tafelbai. Eine Studie fiber Evangelium, Volkstum und Zivilisation, am Beispiel der Missionsprobleme unter den Bantu. Von SIEGFRIED KNAK. S. I92. Heimatdienstverlag, Berlin, I931. Gebunden M. 7. THIS book is much more important than it sounds from the title. The
author, whose article on the influence of European civilization on Bantu family life was recently published in this journal, gives a broad survey of the present state of the general discussion regarding the future of the African. Is the goal to which the African must be led to be that of bringing him into line with western culture or of keeping him in the best and truest sense African? This question is treated more closely and thoroughly from the missionary standpoint than it has been up to the present. The author limits his survey to East and South Africa, of which he has first-hand knowledge gained on his travels. He describes first the actuality of the europeanizing
and the way in which they have been reproduced by the publishers. The drawings are shown separately, evidently leaving out other paintings on which they were superimposed. This, it is true, makes it easier to study the form and lines of the various animals and human beings, while it does not
give one the impression of looking upon the written history of people extending over thousands of years which one experiences when seeing the original or the
reproductions made by Professor Frobenius. Students of anthropology may regret that all the symbols dealing with the sexual life of these people have been left out. The author in her preface tells us that the Bushmen when in-
terrogated about these drawings always stated that they knew nothing about the mysterious, symbolic signs or the mythological objects which Professor Frobenius has reproduced and from which he draws such interesting con- clusions. This, those who have to deal with primitive people of an alien race know well, is not surprising and does not mean that there is no symbolic or mythical meaning in a drawing. To a student of art this book, especially when compared with copies of our own European prehistoric drawings, contains a wealth of interesting material, and one is somehow brought up against the question whether such art was the result of long ages of gradual growth and development of the human mind or whether art irrespective of
surroundings and worldly happenings reveals itself under certain conditions which we have not yet been able to determine.
We congratulate the author and the publishers on the production of the book and thank them for adding to our knowledge and understanding of the African people, and we would like to express our gratitude to the Carnegie Trustees, who, besides assisting African study and research as well as African education in many ways, have made the production of this book possible by financing its publication. HANNS VISCHER.
Zwischen Nil und Tafelbai. Eine Studie fiber Evangelium, Volkstum und Zivilisation, am Beispiel der Missionsprobleme unter den Bantu. Von SIEGFRIED KNAK. S. I92. Heimatdienstverlag, Berlin, I931. Gebunden M. 7. THIS book is much more important than it sounds from the title. The
author, whose article on the influence of European civilization on Bantu family life was recently published in this journal, gives a broad survey of the present state of the general discussion regarding the future of the African. Is the goal to which the African must be led to be that of bringing him into line with western culture or of keeping him in the best and truest sense African? This question is treated more closely and thoroughly from the missionary standpoint than it has been up to the present. The author limits his survey to East and South Africa, of which he has first-hand knowledge gained on his travels. He describes first the actuality of the europeanizing
5 I8 5 I8 REVIEWS OF BOOKS REVIEWS OF BOOKS
This content downloaded from 188.72.127.52 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:31:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
