Shamanism and Rock Paintings: Aspects of the Use of Rock Art in the South-Western Cape, South Africa

South African Archaeological Society

Shamanism and Rock Paintings: Aspects of the Use of Rock Art in the South-Western Cape,South AfricaAuthor(s): Royden Yates and Anthony ManhireSource: The South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 46, No. 153 (Jun., 1991), pp. 3-11Published by: South African Archaeological SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3889007 .

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South African Archaeological Bulletin 46: 3-11, 1991 3

SHAMANISM AND ROCK PAINTINGS: ASPECTS OF THE USE OF ROCK ART IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA*

ROYDEN YATES & ANTHONY MANHIRE Spatial Archaeology Research Unit Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses evidence for the direct interaction with paintings by San hunter-gatherers in the south- western Cape. Three observations are offered: repainting of images, smearing of paint, and smoothing of areas of pigment. These practices are shown to be consistent with shamanistic ritual in general, as well as accounts of southern San painting. Potency associated with the rock paintings and the paint itself is assumed to be the reason behind these interactions with paintings.

* Received September 1990, revised January 1991

Introduction

Recent research on southern African rock art has provided substantial knowledge of the religious context of the imagery in San painting (Lewis-Williams 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986a). Recognition of symbols, metaphors and hallucinations related to southern San beliefs in supernatural potency and trance performance has led to both the religion and art being characterized as 'essentially shamanistic' (Lewis-Williams & Loubser 1986:286). It has been demonstrated that, as elsewhere in southern Africa, the rock paintings of the south-western Cape can be interpreted within this explanatory framework (Maggs & Sealy 1983; Yates et al. 1985; Manhire et al. 1986; Parkington 1989).

This research has implications for the interpretation of southern San culture which go beyond the field of rock art research. Wadley (1987) for example, has interpreted certain collections of lithic and organic artefacts, some found in association with burials, as shamanistic paraphernalia. Explanations of this sort find support in a growing literature on shaminism world-wide. We can now appreciate that the type of shamanism practised by southern African hunter-gatherers entailed an all- encompassing world view, the influences of which extended into every sphere of their existence.

In the light of these new understandings, we wish here to explore three observations on San rock painting which in themselves are not directly related to the exegesis of the symbolic iconography of the art. Briefly, these are:

1. The smearing of pigment. This can range from the smudging of individual paintings to the spreading of ochre over whole panels.

2. The repainting of images. This can involve the repainting of individual images, sets of images or the addition of new elements to existing paintings.

3. The smoothing' of painted surfaces. This observation is harder to define but may be described as the rubbing smooth of the rock surface within discrete areas of pigment on painted panels.

We suggest that the three case studies, presented in the following section, demonstrate that direct physical interaction took place between existing painted images and San individuals living in the south-western Cape. In each instance the deliberate nature of interaction with compositional elements can be shown. We believe that the activities described below formed a repeated pattern of behaviour consistent with, and therefore most probably integral to, San belief and ritual.

Evidence from South-Western Cape Rock Paintings

One of the persistent features of rock paintings in the south-western Cape is the presence of smeared areas of pigment. Some of this is undoubtedly due to natural causes such as the weathering of images over time as well as the porous nature of the quartzitic sandstone canvasses. However, many of the paintings in the south-western Cape have been deliberately obscured by smearing of the pigment (Fig. 1). In some instances hands and/or fingers have clearly been used but in most cases it is not apparent exactly how the smearing was achieved. It is also difficult to ascertain who was actually responsible for this 'defacement' of the images. The most likely explanation is that the smearing was done by San hunter-gatherers, either when the pigment was still wet or still present in sufficient quantity for it to be deliberately softened. The view that the San themselves were responsible is supported by the observation that smeared images are sometimes superimposed by later paintings. There are, however, other possibilities and we will return to this question in the next section. One thing we can be reasonably certain of is that European settlers were not responsible, as the distribution of historical graffiti is generally restricted to prominent shelters or to those in the vicinity of settle- ments, whilst the smearing is as widely distributed as the paintings themselves.

During the last few years we have increasingly suspected that careful repainting of images formed an important part of the painting tradition of the south- western Cape. In her seminal work on rock paintings in the Drakensberg, Vinnicombe (1976:141, 164, 180) documented a number of examples of repainting. In her study area, such practices are clearly allied to the fairly common feature of superpositioning of images. In the south-western Cape, where superpositioning would seem to be less common than in the Drakensberg, it has proved frustratingly difficult to document systematically instances of repainting. In most cases it is almost impossible to establish unequivocally whether variable preservation of elements, even in the case of a single image, represents an interval of time between painting episodes or merely the differences in the quality or preparation of pigments or even variations in the sandstone surfaces. Fortunately, an unequivocal example of the refurbishment of existing images is the near complete repainting of two of a line of human figures from Teekliphuis on the Watervalsrivier (Fig. 2). In this panel, it is quite clear that the person doing the repainting in red failed to extend the treatment below the yellow eland superimposed on the lower legs of the figure at the extreme right. The important point here is that the state of preservation of the legs below the eland is very similar to that of the line of faint human figures to



4 South African Archaeological Bulletin

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Fig. 1. A line of human figures showing deliberate smearing of the red paint. Stinkrivier, Olifants River valley, south-western Cape. The scale in this and all other figures is in centimetres.

the left of the repainted pair, all of which, we assume, were part of the original composition. It could be argued that the superior condition of the right hand figures is due to a difference in the porosity of the rock surface. This is most unlikely, however, as the three yellow eland and the two accompanying yellow 'palettes' (Fig. 2) all show a remarkably similar state of preservation despite being distributed over various parts of the rock canvass.

In some other paintings, repainting can be seen to have extended to the supplementation of compositional elements with details of lines, 'tassles', dots, etc. In Fig. 2, the third large human figure from the left displays evidence of this kind of activity. The bag/quiver and the double lines from the chest are preserved in a strong red which contrasts with the rest of the figure. We think these details were either added, or repainted, some time after the original painting. Many images may have been maintained and supplemented in these ways for generations. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to detect repainting unless the image is incomplete, as in our first example here, or when there exists an obvious disparity in the state of pigment preservation which cannot be attributed to properties of the rock surface. Of the latter kind we present a painting of a group of eland from the farm Sevilla, near Clanwilliam (Fig. 3).

Researchers familiar with the south-western Cape, and elsewhere, have long noted that red and white paints do not preserve equally well (Vinnicombe 1976:141, 164; Yates et al. 1985:70; Van Rijssen 1987:8; Wilson et al. 1990:209). Indeed, this is most often apparent in the case of eland where by far the greater proportion of images of this antelope are preserved as red torsos, without the legs, neck or head which were usually painted in white. In our example (Fig. 3), with the exception of the large antelope

at left, it is in fact the more fugitive white paint which is relatively better preserved than the red paint. We therefore surmise that the artist who refurbished the images found the extent of preservation of the torsos 'at the time' of repainting sufficient for his or her purposes. At the very least, it is improbable that both torsos and appendages, as presently preserved, were originally (re)painted at the same time, given the extent of disparity in preservation of the respective pigments.

We admit that the method of reproduction used here is wholly inadequate to show the details of pigment preservation but it can be noted that the white pigment on the five eland has a similar state of preservation across a wide span of rock face. This suggests that the preservation of the white paint has little to do with any variation in the actual rock surface. The condition of the red paint, however, shows a much greater range of variability and we have attempted to show this in the reproduction by using solid as opposed to stippled areas. The eland torso on the extreme left may not be relevant to the question of repainting as its torso appears to be much more recent than those of the other four eland which are far less well preserved, two of which show only faint traces of red paint. Although this variability could, to a certain extent, be the result of different porosities in the rock face, we point here to the overall contrast in preservation between the normally poorly preserved white pigment and the more resilient red.

Our third and, we feel, most interesting case deals with a rather different order of manipulation. Throughout the south-western Cape, and extending to at least the southern Cape (John Parkington pers. comm.), there are many examples of non-representational images that have traditionally been referred to as 'palettes' (Figs 2 & 4). Our observations indicate that a great many of these areas of pigment have in some manner been rubbed sufficiently to render the rock surface perceptibly smoother than the surroundings. That these objects are actually 'palettes' (i.e. places where paint is mixed and used as a reservoir for painting) seems extremely unlikely given their position



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head and legs of the elan show traces of white paste still adherjing to th oc urae



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Fig. 4. Two lines of polychrome human figures from Sevilla, south-western Cape. The shaded areas represent red, the white areas are yelwad h oi areas are black. Each colour is represented by a separate 'palette' visible on the left hand side. The single red 'palette' to the leftanbeo thrd eland torso has been intensively smoothed.



8 South Africani A rchaeologi(al Bulletin

on vertical walls or even on the roofs of shelters. Although it is possible other types of image may have been rubbed, to date we have only encountered actual smoothing in the case of 'palettes'. The effect in some instances is so subtle that, although we do not normally advocate touching paintings, it must be felt rather than seen.

It is extremely difficult to identify the mechanism by which the rock surface has been rendered smooth. The smoothing effect is rarely as marked as that found on quartzitic grindstones, nor does one observe striations as are on occasion evident on these implements. Some preparation with a hard object, however, must have occurred as the degree of smoothness encountered on many 'palettes' could not, it would seem, have been achieved merely by rubbing with hands or fingers, unless this was sustained over a long period of time. Unfor- tunately, quartzitic surfaces are unsuitable for micro-wear studies so there seems, at the moment, to be little prospect of a definitive answer. We can say, nonetheless, that the smoothing occurred after the application of pigment as the surfaces of 'palettes' evidently treated in this way reveal the removal of paint from areas of high topographic relief.

The close association of 'palettes' with like coloured images in many panels (Fig. 4) is good evidence that they are an integral aspect of the compositions and therefore of the local painting tradition. The fact that it is only 'palettes' which have been subjected to repeated rubbing suggests that they were positioned within compositions to be used, in this manner, in an interactive capacity. This activity would seem therefore to be closely linked to a coherent system of beliefs that included paintings.

Art and Shamanism in the South-Western Cape

If all three activities described in this paper are accepted as deriving from the same cultural system as the art, an explanation for them must be sought from within the ritual context of the paintings. As we have noted, the central role of trance performance and related beliefs in much of the iconography is beyond dispute. San trance performance, presently undertaken in trance dances, revolves around beliefs in a supernatural potency which is harnessed by medicine people to cure individual and communal afflictions (Lee 1967; Marshall 1969; Lewis- Williams 1981). This power, termed n/um by the Kalahari !Kung San (Marshall 1969) and !gi by the /Xam San (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1989:32), is also thought to reside in a number of 'strong things' such as eland fat, newly fallen rain, honey and bees (Katz 1982).

Ideas of 'strong things' are present in a number of paintings in southern Africa. The symbolic importance of the eland in San thought is particularly well documented (Lewis-Williams 1981) and representations of this most potent of antelope abound in the rock art of the south- western Cape. A woman of southern San descent, who retains a familiarity with their beliefs, recently related that San shamans gained power directly from paintings of eland (Jolly 1986; Lewis-Williams 1986b). This was accomplished by either looking at, or touching, images which the shamans had themselves painted. Although, as with much of her account, direct corroboration is not possible, the information is entirely consistent with shamanistic practices in general and San beliefs in particular (Lewis-Williams 1986b).

We can accept, therefore, that at least some, and perhaps many, paintings were invested with potency and became v'strong things': potent shamanistic symbols. Such

a view is hardly novel, as Turner (1973) has pointed out that symbolic representations are in themselves redolent with power. In describing the action of supernatural potency and its place in the daily lives of people who lived in the shelters, Lewis-Williams (1987:250) further suggests that "the paintings were probably more than mere depictions of power, however; they were probably also depictions with power." Accepting rock paintings as Istrong things', or powerful symbols, aids us in explaining the retouching and/or repainting of images and may even provide a clue to the intention behind the more enigmatic phenomenon of smearing.

A substantial literature exists on shamanistic beliefs from around the world. Societies practising shamanic beliefs commonly manufacture images for ritual and symbolic purposes (Halifax 1982). For example, studies of North American shamanism include reference to the production of rock paintings and engravings (Hudson & Lee 1984; Conway 1987; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1988). In North America, as elsewhere, shamans explored hallucinatory states of consciousness as a means of acquiring knowledge and controlling power (Spencer 1977) and in many cases shamans interacted with rock paintings as part of this process (Hudson & Lee 1984; Conway 1987).

Circumstances similar to those of American shamanism may have pertained in southern Africa. At least some rock paintings in this region are likely to have been executed by San trance healers (Lewis-Williams 1981; Lewis-Williams & Loubser 1986). One Southern San informant, on being shown copies of paintings, tantalizingly referred to them as 'sorcery's things' (Stow 1930), perhaps implying that they not only depicted sorcerers and their visions, but were also objects intimately involved in the ritual process.

As Hudson and Lee (1984:36) observed for shamanistic California Chumash art, retouching is "yet another aspect of maintaining the sacred as it reflects the . . . practice of reinforcing the depicted symbol and therefore its 'power'." Faint, though still perceptible, images may have 'induced' or 'informed' the hallucinations of shamans attending them (Lewis-Williams 1986b; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1988, 1990). Such vivid 're-experience' may have stimulated repainting and, on some occasions, reinterpretation of the previous composition.

The intimate relationship between 'palettes' and paintings would implicate the former in concepts of power associated with both hallucinatory states and the paintings themselves. We surmise that 'palettes' may have represented significant reservoirs from which supernatural power could be drawn and they may even have been seen by medicine people and viewers alike as points of entry through the rock face to the supernatural world beyond (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990; see also the painting illustrated in Yates et al. 1985:fig. 10a; Parkington & Yates 1987:fig. 1; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990:fig. 2, where a 'palette' is associated with a shamanistic fight scene around a step in the rock face). The precise manner of interaction remains, for the moment, elusive but it must have required a sustained or repeated rubbing to have produced the high 'polish' observable in the case of a number of ' palettes' .

In discussing the meaning of 'palettes' it is evident that they draw attention not only to the pigment but also to the actual colour. Where more than one colour has been used in a painting, each colour is often represented by a separate ' palette' (for example see Fig. 4). Lewis- Williams (1981) has drawn attention to the meat colour classification of animals recorded by Biesele (1975)



Soluth African A tchae'oogical Rulle/ti 9

amongst the Kalahari San. It seems that similar classificatory concepts may have informed the selection of certain animals for emphasis in southern San ritual and art (Lewis-Williams 1981:66). Turner (1967), in a study of the Ndembu in Zambia emphasized that colours usually have a range of conceptual associations and their use invokes these values and meanings. We, in our society, for instance, recognize a number of circumstantial meanings for the colours red and green: traffic lights, port and starboard lights on ships and aeroplanes are examples of the use of red and green to signify concepts of danger and safety. Symbolic and conceptual use of colour is also evident in San rock painting. For example, we can note here that, relative to human figures and animals such as elephant and buffalo, very few, if any, eland are painted in black in the south-western Cape. The deliberate choice of the colour red for representing most eland, seems to be inescapably related to the significance both of eland and the colour red in San thought. It is this significance which would seem also to be an element of the meaning of palettes.

Pigments, however, may have had significant associations for San other than those of colour. Although information is admittedly scanty, the preparation and ingredients of pigment by Southern San is thought to have had ritual and symbolic associations (see Lewis-Williams 1981:14 for a summary; also Rudner 1983; Lewis- Williams & Dowson 1990). The best known account is How (1962) which relates events surrounding some paintings executed for her by an old man named Mopote. In his youth Mopote had painted with Maluti San and, drawing upon this knowledge, he indicated that a special ochre (qhang qhang) and fresh eland blood should be used in the preparation of the pigment. In the same passage, How also mentions Sotho beliefs in the magical properties of San ochreous pigments, particularly for warding off lightning.

The use of fat as a component of paint was also reported widely by early colonists, and grindstones containing ground ochre mixed with grease were found in several Drakensberg shelters at the beginning of this century (Vinnicombe 1976:186). This is particularly noteworthy due to the potency known to reside in animal fat and especially in eland fat (Lewis-Williams 1981). Jolly's (1986) informant provided much the same information about the preparation and potency of pigment as did How. It is likely therefore, that elements of beliefs held by Bantu-speaking peoples regarding San painting may have been obtained from San themselves, as they frequently employed San as ritual specialists, particularly in rainmaking (Wilson 1969). A formerly widespread belief in the potency of paint may be the reason for the removal of red pigment from rock paintings in Lesotho and elsewhere today, for use in initiation schools (Wright 1971:9; Smits 1977; Lewis-Williams 1981). Thus, as Lewis-Williams & Dowson (1990:14) have stated, paint has its own power; the blood and fat infusing the paint with potency. These authors go on to say that the "Southern San shaman-artists went further and worked with paint and rock to reify their visions and insights so that, in addition to being symbols resonating on different levels, they became things in themselves, visible, tangible and potent" (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990:15). It is probable therefore that 'palettes' invoked aspects of the supernatural potency of paintings and pigments, as well as colour symbolism, as part of their function and meaning.

Finally, some comment is required about the apparently contradictory goals of repainting as opposed to smearing of rock art images: the one reinforces elements of composition whereas the other obscures them.

Perceptions of purposeful destruction of the images per se however, may not necessarily have formed part of the motivations underlying smearing. For instance, the actions of youths scraping off San paint for use in initiation school medicines cannot be ascribed to motives of destruction, despite the resulting damage to images. Rather, these actions are primarily motivated by belief in the magical, potent properties of the pigments, or perhaps the paintings themselves. Any notion of destruction is formulated from an assumption that aesthetic considerations and motives were paramount in the production of San art. Such an approach tends to deny the existence of complex and possibly varied attitudes towards paintings, uniquely emerging from the art's ritual and religious context (see Nettleton 1984).

Lewis-Williams & Dowson (1990) argue that rock surfaces form an interface with the spirit world and that paintings facilitate access to this other world'. Whilst paintings may assist the shaman in his or her passage to

other states' they may also have negative connotations involving dangerous potency. Lewis-Williams & Dowson (1990:14) give the example of malevolent shamans trying to emerge from the spirit world behind the rock face. The smearing of images and the obliteration of painted panels may well have been an attempt to neutralize dangerous potency and curtail the unwanted power of hostile shamans. This is similar to the hypothesis advanced by Grove (1981) to explain the mutilation of Olmec portrait monuments. Olmnec monuments, he suggests, were viewed as repositories of supernatural power controlled by the beings whose likeness they represented. Mutilation of such monuments of dead chiefs eliminated the danger to the society of the release of uncontrolled supernatural power. This is of particular interest as the belief system of the Olmec tropical forest culture had its roots in shamanism (Grove 1981).

An interesting parallel to these situations is provided by the current debate on the validity of repainting rock images in Australia (Bowdler 1988; Mowaljarlai et al. 1988). Despite the fact that the repainting of sites is well testified in the anthropological literature (Elkin 1930; Crawford 1968) there is considerable resistance, among certain parties, towards the continuation of this tradition on the grounds that it is destructive. Although the reasons for repainting of images in Australia may be very different it does highlight the Aboriginal view of 'art as process' as opposed to the entrenched western view of 'art as object' (Mowaljarlai et al. 1988). We believe the same applies to San art.

If, in fact, much of the smearing was done to images after the painting tradition had vanished, we still need not infer simple motives of destruction, even though aesthetic perceptions may have been different from those previously prevailing. If San were not wholly responsible for this particular form of interaction, then some of the smearing must have been executed by indigenous peoples pressed into the service of settler farmers in ever increasing numbers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Penn 1985, 1987). Amongst these, of course, were people who would be described as San or their direct descendants. It is unlikely that all the elements of a complex traditional belief system would have disappeared entirely, despite the efforts of missionaries. Even if we have to accept that much of the smearing was in fact done by early farm workers it seems most likely that their actions were motivated by a knowledge of the 'power' present in rock paintings. A knowledge, it would seem, that had by the latter half of the twentieth century completely disappeared.



10 Souti Africani A rchaeological Bulletin

Implications It is not clear whether only shamans were responsible

for all or some repainting, 'palette smoothing' and perhaps smearing; or if, in fact, ordinary members of the social group also participated. Study of modem San ethnography suggests that few restrictions exist with respect to trance performance. Unlike some North American societies (see Fogelson & Adams 1977:117-144; Spencer 1977), Kalahari San do not prescribe who may aspire to the status of healer; in fact, the ability to enter trance is recognized as a welcome achievement (Katz 1982). Both trance performance and accounts of trance experiences are essentially public and widely encouraged (Katz 1982). It is probable that rock art served, in part, as a parallel activity to verbal accounts detailing the activities of shamans (Lewis-Williams 1982; Biesele 1983). Both stories and paintings are, in every sense, products of the medicine person's endeavours. We expect that the 'fruits of this labour' - graphic as well as verbal - would be intended for community 'consumption'. Indeed, a great many paintings illuminate the walls of shelters containing archaeological residues of domestic activities.

Nonetheless, medicine people are, and were, initiated into the mysteries and dangers of trance potency; both contemporary and historic accounts emphasize the need for control in order to realize the positive aspects of transcendence and avoid the dangers inherent in unconstrained and malevolent trance potency (Bleek 1935; Marshall 1969; Lewis-Williams 1981). Certain kinds of access to rock paintings, as well as other 'potent things', may have been restricted to those who were initiated. Qing, the San informant who accompanied Orpen on his journeys into the Maluti mountains intimated this much when, replying to a question about knowledge of the secrets surrounding the trance dance, he said "only the initiated men of that dance know these things" (Orpen 1874:3).

Furthermore, we must also remain sensitive to the existence in the past of different forms of ritual activity to those documented in the Kalahari (Parkington 1989). Some earlier San rituals may have assumed the proportions of solitary or publically restricted vision questing by shamans, as documented elsewhere in the world (Spencer 1977; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1988). Some south- western Cape rock paintings are found in locations which apparently are not public in the sense of being easily accessible. It may be possible with suitable inquiry to discern significant associations between, for example, 'smoothed palettes' and shelters of less public aspect.

Irrespective of whether or not non-shamans participated in rituals involving rock paintings, the healer would have played the pivotal role. Rainmaking, game control and healing, as well as the extra-corporeal journeys undertaken by the shaman, actively sanctioned and maintained a range of vital social and economic relationships between communities and between individuals (Lewis-Williams 1982). Rock art, in part, probably served these same ends. It may further have forged a strong sense of social identity and solidarity in situations of social and economic stress such as, for example, characterized the last two thousand years of southern AfIcan history (Parkington et al. 1986; Parkington 1989).

More directly it appears that, in the south-western Cape at least, rock paintings served not only to depict trance metaphors and hallucinations but also served as tangible expressions of supernatural potency. Although not all 'palettes' can be shown to have been rubbed, their frequent inclusion in panels with complex imagery seems

to relate to a need to interact with the paintings. There is still much we do not understand about the relationship but it is clear that the paintings were not just passive images produced within the social and religious context of San beliefs. It remains to be seen whether evidence of dynamic and physical interaction with rock paintings, and perhaps engravings, can be discovered in the rest of the sub- continent.

Acknowledgements We gratefully acknowledge Tim Maggs's contribution

in drawing attention to the first, and still the best, example of repainting. We would like to thank Wendy Ashmore of Rutgers University for directing us to the Olmec literature. We are also grateful to John Parkington, Yvonne Brink and Pippa Skotnes for valuable discussion and to the two referees for useful comments on the paper. Final responsibility however remains our own.

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Documents

Shamanism and Rock Paintings: Aspects of the Use of Rock Art in the South-Western Cape, South Africa