ABSTRACT

Recent work on a well-known San rock art panel from South Africa shows that continued movement between, on the one hand, San beliefs and rituals and, on the other, the images themselves allows us to move from general statements about San rock art to specific understandings. We demonstrate that continuing field research, combined with the revisiting of painted panels, is uncovering diverse ways in which San rock painters deployed and, at the same time, individually transmuted abstract ideas and experiences into material images, often in easily missed details. One of these instances, hitherto unknown, is described. By following-up the heuristic potential of this approach researchers are able to explore the ways in which San imagery played a social role at different times and in different places in San history.

摘要

来自南非一个著名的圣岩石艺术小组的最新工作表明，一方面，在圣信仰和仪式之间不断的运动，另一方面，图像本身使我们能够从对圣岩石艺术的一般性陈述转变为对圣岩石艺术的一般表述。具体的理解。我们证明，持续的现场研究与对彩绘面板的重新审视，揭示了San岩画家的部署方式，同时又将抽象的思想和体验分别转化为实物图像（通常容易遗漏的细节）。描述了迄今未知的其中一种情况。通过跟踪这种方法的启发性潜力，研究人员能够探索San影像在San历史的不同时期和不同地方发挥社会作用的方式。