Researcher: The people who painted these rock paintings were neither primitive nor naked

Vibeke Viestad believes that the San peoples' rock paintings were used in other contexts than previously assumed. This image shows a rock painting created by San people in the Groot Winterhoek Mountains in South Africa. (Photo: Vibeke Viestad)

Researcher: The people who painted these rock paintings were neither primitive nor naked
In a new exhibition, archaeologist Vibeke Viestad shows how we can use San people's dress and dress practices to interpret their world-renowned rock art in new ways.

Christine Gulbrandsen
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER

Presented by:
UNIVERSITY OF OSLO
Thursday 30. November 2023 - 04:30

Thursday 30. November 2023 - 04:30
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For thousands of years, the San people painted fantastic and complex rock paintings that can be found scattered across southern Africa. But despite their early and advanced visual communication, the historical hunter-gatherer population has often been described as primitive Stone Age people.

“The San people were neither primitive nor naked. They used clothes, headdresses, bags, shoes, jewellery, tattoos, colours, and fragrance to create and maintain important social relationships between humans, between humans and animals, and between humans and other living beings,” Vibeke Viestad says. She is a researcher at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo.

Viestad explains that dressing the body helped create harmonious relationships that were important for living in a world that consisted of many different types of social beings.

. . .

Through ethnographic artifacts, photographs, reproductions of rock art, and information texts, she explains how dress and personal ornamentation have been used intentionally, and that they have had different significance in different phases of San people’s lives.

It is here that the connection to rock art becomes evident: The knowledge of dress and dress practices can contribute to understanding parts of the rock art and its symbolism in new ways, according to Viestad.

The traditional interpretation of rock art is that it shows trance dance as a ritual practice, specifically the shaman's role and ability to move between different worlds during a trance.

“By emphasising what clothes, bags, and decoration of the body have meant in different situations, we can understand the symbolism and significance of rock art in other ways. It's likely that the art was created and used in many different contexts, not just to convey the shaman's perspective and experiences,” Viestad says.

More:
https://partner.sciencenorway.no/archaeology-society-and-culture-university-of-oslo/researcher-the-people-who-painted-these-rock-paintings-were-neither-primitive-nor-naked/2281546