Contested Histories
A Critique of Rock Art in the Drakensberg Mountains
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2162818 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Francis (0000-0001-9622-9202, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 327-343 |
| Publication date | 2009-07-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Visual Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0894-9468 • E-ISSN: 1545-5920 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/08949460903004995 |
| OpenAlex | W2048686580 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 7 |
The Drakensberg Mountains which stretch across the eastern part of South Africa offer us a legacy of beautiful rock art. These images are often used to show the disappearance and ultimate destruction of the Southern San. In this article I argue that these images also show a continuity with contemporary Zulu-speaking people of the region, and I challenge the assumed ethnic or cultural boundaries represented in the historical and archaeological record of the ancient peoples of the Drakensberg Mountains. I also criticize the dominant interpretations of rock art as essentially religious and more importantly as essentially “San.”
Archaeology · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Geography · Rock art · Sociology · Zulu · Anthropology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · South African History and Culture
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2025 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |