Cloaks and torsos

Image recognition, ethnography and male initiation events in the rock art of the Western Cape

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6042292
AutoresJ Parkington (0000-0001-6127-6826, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, South Africa, autor de correspondencia), Andrew Paterson (0000-0003-4857-3281, Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, South Africa)
Año2021
Volumen56
Número4
Páginas463-481
Fecha de publicación2021-10-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAzania Archaeological Research in Africa (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0067-270X • E-ISSN: 1945-5534
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0067270x.2021.2030932
OpenAlexW4210368628
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas28

Ethnographers and anthropologists have noted that no examples of group male initiation rituals have been recorded among the southern San, although they are known to have taken place further north in Angola, Botswana and Namibia. A detailed rock painting in the southwestern Cape Cederberg, South Africa, is composed in such a way that we argue that it is evidence that ‘initiation camps’ for young men did also take place in the Cape and were recorded in painted form. Of critical importance to the understanding of the imagery is the relationship between male hunter, the eland as quintessential prey animal and the transformation of the skin of the eland torso into a worn cloak. We suggest that conventional depictions of cloaks, highlighting that transformation, were used to identify initiated figures whereas naked figures were to be understood as initiates or uninitiated. All human figures in this composition are, we submit, men by sex, by gender or by both. Under discussion is the recognition of imagery and the role of ethnographic evidence in such recognitions

Archaeology · Art · Cape · Ethnography · Ethnology · Geography · Rock art · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology