Seeing and Knowing

It is largely through the work of David Lewis-Williams that San rock art has come to be understood so well, as a complex symbolic and metaphoric representation of San religious beliefs and practices. The purpose of this volume is to demonstrate the depth and wide geographical impact of Lewis-Williams’ contribution, with particular emphasis on the use of theory and methodology drawn from ethno-graphy that he has used with inspirational effect in understanding the meaning and context of rock art in various parts of the world. Seeing and Knowing explores how to understand and learn from rock art with and without ethnography. Because many of the chapters are based on solid fieldwork and ethnographic research, they offer a new body of work that provides the evidence for differentiation between knowing and simply seeing. This volume is unique in that it focuses exclusively on rock art and ethnography, and covers such a wide geographic range of examples on this topic, from southern Africa, to Scandinavia, to the United States. Many of the chapters explore studies in rock art regions of the world where variation and constancy can be observed and explored across distances both in space and in time. The editors have entitled the book Seeing and Knowing to echo Lewis-Williams’ Believing and Seeing published almost thirty years ago; they say `seeing’ again because looking at rock art is and will always be central, and then what is seen when human eyes and minds look; they say `knowing’ in recognition that, by his work and by his example, archaeologists now know a little more than they knew before. Even so, as Lewis-Williams will be the first to say, we still know only a fraction.

Geoffrey Blundell is a Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and Curator at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Christopher Chippindale is a Reader in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and is Senior Curator at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Jean Clottes is internationally renowned scholar and authority on rock art and is now retired. Margaret W. Conkey is Professor Emerita in the Archaeological Research Facility and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. Edward B. Eastwood was Research Associate of the University of the Witwatersrand's Rock Art Research Institute until his death in 2008. Julie E. Francis is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wyoming. Knut Helskog is Professor Emeritus at Tromsø University Museum at the Artic University of Norway. Imogene L. Lim is an ethnoarchaeologist and was previously Chair of the Anthropology Department at Vancouver Island University. Lawrence L. Loendorf was Professor of Archaeology at New Mexico State University and is now President of Sacred Sites Research Inc. Johannes Loubser is the archaeologist and rock art specialist at Stratum Unlimited, LLC. David Morris is Archaeologist at McGregor Museum in Kimberley, South Africa. Sven Ouzman is the Discipline Chair in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Western Australia. Neil Price is a professor in the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University. Tore Saetersdal is Assistant Director Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen. Benjamin Smith is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Western Australia Patricia Vinnicombe was a South African archaeologist and artist, known for identifying and copying San rock paintings in the valleys and foothills of the Drakensberg. Eva Walderhaug is a Senior Advisor in the Norwegian National Directorate for Cultural Heritage in Oslo. Nick Walker is an archaeologist, heritage manager, museologist based at Upsala University. David S. Whitley is an archaeologist and writer and currently Director at ASM Affiliates.