Rock Art, Embodiment, and Identity

We challenge contributors to explore concepts of embodiment and ‘process’ within non-Western ontologies and ethnographies as a lens onto meaning, motivation, and identity. In archaeological contexts, embodiment is usually taken to mean an analysis of the body as lived experience. Turner (1996) for instance suggested that every society is concerned with the ‘regulation’ of populations in time and space, and with the representation or manifestation of the ‘exterior’ body in social space. Researchers can therefore treat images as direct metaphorical comments on social processes, at the same time accepting that artists and viewers experienced the images (in a somatic sense) and did not simply intellectualize them. Process, on the other hand, is akin to the notion of chaîne opératoire, and refers to the process of making rock art, from the conception of images through to the ‘fixing’ – and, sometimes, subsequent manipulation, reconfiguration, and ‘consumption’ – of images.

By focusing on these broad concepts, and using specific case studies from several countries, this session aims to contribute further insights into how rock art was, and is, viewed and used by the original artists and subsequent viewers to shape, maintain, and challenge ideologies and identities.