The Ontology of Landscape and Hunter-Gatherer Rock Writing

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Landscapes are cultural constructs, shaped by cognition and actualized in behavior. Hunter-gatherer landscapes are traditionally viewed in two terms: settlement patterns and systems, and related adaptive/subsistence niches and patches. While useful, these approaches embody the epistemological imperialism of Western archaeology, and they leave unexplained ritual landscapes. How then do we explain the locations of the most visible expression of hunter-gatherer ritual, rock writing? And how do we explain unusual massive concentrations of these sites, with two or three orders of magnitude more motifs and ritual features than typical? Native Californian ontological beliefs about landscape based on the nature and distribution of supernatural power and how it manifests on earth explain the logic of two major rock writing concentrations: Coso Range Numic petroglyphs and Carrizo Plain Chumash pictographs. These examples illustrate the coherence and consistency of Native Californian religious beliefs, thereby providing an avenue for an emic understanding of the archaeological record.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Painting the Past: Interpretive Approaches in Global Rock Art Research

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37826.0