All in a Day's Work? South African Rock Engravings as Bodily Practice and Skill.

Summary

This is an abstract from the "(Re) Imagining Rock Art Research" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This study of rock engravings at Wildebeest Kuil, South Africa focuses on bodies, strength, skills and practice necessary to produce the carved images. Rather than ask "what do these images mean?", the project examines the material evidence for labor, effort, skill, strength and repetitive action that would have been only possible through extended learning and practice. How did anyone learn to carve stone, how long did it possibly take, and what might we glean about communities, bodies and relations from these traces? Since there is no evidence of any settlements, patterns of individual and/or collective movement must be considered as well. At the same time, the project also highlights the fact that this archaeological site does not sit on neutral ground, subject to waves of colonialism, neglect, discovery and manipulation for a range of purposes. Archaeologists are merely some of the cast of characters who visited Wildebeest Kuil, the Northern Cape or South Africa over centuries in search of wondrous or curious things. This study emphasizes that all scientific authority emerges within a larger political and historical context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• (Re) Imagining Rock Art Research

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51306