READING ART, WRITING HISTORY - ROCK ART AND SOCIAL-CHANGE IN SOUTHERNAFRICA

This paper outlines a new role for rock art in the writing of southern African history. The old view of the art as a pictorial record of Sto ne Age life needs to be discarded. What has been learned about souther n African rock art has raised the status of its images from objects in need of explanation to evidence for historically situated social proc esses. These processes implicated riot only the makers of the art but also neighbouring peoples with whom they interacted. The art became a site of struggle as 'egalitarian' values were eroded and shamans assum ed political roles that included control of resources.