Rock Art and Cognitive Archaeology

Abstract This chapter reviews South African rock art from a cognitive perspective, and from the personal and historical perspective of the author. The author notes that recently there has been a vigorous attempt to bring natural science approaches to southern African rock art archaeology research, such that it transitioned from its earlier perceived position as the amateur’s hobby into a professional’s domain. The author also argues that if Upper Palaeolithic people were fully modern, they must have had the potential to experience altered states of consciousness, intentionally or unintentionally, that would be manifested by their iconography. In the southern African instance, despite widely emphasized egalitarianism, trance experiences set the San shamans apart as people to be respected—even feared—and the same was probably true in the Upper Palaeolithic.