https://sahumanities.org/index.php/sah <p><em>Southern African Humanities</em> publishes original research with a material-culture focus in Archaeology, Anthropology, History and related fields.</p> KwaZulu-Natal Museum en-US Southern African Humanities 1681-5564 https://sahumanities.org/index.php/sah/article/view/496 <p>The corpus of southern African Later Stone Age (LSA) rock art (or San/Bushman/huntergatherer art) follows broad conventions across the subcontinent. San/Bushman ethnography is used to identify recurrent themes and metaphors, such as hunting, dance, powerful <br />animals, death and transformation. In certain cases, however, painted subjects receive scant mention in the ethnography. Is it possible to identify these without misunderstanding their implicit meanings? Paintings of reticulate forms in the Kouga Mountains of the Eastern Cape <br />reawaken this debate in southern African rock art research. Although it is less secure to infer practices and items of material culture based almost entirely on their depiction in rock art, it is argued here that some inferences are safer than others. The reticulate forms and their <br />overall painted context comprise a narrative based on hunting practices that involve the use of nets in which to capture animals. However, the paintings are not illustrations of hunting techniques: they are informed by the same tropes and concerns that have been detected in <br />southern African LSA rock art more generally. It is to be expected that depictions of other subjects and practices not mentioned in any ethnographic records will embody a wealth of associations.</p> Jeremy Hollmann Copyright (c) 2024 Southern African Humanities 2024-11-18 2024-11-18 37 1 32 https://sahumanities.org/index.php/sah/article/view/495 <p>We reintroduce and discuss a painted copy of 16 figures that George Stow recreated from what we refer to as Namahali Shelter. This shelter is located in a part of the Maloti-Drakensberg that is difficult to reach and has not been relocated since Stow’s visit. His comments link the <br />figures, their activities and material culture to the Mo’koma dance described by Arbousset as one of the most important among the San people. Stow’s notes on the figures, the painted copy and the accompanying pencil sketches have not been presented as a cohesive record <br />before. We introduce our own preliminary descriptive notes and interpretations, drawing from current understanding of the San world view. We demonstrate that the depictions from Namahali Shelter are exceptionally rich in conceptual elements that inform their narrative component, allowing us to recognise the interweaving of the ‘real’ with the ‘nonreal’ of some of the elements of the dance. We provide original insight into the possible role of women in healing and out-of-body travel in trance, the use of material culture (such as <br />batons and bored stones), as well as concepts of fighting and death, in the performance of the Mo’koma dance. Our reading remains tentative until Namahali Shelter can be relocated and the original paintings recorded in their complete context.</p> Jeremy Hollmann Marlize Lombard Copyright (c) 2024 Southern African Humanities 2024-11-18 2024-11-18 37 33 56