Rock Art Research

The identification of regional differences and stylistic boundaries has long been a topic of interest for rock art researchers. However, understandings of the social processes that underpin concepts of regionality and regional difference have been elusive. This paper approaches the problem by examining aspects of the San ethnographic material related to learning, territorial behaviour, and exchange networks to identify the possible processes through which rock art zones arise. Three spatially distinct rock art zones — the Groot Winterhoek Mountains (Eastern Cape, South Africa), the Maloti-Drakensberg (Lesotho and South Africa), and the Cederberg (Western Cape, South Africa) — are examined as a case study. Drawing on the ethnographic data, suggestions are given on how social processes may account for similarities and differences in motif selection and image production between widely separated bodies of rock art. Strong similarities in the rock art of the Groot Winterhoek and the Cederberg and corresponding differences between these two zones and the rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg were identified. The concept of communities of practice, informed by the ethnographic data, indicates possible information exchange mechanisms across vast distances that help explain both the similarities between certain areas and differences between others.