Abstract

Author:
Ghilraen Laue, translated by Xia Luo, Bo Xiao

Doi: 10.7508/jra.01.2023.69.78

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

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 ap-proaches the problem by examining aspects of the San ethnographic material related to learn-ing, 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 sepa-rated 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.
区域差异性和风格界限的确定一直是岩画研究者长期以来感兴趣的话题。然而，对支撑区域性和区域差异性概念的社会进程的理解一直很难。本文通过对学习、领地行为和交流网络有关的桑人民族志材料的研究来解决这个问题，以确定岩画区产生的可能过程。3个空间上不同的岩画区——格罗特温特霍克山脉 (Groot Winterhoek Mountains) (南非东开普省) (Eastern Cape, South Africa) 、马罗提—德拉肯斯堡 (Maloti-Drakensberg) (南非和莱索托) (Lesotho and South Africa) 和赛德伯格 (Cederberg) (南非西开普省) (Western Cape, South Africa) ——作为一个案例进行了研究。根据民族志材料，对社会进程如何解释相距甚远的岩画群之间在图案选择和图像制作方面的异同提出了建议。如格罗特温特霍克和赛德伯格的岩画具有很强的相似性，而这两个地区的岩画与马罗提—德拉肯斯堡的岩画又存在着相应的差异性。根据民族志材料，实践社群的概念显示了可能存在的远距离信息交流机制，这有助于解释某些地区的相似性和其他地区的差异性。