Dressed in Stone. Interpreting hunter-gatherer rock art of South Africa through the bodily practice of dress.

The San hunter-gatherers of South Africa, are well known as makers of the beautiful rock art still found in various regions of the country. Although sophisticated artists, the historical San have often been portrayed as poor and, for some reason, naked people. 'Dressed in stone' aims to reunite two domains of archaeological research - the symbolic images of rock art, with the material culture of the body. A recent study of historical dress items and oral narratives has shown that dress practices among the historical San were complex, highly sophisticated, and directly associated with perceptions of social relations; between people, animals and other beings of the world. Important social relations, necessary to uphold in order to survive, were engaged through the bodily practice of dress. For example, the Water would disappear if the Maiden who came to fetch it did not smell nice. Or, the prey would not submit to the hunter if the hunter did not approach it respectfully by identifying himself with the animal through tattoos and scarifications, all the while dressing his family in the skins of earlier kills. Based on this new understanding of dress, as a social and relational practice, 'Dressed in stone' has sought to answer new questions related to the rock art; How, and in what contexts, are dress and personal ornamentation represented and depicted in the art? And why? By combining analyses of previous archaeological and anthropological research, new archival and collection studies, and local knowledge from descendants of former hunter-gatherer societies, the project has substantiated and exemplified connections between dress practices, production of rock art and rites of passage for young men and women.

The results and outcome of the research efforts have, in different ways and in various levels of details, answered to the broader aims and objectives of the project and contributed to the academic as well as public discourse in ways that should alter future research objectives. They have already challenged popular stereotypes of the San of Southern Africa by means of a first-of-its-kind museum exhibition and will continue to do so through an accompanying activity book made available for all learners visiting the popular Origins Centre in Johannesburg. In exploring various aspects of dress practices, through material, corporal, symbolic and ontological perspectives, the resulting publications will contribute to inform and expand on a part of San cultural heritage and knowledge that has been largely untapped, but that proves to have been of major importance in many facets of past San life. By explicitly linking these insights to different facets of south African rock art, the research exemplifies how a focus on dress can contribute to interpretations of the art. It also indicates that some of these practices have long traditions in the past, as well as resilience in the present, even in communities thought to have been ‘acculturated’ decades ago.

The indigenous hunter-gatherers of South Africa, the San (Bushmen), are well known as makers of the beautiful rock art that is still found in the mountain regions of the country. Although sophisticated artists, the San themselves have more often than not been portrayed as poor and, for some reason, naked people. "Dressed in stone" pose the question; what happens with our understanding of the San rock art if we open up the field of interpretations to include a perspective of the bodily practice of dress? The project will reunite two domains of archaeological research that for a long time have been separate - the symbolic images of rock art, with the material culture of the body. The aim of the study is twofold: to show how the painted representations of dress and dressed bodies might contribute to enlighten our understanding of dress as a significant cultural practice among past San communities and; to point out how keeping a perspective of dress and bodily practices in focus of rock art analyses might change or increase our understanding of the complex and often ambiguous images. An apparent opposition in the rock art between dressed bodies, and clothing in the absence of bodies, will be investigated through representations of cloaks, bags, and head and body ornaments. The empirical analysis will serve as the point of departure for ethnographically, and theoretically informed questions related to the negotiations of personhood and ontological flux that are associated with the dressing of the body. Issues around the production and manifestation of identity, rites of passage, and subsistence strategies are all expected to contribute to a revision and alternative interpretation of the rock art that for the last decades have been considered 'essentially shamanistic'. Consequently, the study will have transferable values to the larger archaeological discourse of rock art studies across the world.