Browsing by Author "Jolly, Pieter"

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    Dancing with two sticks: Investigating the origin of a southern African rite
    (South African Archaeological Society, 2006) Jolly, Pieter
    Photographs of San descendants from Prieska, Northern Cape, form part of the Bleek Collection, Oppenheimer Library, University of Cape Town. They show some of the Prieska San performing a dance and were taken by Dorothea Bleek in late 1910, or possibly early 1911. A particular posture adopted by dancers in some of these photographs, stooped and supported by two sticks, is represented in San rock paintings. It has also been observed in the rites of some San-speakers, as well as those of some southern Bantu-speakers in South Africa. his article investigates the symbolism of the dancing sticks and whether the rites in which these sticks are employed originated with the San or whether they originated with southern Bantu-speakers. It is suggested that the sticks were used to support trancing San shamans, as has been proposed previously, but that in at least some cases they also symbolized the front legs of an animal into which a shaman was transforming. The rite probably had its origins amongst the San, but, in some cases, the meaning attached to it may have changed as San and southern Bantu-speakers exerted a mutual influence on each others' cultures.
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    Sharing symbols: A correspondence in the ritual dress of black farmers and the southern San
    (2005) Jolly, Pieter
    A feature of the dress of some people depicted in rock paintings of the southeastern San is a bandolier - strips or strings of what are probably leather, sinew or beads which criss-cross the chest of the people shown wearing them. A similar item of dress is worn in a wide range of African societies by diviners/spirit mediums and by initiands during their puberty rites. In this article, possible reasons for this correspondence in dress of southeastern San and Black farmers are explored and discussed within the context of inter-group culture exchange. It is concluded that this item of dress was brought with Black farmers as they moved southwards from west and central Africa, and was subsequently introduced to some southeastern San groups with whom they had established close and symbiotic relationships. Some of the other elements in San rock paintings that are present in areas occupied by Black farmers and San, but which are absent from areas where these groups did not come into contact with each other, may also have been introduced into southeastern San culture and art as a result of the influence of Black farmers on San cultures. This process is likely to have contributed to regional diversity in the overt content and the symbolism of San rock paintings.
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    Strangers to brothers : interaction between south-eastern San and southern Nguni/Sotho communities
    (1994) Jolly, Pieter; Parkington, John
    There is presently considerable debate as to the forms of relationships established between hunter-gatherers and their non-forager neighbours and whether relationships which are documented as having been established significantly affected these hunter-gatherer societies. In southern Africa, particular attention has been paid to the effects of such contact on hunter- gatherer communities of the south-western Cape and the Kalahari. The aim of this thesis has been to assess the nature and extent of relationships established between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities and to identify the extent to which the establishment of these relationships may have brought about changes in the political, social and religious systems of south- eastern hunter-gatherers. General patterns characterising interaction between a number of San and non-San hunter-gatherer societies and farming communities outside the study area are identified and are combined with archaeological and historiographical information to model relationships between the south-eastern San and southern Nguni and Sotho communities. The established and possible effects of these relationships on some south-eastern San groups are presented as well as some of the possible forms in which changes in San religious ideology and ritual practice resultant upon contact were expressed in the rock art. It is suggested that the ideologies of many south-eastern San communities, rather than being characterised by continuity throughout the contact period, were significantly influenced by the ideological systems of the southern Nguni and Sotho and that paintings at the caves of Melikane and upper Mangolong, as well as comments made upon these paintings by the 19th century San informant, Qing, should be interpreted with reference to the religious ideologies and ritual practices of the southern Nguni and Sotho as well as those of the San. Other rock paintings in areas where contact between the south-eastern San and black farming communities was prolonged and symbiotic may need to be similarly interpreted.
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    Therianthropes in San rock art
    (2002) Jolly, Pieter
    San paintings of therianthropes, beings that combine human and non-human features, are described and analysed in order to formulate a theory concerning the meaning of these paintings for the people who made and viewed them. The range of therianthrope paintings is described. Four explanations, or theories, concerning the therianthropes are discussed and evaluated in relation to San religious rites and beliefs and the physical forms taken by therianthropes in the art. These explanations or theories focus respectively on animal-masked/costumed shamans, shamans transformed into animals or other creatures while in altered states, the spirits of dead shamans and the human-animal beings of San myths. Physical as well as deeper, structural, conceptual correspondences between these classes of beings in San religious thought indicate that they are all related and relevant to the way in which we should interpret the therianthropes. The kingdoms are artificial constructions designed by human beings in an effort to cope with the tremendous diversity of the living world. They are not rules of nature. (Keeton 1972: 703).