Browsing by Author "Solomon, Anne Catherine"

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    Division of the earth : gender, symbolism and the archaeology of the southern San
    (1989) Solomon, Anne Catherine; Parkington, John
    Gender studies in various disciplines, particularly anthropology, have shown that the opposition of masculine : feminine is commonly used to structure other cultural contrasts, and that the representation of this opposition in cultural products is in turn implicated in the cultural construction of gender content. This bidirectional problematic, supplementing the more limited critique of gender 'bias' and masculinist models, is the focus of this research into archaeological materials. Rock art is the principal archaeological 'trace' analysed. Because the impetus to gender studies comes principally from the critical standpoint of feminism, analyses of gender and gendering in archaeological materials are evaluated in the context of gender issues in the present day, in terms of archaeological 'reconstructions' as legitimising the existing gender order. Theoretical influences include feminism, hermeneutics, marxism, (post)- structuralism, semiotics, and discourse theory. Aspects of language, and, particularly, the oral narratives of various San groups - the /Xam, G /wi, !Kung, Nharo, and others - are examined in order to establish the way in which masculinity and femininity are/have been conceptualised and differentiated by San peoples. This is followed by an assessment of the manner of and extent to which the masculine: feminine opposition informs narrative content and structure. The analysis of language texts permits an approach to the representation of this opposition in non-language cultural texts (such as visual art, space). Particular constructions of masculinity and femininity, and a number of gendered contrasts (pertaining to form, orientation, time, number, quality) are identified. Gender symbolism is linked to the themes of rain and fertility/ continuity, and analysed in political terms, according to the feminist materialist contention that, in non-class societies, gender opposition is potentially the impetus to social change. Gender(ing) is more fundamental to San cultural texts than has been, recognised, being present in a range of beliefs which are linked by their gender symbolism. I utilise a 'fertility hypothesis', derived from a reading of the ethnographies, in order to explain various elements of Southern African rock art, Well-preserved (thus relatively recent) paintings, principally from sites in the Drakensberg and south-western Cape, were selected. Features interpreted via this hypothesis include: images of humans, the motif of the thin red line fringed with white dots, 'elephants in boxes', therianthropic figures, and 'androgynous' figures, including the eland. The spatial organisation of the art, the significance of non-realistic perspectives, and the problem of the numerical male dominance of the art are also interpreted from this standpoint. The analysis permits critique, of the theorisation of gender and ideology in rock art studies, and of the biophysical determinism implicit in current rock art studies, in which attempts are made to explain many features of the art by reference to trance states, altered consciousness and neurophysiological constitution. Rain, rather than trance, is proposed as the central element of San ritual/religious practices. Finally, the treatment of (or failure to consider) gender(ing) in the archaeological record is situated in relatio.n to contemporary gender ideologies, in the contexts of archaeological theory and practice.
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    Rock art incorporated : an archaeological and interdisciplinary study of certain human figures in San art
    (1995) Solomon, Anne Catherine; Hall, Martin
    Understanding a widespread motif in San rock art - a human figure depicted in frontal perspective with distinctive bodily characteristics - is the aim of this study. A concentration of these figures in north eastern Zimbabwe was first described by researchers in the 1930s and subsequently, when one researcher, Elizabeth Goodall, described them as 'mythic women'. Markedly similar figures in the South African art have received little attention. On the basis of fieldwork in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, the south western Cape (South Africa) and Zimbabwe, and an extensive literature survey, a spectrum of these figures is described. In order to further understanding of the motif, existing interpretive methods and the traditions which inform them are examined, with a view to outlining a number of areas in need of attention. It is argued that analysis of rock art remains dependent on a range of dualistic notions which may be linked to retained structuralist ideas. It is suggested that the dominant model in rock art research, in which the rock art is seen as essentially shamanistic, perpetuates distinctions between mind and body, myth and ritual, and sacred and profane, while in its search for general truths concerning the rock art, and its central focus on iconography, the model retains traces of linguistic structuralism. It is proposed that the 'mythic woman' motif, with its gendered and sexual characteristics, is not well accounted for by reference to southern San ritual and religious practice alone. Drawing on contemporary theories concerning temporality and embodiment, it is argued that the motif is better understood in relation to recurrent themes of death and regeneration in San mythology and oral narratives, with shamanistic practice enacting related themes. The motif may be seen as representing San history in terms of culturally specific temporal schemes arising from San experience of the world. The 'ethnographic method', by means of which San accounts are used to illuminate features of the art, is reassessed and extended. Hermeneutic theories are drawn upon in order to address questions regarding the way in which ethnographies and art may be mutually illuminating, and to account for the inevitability of multiple interpretations arising from the situated process of reading or viewing. Prominent themes, images and devices in San myth and oral narrative are discussed in an attempt to move beyond a narrowly iconography-centred approach and in order to account for devices and stylistic features of San arts which are evident in both verbal and visual media. Implications of the research for investigating an archaeology of gender, and the writing of San history, are discussed.