A rock-painting panel in the Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe, illustrates the distinctive features of the formling motif, a striking peculiarity of Zimbabwean San (Bushman) rock-art. The debate regarding the derivation and meaning of this motif has proceeded unabated until very recently. The motif has been interpreted variously as depicting natural and cultural material phenomena. In contrast to previous interpretations, this paper advocates an approach that considers San art imagery as cultured representations, which is a notion that foregrounds the understanding of San image-making principles, the San world-view and the concomitant knowledge system of beliefs. Finally, the paper provides a precise definition of the features of formlings that can be tied in with a particular subject.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Breuil, H. (1944) South African Rock-Paintings: Landscapes of the Soul (trans. M.E. Boyle). Prologue for an Exhibition by Walter Battis.
2.
Breuil, H. (1948) ‘The White Lady of the Brandberg, South-West Africa, her Companions and her Guards’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin3: 2-11 .
3.
Breuil, H. (1955) The White Lady of the Brandberg. London: Trianon .
4.
Breuil, H. (1966) Southern Rhodesia: The District of Fort Victoria and Other Sites. Paris: Singer-Polignac Foundation/Trianon Press .
5.
Chippindale, C. (2001) ‘Studying Ancient Pictures as Pictures’, in D.S. Whitley (ed.) Handbook of Rock-art Research, pp. 247-272. New York: Alta Mira .
6.
Clegg, J. (1987) ‘Human Picturing Behaviour and the Study of Prehistoric Pictures’ , Rock Art Research4(1): 29-35 .
7.
Cooke, C.K. (1959) ‘Rock Art of Matabelel and’, in R. Summers (ed.) Prehistoric Rock Art of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, pp. 112-162. Salisbury: National Publications Trust .
8.
Cooke, C.K. (1964) ‘Animals in Southern Rhodesian Rock Art’ , Arnoldia1(13): 1-22 .
9.
Cooke, C.K. (1969) Rock Art of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Books of Africa .
10.
Crane, E. (1982) The Archaeology of Beekeeping. London: Duckworth .
11.
Cripps, L. (1941) ‘Rock Paintings of Southern Rhodesia’ , South African Journal of Science37: 345-349 .
12.
Deregowski, J.B. (1995) ‘Perception - Depiction - Perception, and Communication: A Skeleton Key to Rock Art and its Significance’ , Rock Art Research12: 3-22 .
13.
Dowson, T.A. (1988) ‘Revelations of Religious Reality: The Individual in San Rock Art’ , World Archaeology20: 116-128 .
14.
Dowson, T.A. (1989) ‘Dots and Dashes: Cracking the Entoptic Code in Bushman Rock Paintings’ , South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series6: 84-94 .
15.
Eastwood, E.B. and C. Cnoops (1999) ‘Capturing the Spoor: Towards Explaining Kudu in the San Rock Art of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin54: 107-119 .
16.
Erwee, D. (1999) ‘Galleries and Paintings - Contrasts in Zimbabwe Rock Art: Hlombamesiluma Headwaters, Matobo, Zimbabwe’ , Occasional SARARA Publication4: 331-371 .
17.
Frobenius, L. (1929) ‘The Mystery of South Africa’s Prehistoric Art: Newly Discovered Rock-Drawings of Divergent Style - The Problem of the Age and Affinities’ , The London Illustrated News: 333-335 .
18.
Frobenius, L. (1930) ‘Prehistoric Art in South Africa: “The King’s Monuments” - a Unique Series of Rock-Drawings Recently Discovered in Southern Rhodesia’ , The London Illustrated News1 March: 338-344 .
Garlake, P.S. (1987a) The Painted Caves. Harare: Modus .
21.
Garlake, P.S. (1987b) ‘Structure and Meaning in the Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe’ , Hans Wolff Memorial Lecture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
22.
Garlake, P.S. (1990) ‘Symbols in the Paintings of Zimbabwe’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin45: 17-27 .
23.
Garlake, P.S. (1992) ‘Rock Art in Zimbabwe’, PhD thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies. London: University of London.
24.
Garlake, P.S. (1995) The Hunter’s Vision: The Prehistoric Art of Zimbabwe. London: British Museum Press .
25.
Goodall, E. (1959) ‘The Rock Paintings of Mashonaland’, in R. Summers (ed.) Prehistoric Rock Art of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, pp. 3-111. Salisbury: National Publications Trust .
26.
Goodwin, A.J.H. (1946) Exhibition of Prehistoric Art in Southern Africa, Cape Town: The South African Association of Arts and The South African Archaeological Society .
Hall, R.N. (1911) Rhodesia Museum, Bulawayo: What Visitors Can See, to which is added The Bushman Paintings at Maatesjemshlope and Hillside, Near Bulawayo. Bulawayo: Philpott and Collins .
29.
Hall, R.N. (1912) ‘The Bushmen, the First Human Occupiers of Rhodesia’ , Proceedings of the Rhodesian Scientific Association11: 140-150 .
30.
Hampson, J., W. Challis, G. Blundell and C. De Rosner (2002) ‘The Rock Art of Bongani Mountain Lodge and its Environs, Mpumalanga Province: An Introduction to Problems of Southern African Rock Art Regions’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin57(175): 15-30 .
31.
Holm, E. (1957) ‘Frobenius’ Cigars’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin12: 68-69 .
32.
Huffman, T.N. (1983) ‘The Trance Hypothesis and the Rock Art of Zimbabwe’ , South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series4: 49-53 .
33.
Lee, D.N. and H.C. Woodhouse (1970) Art on the Rocks of Southern Africa. Cape Town: Purnell .
34.
Lenssen-Erz, T. and M.-T. Erz (2000) Brandberg: der Bilderberg Namibias. Stuttgart: Thorbecke Verlag (Speläothek 5) .
35.
Lewis-Williams, J.D. (1981a) Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meanings in Southern San Rock Paintings. London: Academic Press .
36.
Lewis-Williams, J.D. (1981b) ‘The Thin Red Line: Southern San Notions and Rock Paintings of Supernatural Potency’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin36: 5-13 .
37.
Lewis-Williams, J.D. (1983) ‘Introductory Essay: Science and Rock Art’ , The South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series4: 2-13 .
38.
Lewis-Williams, J.D., G. Blundell, W. Challis and J. Hampson (2000) ‘Threads of Light: Re-Examining a Motif in Southern African San Rock Art’ , South African Archaeological Bulletin45: 123-136 .
39.
Mason, R.J. (1958) ‘New Prehistoric Paintings in the Brandberg, South West Africa, and the Waterberg, Northern Transvaal’ , Lantern7: 357-381 .
40.
Mguni, S. (2001) ‘Research into the Formlings in the Rock Art of Zimbabwe’ , Antiquity75: 807-808 .
41.
Mguni, S. (2002) ‘Continuity and Change in San Belief and Practice: Some Aspects of the Enigmatic “Formling” and Tree Motifs from Matopo Hills Rock Art, Zimbabwe’, Unpublished MA thesis, Archaeology Department, University of the Witwatersrand.
42.
Mguni, S. (in preparation) ‘The “Kings’ Monuments”: Re-Examining the Formling Motif as Cultured Representations in Southern African San Rock-Art’.
43.
Pager, H. (1971) Ndedema. Graz: Akademische Druck-und Verlagsanstalt .
44.
Pager, H. (1973) ‘Rock Paintings in Southern Africa Showing Bees and Honey Gathering’ , Bee World54: 61-68 .
45.
Pager, H. (1976) Stone Age Myth and Magic: As Documented in the Rock Paintings of South Africa. Graz: Akademische Druck .
46.
Pager, H. (1989) The Rock Paintings of the Upper Brandberg, Part 1: Amis Gorge. Cologne: Heinrich Barth Institute .
47.
Parkington, J. (1989) ‘Interpreting Paintings without a Commentary: Meaning and Motive, Content and Composition in the Rock Art of the Western Cape’ , Antiquity63: 13-26 .
48.
Parry, E. (2000) Legacy on the Rocks: The Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe. Oxford: Oxbow Books .
Rudner, J. and I. Rudner (1970) The Hunter and his Art. Cape Town: Struik .
51.
Smith, A.B. (1994) ‘Metaphors of Space: Rock Art and Territoriality in Southern Africa’, in T.A. Dowson and J.D. Lewis-Williams (eds) Contested Images: Diversity in Southern African Rock Art Research, pp. 373-384. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press .
52.
Smith, B.W. (1998) ‘The Tale of the Chameleon and the Platypus: Limited and Likely Choices in Making Pictures’, in C. Chippindale and P.S.C. Taçon (eds) The Archaeology of Rock-Art, pp. 212-228. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press .
53.
Smith, B.W. (2001) ‘Forbidden Images: Rock Paintings and the Nyau Secret Society of Central Malawi and Eastern Zambia’ , African Archaeological Review18(4): 187-211 .
54.
Stow, G.W. and D.F. Bleek (1930) Rock Paintings of South Africa. London: Methuen .
55.
Taylor, M. (1927) ‘Did Pharoah Necho’s Minstrels Visit South Africa?: Unique Rock-Paintings Discovered in Southern Rhodesia, Including a Supposed Egyptian Band’ , The Illustrated London News10 December: 1058-1059 .
56.
Tredgold, R. (1968) The Matopos. Salisbury: Federal Department of Printing and Stationery .
57.
Vinnicombe, P. (1976) People of the Eland: Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a Reflection of Their Life and Thought. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press .
58.
Walker, N.J. (1987) ‘The Dating of Zimbabwean Rock Art’ , Rock Art Research4: 137-149 .
59.
Walker, N.J. (1995) Late Pleistocene and Holocene Hunter-gatherers of the Matopos. Uppsala: Societas Archaeologica Upsaliensis .
60.
Walker, N.J. (1996) The Painted Hills: Rock Art of the Matopos. Harare: Mambo Press .
61.
White, F. (1905) ‘Some Rock Paintings and Stone Implements, World’s View’ , Proceedings of the Rhodesian Scientific Association5: 7-10 .
62.
Willcox, A.R. (1978) ‘So-called “Infibulation” in African Rock Art’ , African Studies37: 203-217 .
63.
Willcox, A.R. (1984) The Rock Art of Africa. Johannesburg: Macmillan .
64.
Woodhouse, H.C. (1982) ‘Bees as Bushmen Saw and Thought Them’ , Lantern December: 30-37 .
65.
Woodhouse, H.C. (1989) ‘Bees and Honey in the Prehistoric Rock Art of Southern Africa’ , The Digging Stick6: 5-6 .
