A Cosmos in Stone: Interpreting Religion and Society Through Rock Art

David J. Lewis-Williams

doi:10.5771/9780759116719

Summary

J. David Lewis-Williams is world renowned for his work on the rock art of Southern Africa. In this volume, Lewis-Williams describes the key steps in his evolving journey to understand these images painted on stone. He describes the development of technical methods of interpreting rock paintings of the 1970s, shows how a growing understanding of San mythology, cosmology, and ethnography helped decode the complex paintings, and traces the development of neuropsychological models for understanding the relationship between belief systems and rock art. The author then applies his theories to the famous rock paintings of prehistoric Western Europe in an attempt to develop a comprehensive theory of rock art. For students of rock art, archaeology, ethnography, comparative religion, and art history, Lewis-Williams' book will be a provocative read and an important reference.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2002
Copyright Year: 2002
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7591-0196-8
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7591-1671-9
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 309
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Introduction No access
1 Historical Setting No access Pages 1 - 14
2 Man Must Measure No access Pages 15 - 50
3 Ethnography and Iconography No access Pages 51 - 72
4 Mystery Wrapped in Myth No access Pages 73 - 94
5 Through the Veil No access Pages 95 - 118
6 A Dream of Eland No access Pages 119 - 132
7 Seeing and Construing No access Pages 133 - 162
8 Building Bridges No access Pages 163 - 190
9 Harnessing the Brain No access Pages 191 - 216
10 Agency, Altered Consciousness, and Wounded Men No access Pages 217 - 246
11 The Social Production and Consumption of Rock Art No access Pages 247 - 270
References No access Pages 271 - 294
Index No access Pages 295 - 308
About the Author No access Pages 309 - 309