Ontologies of Rock Art: Images, Relational Approaches, and Indigenous Knowledges

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Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Illustrations Contributors Foreword: What was an image, there and then? Notes References cited Introduction: Ontology, rock art research, and the challenge of alterity 1. Introduction 2. Thinking about alterity in rock art studies: An historical overview 3. Alterity and the ontological turn 4. Conclusion Note References cited Part I: Philosophical and historical perspectives 1. Rock art and the aesthetics of hyperobjects 1. Introduction 2. Hyperobjects 3. The coldness of formalism 4. The case of rock art References cited 2. Rock art and the ontology of images: The ecology of images in hunter-gatherer and agrarian rock art 1. Rock art images and hunter-gatherer societies 2. Images in the making and the relational ecology of images 3. Making a mark: Image making in Neolithic Britain and Ireland 4. Image making in the southern Scandinavian late Neolithic and Bronze Age 5. Agrarian rock art? 6. Ontology from the ground up: Towards an ecology of rock art images Note References cited 3. Rock art, shamanism, and the ontological turn 1. Introduction 2. Shamanism and the first ontological turn 2.1 Transformation and personhood 2.2 The ontology of images 2.3 Landscapes of rock art 2.4 Sensorial/affective aspects of rock art 3. Radical alterity versus empirical reality 4. Ontology and the neoliberal turn 5. Conclusion Notes References cited 4. Ontology and human evolution: Neanderthal "art" and the method of controlled equivocation 1. Introduction 2. Neanderthals are us: Conceptualizing Neanderthal art 3. Understanding Neanderthal cosmologies: Challenges 4. Viveiros de Castro's perspectival anthropology 5. The 'art' of the late Neanderthals of Western Europe and the method of controlled equivocation 5.1 Late Neanderthals' body ornaments 5.2 'Neanderthal rock art' 6. Some concluding thoughts Note References cited Part II: Rock art and Indigenous knowledges 5. A lesson in time: Yanyuwa ontologies and meaning in the Southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Australia 1. Introduction 2. The setting and scene 3. Understanding: Ontological and epistemic habits 4. A lesson in time: Yanyuwa ontologies and meaning 5. Final reflection Notes References cited 6. Paradigm shifts and ontological turns at Cloggs Cave, GunaiKurnai Country, Australia 1. Introduction 2. Cloggs Cave: Physical and intellectual setting 3. Cloggs Cave: The 1971-1972 excavations 4. Re-excavating and redating Cloggs Cave: 2019 4.1 The sediment sequence 4.2 The dating 4.3 The animal bones 4.4 The cultural materials 4.4.1 Flaked stone artefacts 4.4.2 Standing stone 5. GunaiKurnai ethnography: Of caves and birds 6. Discussion 7. Conclusion: Paradigm shifts and ontological turns Note References cited 7. Lines of becoming: Rock art, ontology, and Indigenous knowledge practices 1. Introduction 2. From decipherment to care 3. Toward an etiology of ancestral intent 4. Lines of becoming: Ontology as ontogeny 5. Indigenous epistemologies and relational knowledge practices 6. Ancestral presence, distributed agency, and extended mind 7. Archaeological interpretation as a relational knowledge practice Notes References cited 8. Art, representation, and the ontology of images: Some considerations from the WanjinaWunggurr tradition, Kimberley, Northwest Australia 1. Introduction 2. Images, representation, and the establishment of meaning 3. The WanjinaWunggurr art of the Northwest Kimberley 4. Conclusion: Research and ontology in the Kimberley Notes References cited 9. Shifting ontologies and the use of ethnographic data in prehistoric rock art research 1. Introduction 2. Analogy and rock art research: A short historical overview 3. A case study: The rock art from Western and Southern Arnhem Land (Northern Territory) 4. The 'ontological turn' and ethnographic approaches to rock art 5. Some concluding thoughts Note References cited Part III: Humans, animals, and more-than-human beings 10. "When elephants were people": Elephant/human images of the Olifants River, Western Cape, South Africa 1. Soaqua, elephants, and paintings in the Olifants River Valley 2. Images: Painted 3. Images: Narrated 4. Images: Ethnographic 5. Ontological flux in image making Notes References cited 11. Images-in-the-makingProcess and vivification in Pecos River-style rock art 1. Introduction 2. Lower Pecos Canyonlands 3. Pecos River-style 4. Incarnated images 4.1 Inspired art works 4.2 Donning the skin of gods 4.3 Color engenders life 4.4 A woven cosmos 4.5 Materiality of color 4.6 Transformation processes 4.7 Layers of meaning 5. Conclusions Notes References cited 12. Rock art and relational ontologies in Canada 1. Introduction 2. Relational ontologies of Indigenous peoples 3. The road towards relational ontologies 4. Place, image, and relations in Canadian rock art 4.1 Landscapes and images 4.2 Categories 5. Conclusion Notes References cited 13. An ontological approach to Saharan rock art 1. Introduction: Ontological approaches in the context of Saharan rock art studies 2. Permeable essences: Transmorphic beings in Saharan rock art 3. Approaching the ontological dimension of Saharan rock art images 4. The emergence of African pastoralism from an ontological viewpoint 5. Some concluding thoughts Note References cited 14. The faceless menPartial bodies and body parts in Scandinavian Bronze Age rock art 1. Introduction 2. The anthropomorphic figures of the Mälaren Bay 3. The allure of the partial and generic 4. Discussion: Anthropomorphic figures as vitalist devices 5. Rock, art, and water: The foundations of a vitalist technology 6. Conclusion Note References cited 15. Hunters and shamans, sex and deathRelational ontologies and the materiality of the Lascaux "shaft-scene" 1. Introduction 2. The materiality of the 'shaft-scene' 3. Approaching meaning 4. Hunters, shamans, sex, and death in animist ontologies 5. Hunting and shamanism, sex and death in the Lascaux shaft-scene 6. Conclusion References cited Part IV: Syncretism, contact, and contemporary rock art 16. Communities of discourse: Contemporary graffiti at an abandoned Cold War radar station in Newfoundland 1. Introduction 2. Graffiti and graffiti art 3. Archaeologies of graffiti 4. Red Cliff 5. Photogrammetric methods 5.1 Interior handheld photogrammetry 5.2 Exterior drone photogrammetry 6. Graffiti ontologies 6.1 Communities of discourse 6.2 Conflictual discourse 6.3 Performance of authorship 6.4 Crypto-public setting 6.5 Multitemporality 7. Conclusion Acknowledgements References cited 17. More than one world?: Rock art that is Catholic and Indigenous in colonial New Mexico 1. Introduction 2. Cross petroglyphs as a form of penitent labor 3. Sacralisation through accretion 4. Conclusions References cited 18. Kwipek, Mi'kma'ki: Pemiaq Aqq Pilua'sik Ta'n Tel Amalilitu'n Kuntewiktuk/Continuity and change in Mi'kmaw petroglyphs at Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada 1. Introduction 2. Mi'kmaw rock art in context 3. The Kwipek petroglyphs 4. Juxtaposition of the petroglyphs and the syncretism of Mi'kmaw Catholicism 5. Concluding thoughts: Marginal landscapes and Mi'kmaw resistance Notes References cited 19. Indigenous ontologies and the contact rock art of far west Texas 1. Introduction 2. The Texas Trans-Pecos 3. Three Trans-Pecos rock art sites 3.1 Site 1: Meyers Springs 3.2 Site 2: San Esteban 3.3 Site 3: Hueco Tanks 4. Contact art of the Trans-Pecos 4.1 Horns and headdresses 4.2 Thunderbirds 4.3 Plumed serpent, Tlaloc-esque, and 'mask' motifs 4.4 European influences: Crosses, horses, cattle, guns, shields, buildings, and priests 5. Conclusion: A way forward Note References cited 20. When the virtual becomes actual: Indigenous ontologies within immersive reality environments Post-script Note References cited Index