'Swift-People': Therianthropes and Bird Symbolism in Hunter-Gatherer Rock-Paintings,
Western and Eastern Cape Provinces, South Africa Author(s): Jeremy C. Hollmann Source: Goodwin Series, Vol. 9, Further Approaches to Southern African Rock Art (Dec., 2005), pp. 21-33 Published by: South African Archaeological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3858031 . Accessed: 22/04/2014 18:04 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . South African Archaeological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Goodwin Series. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 21 SWIFT-PEOPLE': THERIANTHROPES AND BIRD SYMBOLISM IN HUNTER-GATHERER ROCK-PAINTINGS, WESTERN AND EASTERN CAPE PROVINCES, SOUTH AFRICA JEREMY C. HOLLMANN University of KwaZulu-Natal, School of Human and Social Studies, Private BagXOl, Scottsville, 3209, South Africa & Natal Museum, Private Bag 9070, Pietermaritzburg, 3200. E-mail: jhollmann@nmsa.org. za ABSTRACT This study combines detailed observations of the behaviour of swifts (family Apodidae) with the ethnography of southern African hunter-gatherers in order to investigate the symbolism of a painted motif of therianthropes (images that combine characteristics of human and non-human animal species) referred to hereas 'swift-people'. The standardized appearance and widespread distribution of this motif presents a remarkable opportunity to investigate prehistoric hunter-gatherer beliefs in this part ofthe country. It appears that the painters created a unique class of being by linking the behaviour of swifts to hunter-gatherer rituals and practices. MODELLING SWIFT BEHAVIOUR In a previous study (Hollmann 2003,2005) I argued that this localized motif (Figs 1 &2), commonly regarded either as a fish-like 'mermaid' or, alternatively, a swallow-like being, actually combines attributes and behaviours of swifts (family Apodidae). I call these therianthropes 'swift-people'. Based upon the form and arrangement of these therian? thropic images in 18 assemblages, I suggested that painters modelled their paintings on behaviours that are either unique to, or very characteristic of, swifts (Table 1): ? Circusing: Swifts engage in an activity known as 'circusing' or the 'screaming party/display' in which large numbers of birds wheel around in the sky uttering loud screaming sounds (Lack 1973; Fry 1988; Chantler 1999). Little is known about the significance of circusing, but researchers have observed that certain migrating swift species hold such 'screaming parties' more frequently before embarking on their migratory flights (Lack 1973). Painters arranged the therianthropes in two distinctive but conceptually related patterns (Hollmann 2003,2005): in the one configuration, the therianthropic images are arranged in a single unidirectional row, or procession. The second arrangement is less structured: the images appear more loosely clustered and individual paintings face in different directions and orientations. ? Courtship acrobatics and copulation: swifts perform a number of aerial displays, or courtship acrobatics, including steep dives, rapid climbs and chases, usually with the female leading the male (Lack 1973; Chantler 1999). 'Trio-flying', a behaviour in which two males pursue a female is also another typical swift mating behaviour (Chantler 1999). Some researchers believe that these birds copulate on the wing (Lack 1973), although others are doubtful (Chantler 1999). Several paintings of therianthropes in pairs and trios, as well as two possible instances of copulation, may reflect such mating behaviour. ? Wing-clapping: this is a poorly understood behaviour in which the wings meet above and below the bird's body to create a clapping sound (Fry 1998; Chantler 1999). I suggest that several paintings of the therianthropes model this behaviour. FIG. 1. (a) The upper limbs of these images from Site 7, Oudtshoorn District, Western Cape Province extend beyond the shorter lower limbs and appear wing-like. (b) The figures from Site 8, however, have shorter upper limbs and have been interpreted asfish-like. Research suggests that the therianthropes incorpor ate features unique to swifts. This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 22 South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33,2005 FIG. 2. The distribution of swift-people is locally common in parts ofthe Western and Eastern Cape Provinces in South Africa. This study is based onl6 sites that feature 18 assemblages of swift-people depictions. ? Flight: if the therianthropes do indeed incorporate swift characteristics, then it seems very likely that the painters considered the speed and agility of these birds integral to their natural model. Swifts are almost totally devoted to life on the wing and cannot perch (Steyn 1996). Table 1 shows that these arrangements are repeated within and between sites. Such consistency of representation strongly suggests that painters intended to depict the same subject. But what links were the painters making between selected swift behaviours - mating behaviour, wing-clapping, the 'screaming party', expertise in flight - and hunter-gatherer thought processes and values? To explore these questions we must first acquaint ourselves with Bushman ethnography about swifts, human-animal transformation and, especially, therianthropes. After this necessary digression I return to consider the symbolic significance of these specific swift behaviours. SWALLOWS' AND THERIANTHROPES IN BUSHMAN THOUGHT It is important to point out that there is not necessarily a one-to-one correspondence in meaning between the natural historical significance of the behaviour depicted and the interpretation and significance that the painters attached to the behaviour (Lewis-Williams 2002: 260). We cannot, for example, assume that because the therianthropes incorporate elements of swift mating behaviour that the images express, say, beliefs and values around human sexual behaviour or fertility. To understand why swift behaviour was appropriately symbolic we must develop an interpretation that is faithful to Bushman beliefs and to the details of the imagery. I begin by pointing out beliefs regarding birds, swifts and swallows. Although there are apparently very few paintings and engravings of human-bird combinations, birds have signifi- cances in Bushman thought that help to clarify the meanings associated with the therianthropes that are the subject of this study (Lewis-Williams et al. 1993). In the first place we should note that in some Bushman societies people interpret the be? haviour of birds anthropomorphically (Silberbauer 1981: 72): "Birds are considered to be intelligent creatures.... Credited with thought processes and values comparable with those of man, birds are thought to react to many situations in the same way man would, and their behaviour is therefore seen as having some of the value that human actions would have as a source of information." Given this attitude to bird behaviour in general we may infer that the painters of the swift-people chose swifts as one of their models because they believed that the behaviour of these birds was instructive and meaningful. Interestingly, Dialkwain (in Lewis-Williams 2000:257 my quotation marks and brackets), one of the nineteenth century /Xam people who shared their beliefs with the philologist-ethnographers, Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd, recalled that: "Our mothers tell us that we should not throw stones at the 'swallow' because it is the rain's thing. We can see that it is not like other little birds that eat earth. For they [i.e. these little birds, I think] eat clay. It [i.e. the 'swallow'} eats insects which are in the water. That is why our mothers scold us severely if they see us children throwing stones at the 'swallow'. They ask us whether we do not see that, when the rainclouds are in the sky, then the 'swallow' flies about. But when there are no rainclouds in the sky, we do not see it flying about." This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 23 TABLE 1. Painters at widely separated sites acrobatics, wing-clap postures and, possibly, consistently modelled images of swift-people on three behaviours that are characteristic of swifts: circusing, courtship ', copulation. *Drawing by R. Rust (2000: fig 5.19) "Drawing by R. Rust (2000:fig 5.18) This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 24 South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33,2005 I place the word 'swallow' in quotation marks because I argue, for the following reasons, that it should be treated as a generic term that may include swallows and swifts: ? It is not clear whether Dialkwain distinguished swallows from swifts. Certainly it is doubtful that he or the /Xam in general recognized exactly the same species concepts as fixed by modern ornithologists. ? Furthermore, neither Bleek nor Lloyd may have been in a position to distinguish swifts from swallows. ? To complicate matters even more, swallows and swifts commonly mix when on the wing (Chantler 1999). /Xam beliefs about so-called 'swallows' could thus refer equally to swifts. According to Dialkwain, 'swallows' enjoyed special protec? tion because they were associated with water and in particular with rain. In the /Xam language Ikhwa means both 'water' and 'rain' (Bleek 1956: 431) and 'swallows' are called /kabbi ta Ikhwa (Bleek 1956: 296). The incorporation of the word for water in the 'swallow's' name suggests a close association between these birds and water (Lewis-Williams et al. 1993: 284). Studies of swift behaviour provide reasons for this link. They are strongly associated with water, over which they hunt insects (Lack 1973: 99; Chantler 1999: 402) and drink, swooping down over the surface and scooping up water in their beaks (Fry 1988: 223). The sudden appearance of a flock of swifts in pursuit of a swarm of insects presages rain for the G/wi, who say that the birds are letting them know that rain is on its way (Silberbauer 1981: 71-72). The birds are indeed attracted to thunderstorms and rain because, in Africa, rain (as well as grass fires) brings large numbers of insects (Lack 1973:144,154), such as termites. The annual migration of swallows and swifts is believed by the G/wi to be guided by the birds' long-term weather forecasts (Silberbauer 1981: 70-71). The associations that Bushman people made from swallows and swifts to water and rain are thoroughly grounded in observations of their life cycles and behaviours. 'Swallows' were also associated with /Xam Igiiten (Dialkwain in: Lewis-Williams 2000: 257), the plural form of a word that means 'full of supernatural potency' and translated by Lucy Lloyd as 'sorcerers'. (I use the term 'ritual practitioner' throughout to refer to such people, also known as 'healers' or 'shamans'): "Our mothers used to tell us that the swallow is with the things which the sorcerers take out and which they send about. Those are the things which the swallow resembles." In these ways 'swallows' are bound up in Bushman thought with the presence of rain and the activities of ritual practitioners BUSHMAN COMMENT ON PAINTINGS OF SWIFT-PEOPLE People have long linked a 'myth' about 'water-women half fish, half flesh' (Leeuwenburg 1970: 145) to the paintings at Site 10 (Willcox 1963:35; Leeuwenburg 1970; Maggs 1998). This myth, recorded by a Mr D. Ballot in the 1870s, comes from the response of a Bushman person from the area to the question: 'Do you believe in Watermeide?'(Leeuwenburg 1970: 145). In reply the man, Afrikaander, told of 'waterwomen' who live in waterholes; these figures, 'half fish, half flesh' (Leeuwenburg 1970: 145) lure unsuspecting humans close to the water and then drag them underwater. It is not clear why we have accepted this story as a direct explanation of the paintings at Site 10. Wilhelm Bleek assumed that the story and the paintings were linked (Bleek 1875: 20), but others have questioned this (Lewis-Williams 1977: 165; Lewis-Williams & Loubser 1986:266; Lewis-Williams et al. 1993: 276-277). Mr Ballot asked Afrikaander a question about watermeide - there is no hint in Ballot's document to suggest either that Ballot was asking Afrikaander to comment on the Site 10 imagery, nor anything in Afrikaander's reply to indicate that he had the paintings in mind. The direct connection assumed between the images at Site 10 and what Afrikaander said about watermeide is therefore probably spurious. Whilst beliefs about water maidens are worthy of study in their own right, here they are a red herring. We do, however, have direct Bushman comment on the Site 10 paintings - Lucy Lloyd included a copy of paintings of swift-people from Site 10 (Fig. 3) in the stack of copies that she showed to Dia.'kwain and /Han^kasso. /Han^kasso's comments (/Han^kasso in Lewis-Williams 2000: 261. Square brackets enclose comments made by Bleek & Lloyd. Round brackets contain my comments.), given on 13 January 1878, follow: "I think that the rain's navel is that which goes [along here]. I think that these people, they speak angrily (jwaiten) to Ikhwa, that the rain's navel may not kill them. That the rain's navel may not kill them, that the rain's navel may be nice to them (twai). The rain's navel may not kill them. That the rain's navel might keep on being nice to them. This man, he has had [?] hold of a thing, which resembles a stick. I think that these are rain's people. I do not know them, for I behold that they are people. For, they have their arms; they resemble people. They feel that they are sorcerers, the rain's sorcerers they are; for this man is holding a thing which resembles Ikhoe [a curved stick ('pale'), used in making a Bushman house]. I do not know whether it is a Ikhoe, for, I see that the thing resembles a Ikhoe. These peo? ple [i.e. those on the lower side of the line, in the picture] I do not know whether the rain's navel divides them from the other people. People they are, sorcerers; rain's sorcerers. They make the rain to fall and the rain's clouds come out on account of them [?]. Hence, the rain falls, and the place becomes green on account of it. This thing [i.e. what we should have called the right arm of the rain-figure], it [is the one] which resembles a caterpil- lar, the rain's caterpillar." /Han^kasso's comments are phrased in the /Xam idiom and are neither simple nor self-evident (see Lewis-Williams 1977: 167-168, 1990: 46-47, and Lewis-Williams et al. 1993: 278-279 for detailed consideration of this testimony). What is important is that /Han^kasso explicitly links the paintings to the work of 'rain's people' and again, to 'rain's sorcerers'. He may even have implied that the images themselves protected people and brought rain (more later; see also Lewis-Williams 1995a for discussion of the paintings as powerful entities in themselves). There are provisos regarding /Han^kasso's remarks. Nu? merous factors combine to modify the message and its inter? pretation - language, the context in which the copies were presented and the comments elicited, and the interviewer's lim? ited understanding of /Xam cosmology - amongst many other possible constraints and barriers to understanding. Timothy Maggs (1998: 3), for example, has pointed out that /Han^kasso was not from the area in which the paintings occur and that, therefore, he could not have been knowledgeable about local beliefs that formed the significance of the swift-people. This is not quite as telling a criticism as first it may seem, however. Undoubtedly/HanAasso could not have been aware of paro- chial details that informed the imagery but this 'ignorance' was surely a matter of degree, not absolute. Certain disparate Bushman groups share certain beliefs and practices (e.g. McCall 1970; Lewis-Williams & Biesele 1978). /Han^kasso's This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 25 FIG. 3. (Site 10). The imagery at Ezeljagspoort (Site 10) is the most renowned ofthe 'mermaid' sites. The lower limbs of most ofthe images are short and splayedand appear fish- or bird-like. Image A is a long attenuated figure that /Han^kasso called 'the rains navel'. Image B holds a short stick-like object. The images below (C) he called 'rain's sorcerers'. They follow each other in a horizontal procession. George District, Western Cape Province. Image B measures 70 mmfrom crown ofhead to right-hand-most tail tip. Paintings in red. (Copy by TA. Dowson.). testimony remains valid and valuable. The specific and explicit identification of the swift-people at Site 10 as 'rain's sorcerers' suggests that the paintings were expressions of beliefs and practices concerned with 'sorcery' (Lewis-Williams 1990: 48-49; Lewis-Williams et al. 1993: 284-286). Interestingly, /Han^kasso does not seem to comment explicitly on the therianthropic form of the images - he merely describes them as Ike, a /Xam word usually translated as 'peo? ple' (Bleek 1956). The term is probably used generically - it does not mean that /Han^kasso did not see or ignored their therianthropic nature. Either he identified the figures as living ritual practitioners transformed into therianthropes, or, per? haps, he recognized that they were a 'people' that dwelt in the spirit-realm. Whatever the case, we now have sufficient back? ground against which to evaluate and interpret the patterned behaviours of the swift-people. UNPACKING THE SYMBOLISM OF SWIFT BEHAVIOUR Just how well do the arrangements and configurations of paintings of swift-people in swif t-specific behaviours fit in with the argument I have made for the significance of therian? thropic imagery in general and, more specifically, with /Han^kasso's interpretation of the swift-people at Ezeljags- poort as ritual practitioners? Let us begin with the ability at which swifts excel - flight. I have already mentioned that swifts are superbly equipped for flight and that they perform high speed, split-second aerial manoeuvres. Beliefs in the powers of flight possessed by ritual practitioners and mythological beings are integral to /Xam cosmology - the trickster-deity /Kaggen was believed to sprout feathers and fly away from danger (e.g. //Kabbo in Bleek 1924: 16), while ritual practitioners could transform into birds (Dialkwain in Hollmann 2004: 224-227). Lewis-Williams has discussed the neuro-psychological aspects of altered states of consciousness (ASC) that give rise to sensa- tions of flight and how these states inform southern African hunter-gatherer imagery. The ability to fly, then, is an impor? tant aspect of swift symbolism that links between the swift-people with the work of ritual practitioners. But the attribute of flight alone is not sufficient to understand why the painters chose swifts as a natural model for their fantasy creations instead of any other kind of bird. I argue that they selected these birds because they considered the specific features and arrangements concerned with the flight of swifts - circusing, wing-clapping, mating, as well as aspects of their habitat - especially signiflcant and meaningful. Transformation into therianthropic form and the appear? ance of dead ritual practitioners and mythological beings in therianthropic guise are associated with the 'Great Dance' a term used to describe what is variously described as the curing/medicine/healing/trance dance that is practised by most Ju, Khoe, Taa and !Ui language family speakers (Blundell 2004). Painters picked out correspondences between the swift behaviours I have listed, on the one hand, and aspects of the Great Dance, on the other: ? Circusing behaviour involves a wheeling, roughly circular pattern in which the birds follow each other, with individuals and pairs breaking off from the swirling mass of birds and then rejoining them. The Great Dance is typically circular in form, with dancers following behind each other in proces- sion. People join and leave the circling dancers from time to time. ? The aerial displays of swifts while circusing and the manoeuvres carried out when two or three birds are per- forming courtship acrobatics are carried out at high speed with sudden changes in direction. These behaviours may have their equivalent in the frenzied behaviour of Bushman ritual practitioners in ecstasy, who may unpredictably run out from the circle of dancers into the veld. In such cases one or more people will follow the individual and bring him back to the fire. ? Swifts utter characteristic screaming sounds while circusing (Lack 1973: 129). Bushman ritual practitioners scream or imitate animal calls when extracting and expelling sickness from their own bodies (Bleek 1935:4; Lee 1968; Marshall 1969: 372; Katz 1982; Biesele 1993) ? Circusing usually commences at dusk and may continue until dawn the next day (Lack 1973; Chantler 1999), as is also This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 26 South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9:21-33,2005 typical of Bushman dances (Marshall 1969); This 'package' of perceived correspondences between bird behaviour and human ritual is quite exact and specific in its particulars. That this concurrence is intentional and highly significant is reinforced by two other consistently depicted painted details. The first is the depiction of swift-people in pairs, a preference (Table 1 'Courtship acrobatics') that suggests another aspect of Bushman ritual dances - Bushman ritual practitioners in the Kalahari often work in pairs, believing that this doubles the n/om (supernatural potency) available for healing (Marshall 1969: 377. (For more about the doubling of figures in rock-paintings, see Vinnicombe 1976: 288; Lewis- Williams 1987: 238; 1998: 87-88; Hollmann 2001: fig. 7,64). The second resemblance that the painters of swift-people may have suggested between swifts and ritual practitioners concerns the manner in which they often painted the upper limbs of swift-people - either with upper limbs held above the body at an acute angle or, below the body in a similar position (Table 1 'Wing-clap postures'). This rather conspicuous motif alludes to a poorly understood swift behaviour termed 'wing-clapping', in which the bird makes an audible 'clap' sound. The act of wing-clapping as well as the accompanying sound of the clap has its analogue in activities central to the performance of the Great Dance. Women clap rhythms named after things suffused with supernatural potency (Marshall 1969). These medicine songs are considered essential to creating and maintaining a protective and supportive environ? ment in which ritual practitioners can make their departure to the spirit-world (Wiessner & Flemming 1979). Depiction of the wing clap posture recalled the sound of the wing clap and the clapped accompaniment of the 'medicine songs'. There is another painted detail associated with some of the swift-people in the wing clap posture: their heads hang down (Table 1, sites 7 & 12.1). In the context of healing and dancing, this suggests the lolling of the head in the trance states that Bushman dancers may enter after prolonged dancing and intense concentration. The wing clap posture alone, and in conjunction with the drooping heads, may have been different ways of expressing the presence of awakened supernatural potency. By creating links between characteristic swift behaviours and Bushman ritual practices, especially the behaviour of ritual practitioners at the Great Dance, painters apparently constructed a unique class of entity - the swift-people. Furthermore, it seems that these painters presented the swift-people in three contexts that deepen our understanding of the significance of these therianthropes: ? Swift-people are sometimes intimately bound up with imagery that has its foundations in altered states of consciousness (ASC). ? Swift-people appear to engage in shamanistic activities and interact with other spirit-world beings. ? Painters may have positioned paintings of certain swift- people in relation to rock-face features to suggest that the swift-people are entering or leaving the rock. IMAGERY DERIVED FROM ASC Research shows that visions and experiences associated with altered states of consciousness (ASC) are an important component in Bushman painted imagery (Lewis-Williams 1981a,b; Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1988; Lewis-Williams & Blundell 1997; Lewis-Williams et al 2000). Bushman ritual practitioners in the Kalahari describe 'threads of light', also referred to as cords or ropes, that connect the earth with God and the spirits of the dead in the sky (Marshall 1962: 242; Keeney 1999, 2003; see Hollmann 2003: chapter 1 for discussion). Transformed living ritual practitioners as well as spirit-beings move along these lines (Marshall 1962: 242; Keeney 1999, 2003) and are a feature of Bushman imagery in certain regions (Lewis-Williams 1981b; Lewis-Williams et al. 2000). This sense of the lines as objects may explain imagery of swift-people apparently holding on to sets of painted lines at Site 12.1 (Fig. 4). About seven separate sections of parallel double lines are painted in red. The lines, each 1-4 mm wide and painted 1-15 mm apart, are arranged in wavy, zigzagged patterns; occasionally the lines intertwine. Three of at least 17 swift-people hold onto the line. In other cases, the line enters, or leaves, the body. The fact that the swift-people are interacting with the lines is especially interesting - the lines are not simply superimposed randomly over the figures. Sets of variously configured zigzag lines, possibly a varia? tion of the threads of light, are not unique to this site, however. Paintings of elephant and human-elephant conflations else? where in the Western Cape are 'surrounded' by zigzag lines (Maggs & Sealy 1983: figs 1-3). Dowson & Holliday (1989) report that zigzag lines co-occur with paintings of antelope, as well as with paintings of 'rain-animals'. They conclude, like Maggs and Sealy, that the zigzags derive from entoptic forms and suggest that they signify supernatural potency (1989: 47). Zigzag imagery is widespread and associated with supernatu- rally potent entities such as therianthropes, rain-animals, elephant, and antelope. I have suggested elsewhere (Holl? mann 2002:567) that in South Africa's southeastern mountains bristling hair on therianthropes, eland, rain-animals and serpents signifies that the image is 'dead' and therefore is in the spirit realm. Zigzag line motifs may similarly be indicators of spirit-world status. SITE 5 - A PRIVILEGED VIEW OF THE SPIRIT-WORLD Swift-people are also closely associated with lines at Site 5 (Figs 5 & 6). At left (Fig. 5), a double line in red paint surrounds a series of four pairs of swift-people painted in yellow. The swift-people follow each other from right to left across the rock face. The double lines form an elongated loop or U-shape around the swift-people, with the pair of swift-people at extreme left, 'K, pressed up against it. A section of the double line splits and encapsulates six of the eight swift-people. The lines come together, forming a single line beyond the pair of swift people on the extreme right (point T in Fig. 5). This single line extends to the right ('J', in Fig. 6) across several cracks in the rock face for about 200 mm, after which it splits into several sets of lines, associated with several paintings of human figures. The line finally splits; each line then terminates against a shallow step in the rock. The lines seem to link the imagery painted on the left and right hand facets of rock. The swift-people are depicted in pairs, a convention used at other swift-people sites and which I have already suggested links swift behaviour - courtship 'acrobatics' - to Bushman cultural practices, in which ritual practitioners support each other to enhance and regulate their spirit potency. All of the images on the right-hand rock surface are anthropomorphic and painted in yellow, the same colour as the swift-people (Fig. 6). Several of the figures are in sitting and reclining postures. I interpret the forms in red and yellow paint around them as two different kinds of bag: the longer, rectangular shaped bag is a man's hunting bag in which a bow and quiver are carried. The other, square-shaped forms probably depict bags in which people carry food gathered in the veld. An anthropomorph at bottom right appears to be emerging This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33,2005 27 f FIG. 4 (Site 12.1). With the exception ofa pair of swift-people (A) that soar away from the group, the swift-people seem to be arranged in imitation ofthe whirling, chaotic screaming parties of swifts. The swift-people are juxtaposed with sets of paired painted lines (B). A swift-person holds on to one of the lines and another is painted in the wing-clap posture (C). A pair of swift-people is attached to a set of lines (D). A human figure (E) but with the kind ofheadas the swift-people stands with one arm raised and the other crooked at the elbow. A figure in white with bow, arrow and hunting bag is painted over the lines (F). The dashed lineat the bottom represents the bottom edge ofthefacet ofrockon which the imagery occurs. The topmost image ofthe pair marked A measures 110 mmfrom crown ofhead to right- hand-most tail tip. Paintings in red and white. George District, Western Cape Province. (Copy by LC. Hollmann.) from a crack in the rock - the painters created this impression by excluding the figure's feet (Fig. 6). In view of the topography of the rock surface and its symbolic value (for example Lewis- Williams & Dowson 1990), I interpret this figure as emerging from or entering (feet first) the spirit-world. The lines are a striking and important element at this site. They appear to impose a sense of composition and sequence because they structure where all the associated imagery is placed. Did the painters intend the painted line to 'emerge' from the crack at the right? If we interpret the disjointed nature of the line as 'threading' its way in and out of the rock surface, as others have (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990: 5; Lewis- Williams et al. 2000:126), then the swift-people may be travel- ling across the rock face from left to right, passing, in their flight, over the humans in their camp. The now indistinct first pair of swifts just left of the camp, appears to be moving along on either side of the line. Further along to the left, a network of painted lines outlines the other six pairs. Although much about this imagery remains mysterious, understanding the swift-people as depicting a shifting spec? trum of spirit-beings, comprised of temporarily transformed living ritual practitioners, dead ritual practitioners and mytho- logical beings is in accord with beliefs about the location of the spirit-world behind the rock face. The figure in the midst of the This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 28 South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 FIG. 5 (Site 5). The imagery at Site 5 is presented in two sections. In this, the left hand section, four pairs of swift-people, A, D, E, F & H are associated with painted lines. Below the swift-people and the lines are three images, possibly people dancing, (B). The lines are painted over two antilopine images, C, the left hand one probably an eland. The lines extend upwardsand to the right, past a group of human figures (G). At point \ the lines continue on to the right hand section ofthe reproduction. The topmost ofthe pair of swift-people marked A measures 75 mmfrom crown ofhead to tip of lower wing tip. Black represents red paint. Enclosed areas are white, and yellow paint is a stipple. Mossel Bay District, Western Cape Province. (Copy by J.C. Hollmann, J. Olofsson & FE. De Villiers.) i u ^v 4 m FIG. 6 (Site 5). Continued from previous figure. The red lines extend from two small steps in the rock face on the right ofthis assemblage of images to point J on the left, from which they extend for another metre (see previous figure). Image L is a figure that sits with its leg drawn up. Images K and N depict two kindsofbag. Image M appears to emerge from or disappear into a step in the rock face. Image L is approximately 210 mmfrom buttocks to crown ofhead. Black represents red paint. Enclosed areas are white, and yellow paint is a stipple. Mossel Bay District, Western Cape Province. (Copy byJ.C. Hollmann, J. Olofsson &F.E. De Villiers.) This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33,2005 29 Site 7 Site 8 Site 11.2 FIG. 7. Szvift-people, the Great Dance and healing activities: (a) these two figures painted below the swift-people at Site 7 appear to be clapping, a motif associated with the Great Dance; (b) the snout-like appendage and (c) nasal emanations could refer to the importance ofthe nose in detecting and 'snoring out' sickness and the use of nasal blood as a protective substance other humans that is emerging from the crack (or disappearing into it?) could thus be on its way to (or from) the spirit-world; others may already have transformed into swift-people. The swift-people have emerged from the crack at the extreme right and are moving along threads of light like those the Ju/'hoansi believe criss-cross the earth and sky. Invisible to ordinary people, who do not have the 'second sight' that ritual practitio? ners achieve in trance and dream states, the swift-people at Site 5, like those at Ezeljagspoort (Site 10) which /Han^kasso commented upon, must have been a powerful testament to their supernatural potency. THE SPIRIT-REALM Living ritual practitioners transformed and went to the spirit-world to get help from dead ritual practitioners, as well as mythological beings (see Hollmann 2003: chapter 1 for argument), Images of swift-people are linked to imagery associated with Bushman ritual behaviour. Those at Site 7 are associated with a badly flaked duo (Fig. 7a) shown clapping with outspread fingers after the manner that Bushman women clap the medicine songs mentioned earlier. The power to heal may be the context for the snout-like feature of a swift-person painted at Site 8 (Fig. 7b), as well as possible nasal emanations associated with swift-people at Site 11.2 (Fig. 7c). The impor? tance of the nose in detecting and 'snoring out' sickness and the use of nasal blood as a protective substance are central to /Xam healing; these paint marks may represent this healing substance, whose smell repels evil (Bleek 1935: 1, 2-5, 6, 8, 12-14,19-22,24,31-35). These observations suggest the role of the swift-people went beyond the rainmaking functions that /Han^kasso described. Rainmaking may none the less have been an important activity of the swift-people. Besides the images at Ezeljagspoort associated by/HanAasso's report with rainmaking, there is at least one other site where swift-people may be involved with rain. Renee Rust (2000: 80-83) describes a site in the Anysberg where two large, snake-like forms are painted near a figure with flywhisks and in the well-known 'arms-back' posture. She suggests it is perhaps controlling the rain snake'. Above a group of human figures is a swift-person. Rust (2000: 83) uses Khoe ethnography to identify the snake-like forms, painted in two colours, as a 'rain snake'. Interestingly, similar depictions, also in two colours, occur at Sites 9 and 11. Another set of images (Fig. 8), recently commented upon by Frans Prins (2001) shows the swift-people in association with other spirit-world beings. At bottom left are two swift-people, both elaborately decorated - the most so of all the swift-people I have seen. Both carry sticks, which we know can be signs of authority and expertise (e.g. Bleek 1935: 12-13). Above and to their left are three antelope torsos; three running figures are painted over the animals (not shown in Fig. 8). To the right of the swift-people is a group of figures in white and similar in style to the figures described by researchers in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Free State (Ouzman & Loubser 2000; Blundell & Lewis-Williams 2001: 45) and which Blundell and Lewis-Williams call 'eldritch' figures (see Blundell 2004: chapter 4 for detailed analysis of their significance). The grotesque proportions of these eldritch figures, their detailed silhouettes and lively postures are characteristic, and so is their colour, which is almost invariably white. Although not always therianthropic in character, their appearance is always bizarre. There are features associated with the Great Dance too - a small figure at right bends forward in a well-known 'fragment of the dance' (Lewis-Williams 1999:281-282). What may be a flywhisk is depicted to the right. An object that resembles a flywhisk is associated with one of the two figures at left, both of whom appear to be sitting. The combination of hunting equipment and shamanic features - by no means an everyday combination amongst Bushman people - seems to be common in eldritch figures and certain other therianthropic imagery. Immediately below the largest, running eldritch figure are at least five small figures below an arched line, and below the Une are four shapes. I interpret these images as depicting a group of people and their bags, with the arched line represent? ing the roof of a rock overhang. Lewis-Williams (pers. comm., 2003) suggests that this widespread motif represents 'people in the portaT - the community gathered together and making contact with the spirit-world. The size and positioning of the This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 30 South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 J FIG. 8 (Site 9). Elaborately ornamented swift-people, in white, red and pinkish-yellow pigments (images A & B) are juxtaposed with figures in white (images C, E, F & G). D marks a group of five small figures at centre, withan overarching line representing a shelter roof and with four bags hanging below it. Image B measures approx. 70 mmfrom crown ofhead to tip of right-hand-most tail tip. George District, Western Cape Province. Black represents red paint. Enclosed areas are white, and peach paint is a stipple. (Copy by F.E. de Villiers &J.C. Hollmann.) people in the portal relative to the swift-people and the eldritch figures would then be intentional and signiflcant. The humans are far smaller in comparison with the swift-people and the el? dritch figures, and that difference in size would signify their mundane status as ordinary, living people. This association of imagery - swift-people and eldritch figures in the spirit-world and 'people in the portal' back in the ordinary world - may reflect the tiered structure of the Bushman cosmos (Lewis- Williams 2002:144-151). USE OF THE ROCK-FACE Swift-people incorporate another aspect of image making - beliefs about the rock surfaces upon which images the images were made. In a classic study, Lewis-Williams and Thomas Dowson (Lewis-Williams & Dowson 1990) and a subsequent analysis of a specific image assemblage (Lewis-Williams 1992: 26-27), these researchers showed how painters used the three dimensions of the rock face, up-down, left-right, as well as in-and-out of the rock face to express beliefs about the nature and proximity of the spirit-world (Lewis-Williams 1992: 27): "The art calls upon us to look not merely at the painted plane of the rock face but to penetrate that plane and to see into the spiritual realm. In addition to the right-left, up-down axes of composition with which Westerners are familiar there is another that runs at right angles to these. It starts in the world in which we stand and leads us into another world behind the rock face. When the artist and his or her people contemplated the panel, they were not simply looking at pictures of vision and power but at visions and power, themselves." Painters thus incorporated the horizontal and vertical axes of composition and a third - depth - in order to express the links that painted imagery had with the spirit-realm behind the rock face. I pointed out how at Site 5 painted lines and a figure seem to 'enter' and 'leave' small steps in the rock. Here I describe instances in which swift-people are juxtaposed with inequalities in the rock surface almost certainly to create the impression that the images are entering and exiting the rock face. At Site 11.1, two of the swift-people are placed with their tails abutting a small step in the rock (Fig. 9) and one of each pair of tail tips is flush against the step. This looks like another instance of a figure painted to show its emergence from the inside the rock. Sometimes the depiction of emergence is more ambiguous: at the same site, a larger group of circusing swift-people are placed close to a fissure in the rock - but no limbs are truncated. Have they too emerged from the spirit- FIG. 9. Sometimes images of swift people are painted immediately adjacent steps and cracks in the rock face. The drawing emphasizes this phenomenon, whkh is less noticeable in photographs. Site 11.1, George District, Western Cape Province. (Drawing by FE. De Villiers.) This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 31 B FIG. 10 (Site 6). There is a single swift-person just to the left ofthis low over- hang that is at the foot ofa cliff (A). The figure is depicted emerging from a step in the rock face (B) and points into the massive outcrop of folded rock. The sketch makes it possible to appreciate this arrangement which is obscured in photographs owing to the position of certain shadows that fall on the rock face. (Drawings by FE. De Villiers.) world via the crack nearby? At some sites, painters also appear to have situated images of swift-people paintings with the larger-scale features of the site in mind. At Site 6 (Fig. 10), for example, a single swift- person, also with one truncated tail tip, abuts a step in the rock face. But instead of heading outwards towards the viewer and the open air, it flies in the opposite direction, into the massive outcrop of folded rock towards another, smaller, blind tunnel at the back of the low overhang in which it is painted. If the significance of location on the rock-surface is indeed important and meaningful, this image can be read as a swift-person who comes out of the rock (its truncated tail at the step) and then returns into the rock (at the travel's end) in a manner that recalls the line weaving in and out of the rock at Site 5. Indeed, the painters at Site 5 may also have chosen to place the images there because they considered the 'macro' features of the site to have supernatural significance. The site itself is unusual in that it is tunnel-like, rather than an open overhang (Fig. 11). The imagery here is of swift-people flying across the rock face and enclosed in a sort of tunnel made up of threads of FIG. 11. Site 5 is tunnel-like inform. People may have chosen to paint here because they believed it was an entrance into the spirit-world. The drawing presents a view ofthe site which is not possible to appreciate from photographs because of the presence of obscuring shadows. (Drawing by F.E. De Villiers.) light. Did the painters choose to paint here because of the unique topography of the place, with the tunnel-like shape of the cave as the entrance into the spirit world? The significance of tunnels as entranceways into the spirit-world probably derives from ASC experiences of a tunnel, or vortex, into which one feels drawn (Lewis-Williams 1995b: 15-17; 2002: 144-148, 167-168,234). Was there an additional and specific reason why they chose this place - for the rock tunnel resembled the entrance tunnel of a swallow's nest, a tunnel, out of which the swift-people emerged when called upon? This interpretation would explain the paintings of swift-people that are associated with unusual forms that I suspect are modelled on swallow nests. SWIFT-PEOPLE AND THE SYMBOLISM OF NESTS At Site 12.2 (Fig. 12) - a series of 34 similar forms has been painted, each consisting of a pair of vertical lines. Each line, bowed at the top, creates a semi-circular form. Each pair of lines differs in length; otherwise, the design is the same. Many of the shapes are painted immediately below a series of naturally formed shallow holes in the rock face that in turn contain smaller, deeper holes. Ten swift-people are arranged in a rough semi-circle above the same row of holes in a pattern that recalls the circusing behaviour of swifts. The arrangement of images around the holes in the rock face seems deliberate and meaningful, as in the previously mentioned instances in which swift-people emerge from steps in the rock. Swift nest sites are usually made in rock crevices in This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 32 South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33, 2005 aj -pnm FIG. 12 (Site 12.2). Swift-people (A) and a paint patch (B). All but one ofthe swift-people are painted just above a row ofnaturally occurring holes in the rock face (C). A row of forms (D) is arranged immediately below half the length ofthe holes in the rock face. George District, Western Cape Province. Left-hand-most swift-person measures 65 mmfrom crown ofhead to tip of bottom most wing. Paintings in red. (Copy by J.C. Hollmann.) vertical surfaces or attached to rock overhangs, locations that allow enough of a drop for ease of access and departure, as the birds cannot take off horizontally (Steyn 1996: 118). The approach to and entrance into a nest is striking: the bird arrives at the nest at high speed, checks adroitly, and instantaneously vanishes into narrow entrance with wings fully closed. Its passage is so smooth that it appears to fly in (Fry 1988:228). The behaviour of swifts may thus have found resonance in Bushman beliefs about the significance of the rock face! This association of circusing swift-people above the row of holes and paintings suggests an explanation: that the row of paired sets of lines at Site 12.2 is based upon the shape of the type of mud nest which are made by swallows,1 and commonly usurped by certain kinds of swifts (Steyn 1996: 119,147). The shape of these swallow nests is very characteristic - the bowl-shape in the paintings may represent sections taken through the igloo-shaped part in which the eggs are laid, and the section of parallel lines the adjoining tunnel that affords entry (Fig. 13). The lines defining the bowl-shaped 'cross-section' of the nest shape do not meet and complete the base of the 'igloo'; so, these are not wholly accurate models of actual nests. Is this detail significant? It may be the clue to understanding the significance of some 'nests' being positioned on the lower lip of the holes in the rock, and of the unique arrangement of images at Site 5, the site with double lines. In terms of Bushman beliefs about the rock face, the gaps at the backs of the nests may represent a 'way through', in the same way that the gap between the parallel sections of the vertical lines represents the tunnel and its entrance. The tunnel (or vortex) leads into the nest; once inside the nest, the second entrance at the back of the nest leads into the natural holes in the rock face and through it into the spirit-world, the home of the swift-people. CONCLUSIONS This investigation of the motif of 'swift-people' shows that natural historical detail and ethnography can help researchers 1 FIG. 13. Images of what may be swallow nests (a) depicted in cross-section below natural holes and a step in the rock face (see Fig. 12). Certain sivallow species build similarly shaped nests out ofmud pellets (b). Swift species, nota? bly the white-rumped swift, usurp these nests (Steyn 1996:119). The nest in (b) has two entrances. At right (c) is a cross-section through the nest in (b) showing its similarity with the image in (a). (Drawings of nest and cross- section of nest by FE. De Villiers.) to construct models about the behaviour and beliefs of ancient painters. Such an approach requires the secure identification of subtle painted details and arrangements of imagery and an understanding of how these articulate with what we know of southern African hunter-gatherer cosmology. The motif of the swift-people is particularly amenable to this sort of study because the paintings are so standardized in their appearance and because painters over a wide, but circumscribed, geo? graphical area tended to portray them in a restricted number of contexts; ? The painters appear to have arranged paintings of swift- people with imagery bound up in altered states of conscious- ness (ASC). ? Swift-people may be shown engaging in the work of ritual practitioners, such as healing activities and interacting with other entities in the spirit-realm. ? Painters seem to have positioned paintings of swift-people in relation to rock-face features in ways that suggest that the This content downloaded from 67.115.155.19 on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:04:50 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions South African Archaeological Society Goodwin Series 9: 21-33,2005 33 swift-people are entering or leaving the rock. These features enable researchers to recognize patterns and associations and therefore to develop understandings about the significance of the motif. It is possible that other hunter-gatherer motifs may also be amenable to this sort of interpretive approach. NOTE ^wallows that make this kind of nest include the Lesser Striped Swal- low, the Greater Striped Swallow, and the Red-breasted Swallow (Tarboton 2001:114). REFERENCES Biesele, M. 1993. 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Zuñi Fetiches
Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-1881,
Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883, pages 3-45