ABSTRACT

With the influence of the ‘new’ ontologies of animisms and performative materialisms, research has shown that people, animals and things are relational and have agency. In southern San ethnography, behaving with understanding was essential for maintaining reciprocal, beneficial relationships between human and animal persons for the good of these communities. People identified with certain animals to facilitate these negotiations. This paper also considers how certain people may have identified through specific animals. San rock paintings of lion and other felines and their painted contexts provide an opportunity to investigate these multiplex relationships and identities. Felines are relatively commonly depicted in sites from the southern Maloti-Drakensberg and adjacent northeastern Stormberg Mountains. Predominantly, lions and felines are depicted walking or standing and are painted with male and female eland, female rhebok and hartebeest. Felines are also depicted with men and women in clothing, postures and equipment that have been associated with ritual specialists and their use of potency. These painted contexts of felines bring focus to their roles as efficient hunters and protectors and the establishment of reciprocal relations with antelope. The similar roles and skillsets of ritual specialists and their leonine transformations are highlighted with both their dividual and individual selves. In addition, the paper considers the affective range of wild and tame behaviours and notions of ǃko᷉ɑ-se and related ǃnɑnnɑ sse practices. Depictions of felines may be exemplars of powerful ritual specialists accentuating their skill and status, an interpretation that has important implications for realising a multiplex understanding of San personhood and identity marking.

摘要

在万物有灵论和表演唯物论的“新”本体论的影响下，研究表明人、动物和事物是相关的并且具有代理性。在南部桑人种学中，为了社区的利益，为了维持人类和动物之间互惠互利的关系，理解行为至关重要。人们认同某些动物以促进这些谈判。本文还考虑了某些人如何通过特定的动物。狮子和其他猫科动物的桑岩画及其绘画背景提供了研究这些多重关系和身份的机会。猫科动物在马洛蒂-德拉肯斯堡南部和邻近的斯托姆伯格山脉东北部的遗址中相对常见。狮子和猫科动物主要被描绘为行走或站立，并绘有雄性和雌性大羚羊、雌性犀牛和狷羚。猫科动物也被描绘成男性和女性的服装、姿势和装备，这些都与仪式专家及其力量的使用有关。这些猫科动物的绘画背景让人们关注它们作为高效猎人和保护者的角色，以及与羚羊建立互惠关系。仪式专家的相似角色和技能以及他们的狮子转变在他们的个体和个体自我中得到了强调。此外，本文还考虑了野生和驯服行为以及概念的情感范围。ǃko᷉ɑ-se和相关的ǃnɑnnɑ sse实践。对猫科动物的描绘可能是强大的仪式专家强调其技能和地位的典范，这种解释对于实现对桑人人格和身份标记的多重理解具有重要意义。