Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art - Couverture rigide

Lewis-Williams, David; Challis, Sam

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0500051690 ISBN 13 : 9780500051696

Editeur : Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2011

Synopsis

How did prehistoric peoples - those living before written records - think? Were their modes of thought fundamentally different from ours today? Researchers over the years have certainly believed so. Along with the Aborigines of Australia, the indigenous San people of southern Africa - among the last hunter-gatherer societies on Earth - became iconic representatives of all our distant ancestors, and were viewed either as irrational fantasists or childlike, highly spiritual conservationists. Since the 1960s, a new wave of research among the San and their world-famous rock art has overturned these misconceived ideas. Here, the great authority David Lewis-Williams and his colleague Sam Challis reveal how analysis of the rock paintings and engravings can be made to yield vital insights into San beliefs and ways of thought. The picture that emerges is very different from past analysis: this art is not a naive narrative of daily life but rather is imbued with power and religious depth. As this elegantly written, enlightening book so ably demonstrates, the 'prehistoric' mind was in fact as complex and sophisticated as that of contemporary humans.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

David Lewis-Williams is Professor Emeritus and Senior Mentor in the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg. Among his books are The Mind in the Cave, Inside the Neolithic Mind (with David Pearce) and The Shamans of Prehistory (with Jean Clottes).

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Thames & Hudson Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2011
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0500051690
• ISBN 13: 9780500051696
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 224
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible