Fishing in the rain: control of rain-making and aquatic resources at a previously undescribed rock art site in Highland Lesotho

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Periodical article

Title:	Fishing in the rain: control of rain-making and aquatic resources at a previously undescribed rock art site in Highland Lesotho
Authors:	Challis, Sam Mitchell, Peter Orton, Jayson
Year:	2008
Periodical:	Journal of African Archaeology
Volume:	6
Issue:	2
Pages:	203-218
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Lesotho
Subjects:	rock art San healers
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135454
Abstract:	This paper describes a previously unrecorded rock art site in the highlands of Lesotho, southern Africa. It then explores the significance of the paintings at this site, which adds to the still small number of locations in the wider Maloti-Drakensberg region at which fishing scenes are depicted. Unusually, paintings of fish at this site are closely associated with paintings of a rain-animal and with other images, including dying eland and clapping and dancing human figures, that have clear shamanistic references. Drawing also on the local excavated archaeological record, the paper argues that these images may collectively refer to the power of Bushman shamans to harness and make rain, using that power to produce socially desirable benefits, including perhaps opportunities for group aggregation around seasonally restricted spawning runs of fish. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]