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The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art

Online ISBN:
9780190607364
Print ISBN:
9780190607357
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art

Bruno David (ed.),
Bruno David
(ed.)
Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University
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Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Melbourne; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

Ian J. McNiven (ed.)
Ian J. McNiven
(ed.)
Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University
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Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Melbourne; Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

Published online:
6 March 2017
Published in print:
3 January 2019
Online ISBN:
9780190607364
Print ISBN:
9780190607357
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Rock art is one of the most visible and geographically widespread of cultural expressions, and it spans much of the period of our species’ existence. Rock art also provides rare and often unique insights into the minds and visually creative capacities of our ancestors and how selected rock outcrops with distinctive images were used to construct symbolic landscapes and shape worldviews. Equally important, rock art is often central to the expression of and engagement with spiritual entities and forces, and in all these dimensions it signals the diversity of cultural practices, across place and through time. Over the past 150 years, archaeologists have studied ancient arts on rock surfaces, both out in the open and within caves and rock shelters, and social anthropologists have revealed how people today use art in their daily lives. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art showcases examples of such research from around the world and across a broad range of cultural contexts, giving a sense of the art’s regional variability, its antiquity, and how it is meaningful to people in the recent past and today – including how we have ourselves tended to make sense of the art of others, replete with our own preconceptions. It reviews past, present, and emerging theoretical approaches to rock art investigation and presents new, cutting edge methods of rock art analysis for the student and professional researcher alike.

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