| Description |
1 online resource (xxix, 202 pages) : illustrations (some color), maps (some color) |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Series |
Book collections on Project MUSE.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-196) and index. |
| Contents |
Ancient mysteries on rocks -- Meaning in San rock art -- Tricksters, potency and dance -- Ways of seeing San rock art -- Probing deep into formlings -- Formlings and San cosmological belief -- Symbolic theatres of San cosmos. |
| Summary |
In Termites of the Gods, Siyakha Mguni narrates his personal journey, over many years, to discover the significance of a hitherto enigmatic theme in San rock paintings known as ‘formlings’. Formlings are a painting category found across the southern African region, including South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, with its densest concentration in the Matopo Hills, Zimbabwe. Generations of archaeologists and anthropologists have wrestled with the meaning of this painting theme in San cosmology without reaching consensus or a plausible explanation. Drawing on San ethnography published over the past 150 years, Mguni argues that formlings are, in fact, representations of flying termites and their underground nests, and are associated with botantical subjects and a range of larger animals considered by the San to have great power and spiritual significance. This book fills a gap in rock art studies around the interpretation and meaning of formlings. It offers an innovative methodological approach for understanding subject matter in San rock art that is not easily recognisable, and will be an invaluable reference book to students and scholars in rock art studies and archaeology. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Rock paintings -- Africa, Southern.
|
|
Rock paintings. |
|
Southern Africa. |
|
Art, San.
|
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Art, San. |
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Cosmology, San.
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Cosmology, San. |
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San (African people) -- Africa, Southern.
|
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San (African people) |
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Termites -- Symbolic aspects.
|
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Termites. |
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Africa, Southern -- Antiquities.
|
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Antiquities. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
|
Electronic books.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Mguni, Siyakha. Termites of the gods. Johannesburg : Wits University Press, 2015 9781868147762 (DLC) 2015453361 (OCoLC)911026975 |
| ISBN |
9781868149964 (electronic book) |
|
186814996X (electronic book) |
|
9781868147779 (electronic book) |
|
1868147770 (electronic book) |
|
9781868147762 |
|
1868147762 |
|
