The fish, the Shaman and the peregrination : San rock paintings of mormyrid fish as religious and social metaphors

Abstract

Species-specific rock paintings of freshwater mormyrid fish in central and eastern Zimbabwe and the south-eastern mountains of South Africa are interpreted in terms of San shamanism. Elements of mormyrid appearance and physiology appear to have been foregrounded in order to more precisely nuance San perceptions of supernatural potency and extra-corporeal travel. Many of the south-eastern mountain ichthyoid paintings have not been widely accepted as representations of mormyrids because they do not correspond with the natural distribution of mormyrid fish. This discrepancy may be indicative of extensive forager social networks in eastern southern Africa during the late Holocene.