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Visions of Dynamic Power: Archaic Rock-paintings, Altered States of Consciousness and ‘Clever Men’ in Western Arnhem Lane (NT), Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2001

Christopher Chippindale ,
Benjamin Smith  and
Paul S.C. Taçon
Christopher Chippindale
Affiliation:
Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DZ, UK. cc43@cam.ac.uk
Benjamin Smith
Affiliation:
Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, PO WITS 2050, South Africa.
Paul S.C. Taçon
Affiliation:
Division of Anthropology, Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia.
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Abstract

The Dynamic figures are a distinctive component in the earlier rock-art of western Arnhem Land, north Australia. They include therianthropic (hybrid human–animal) images. Recent vision experience ethnographically known in the region, and the wider pattern of Altered States of Consciousness (ASC) in hunter-gatherer societies, are consistent with elements of the Dynamics. One key feature is the use of dots and dashes in the Dynamic images, explicable as a depiction of some intangible power, of a character comparable with that in the ‘clever men's knowledge’ of modern Arnhem Land. Tropical Australia thereby is added to the number of regions where a visionary element is identified in rock-art; the specific circumstances in Arnhem Land, permitting the use together of formal and of informed methods, provide unusually strong evidence.

Keywords

rock artAustralian rock artaltered states of consciousnessDynamic rock art figuresArnhem Land rock art
Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , April 2000 , pp. 63 - 101
Copyright
2000 The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

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