L’apport de l’ethnographie au concept de « chasse magique par empathie » (ou compatissante) et de chamanisme dans l’art préhistorique d’Afrique australe

Abstract

African rituals and beliefs have been recorded by various observers (travelers and anthropologists) in different areas in southern Africa within the last two centuries, and these are useful for interpreting prehistoric rock art (paintings and engravings). Notably, Lichtenstein (1812) recorded rituals among Nguni (who interacted with San) in South Africa, where a hunter took on the form of an animal which was symbolically wounded and which was symbolically killed in the belief that this would contribute to success in a forthcoming hunt. In Namibia, Lebzelter (1934) recorded another ritual in which a San hunter symbolically wounded and symbolically killed an animal represented in a drawing. Such rituals relate to the principle of sympathetic hunting magic. The ethnological evidence is discussed in relation to prehistoric rock art in different areas of southern Africa (Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa, Apollo 11 Cave in Namibia, and Melikane Shelter in Lesotho), and in relation to an important photograph of a ritual presumed to be associated with hunting, recorded at Logageng in the southern Kalahari, South Africa. When taken together with linguistic as well as ethnographic evidence, these sources of information support the view that the so-called trance hypothesis (relating to shamanism) and the principle of sympathetic hunting magic are not mutually exclusive, at least in southern Africa (if not elsewhere).