David Lewis-Williams
Encyclopedia
James David Lewis-Williams (born 1934, Cape Town
) is a South Africa
n scholar. He is professor emeritus
of cognitive archaeology
at the University of the Witwatersrand
in Johannesburg
.
David Lewis-Williams, as he is known to his friends and colleagues, is regarded as an eminent specialist in the San
or Bushmen
culture, specifically their art and beliefs. His fieldwork studying the Drakensberg
rock art, together with a close analysis of the Wilhelm Bleek
& Lucy Lloyd
Collection, in the 1970s led to his seminal and highly sought after book Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meaning in Southern San Rock Paintings (published by Academic Press in 1981). This work has fundamentally changed the way many researchers understand San rock art
in southern Africa.
in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts, having majored in English and Geography. He then went into the teaching profession in 1958, starting at Selborne College. During his tenure there, David developed an amateur interest in Archaeology
and published his first academic paper on rock art (engravings) in 1962. At the start of 1963, he moved to Kearsney College
, where, despite wanting to be a senior Geography teacher he was given the post of English master instead; after a few years he was offered the Geography post but turned it down because he found he enjoyed teaching English more. Two years later, he received his B.A. Honours from the University of South Africa
.
While at Kearsney College, Lewis-Williams would arrange fieldtrips for the students to see archaeological sites in the Drakensberg
mountains. Partly due to these school excursions as well as his own private amateur field work, he became familiar with the Drakensberg
San rock art and started to ponder their meaning and significance. An early 1972 journal paper flirted with Structuralism
and Semiotics
as a means to decode their meaning. It was, however, a paper by Patricia Vinnicombe, in the same year that initially suggested a correlation between the Drakensberg
rock art
and San ethnographic work (she hypothesised that the art depicted scenes from San mythology).
David’s amateur fascination now became serious and he began a M.A. in Social Anthropology
at the University of Natal
. He was awarded a visiting fellowship to Clare Hall, Cambridge University in 1975 so that he could study the various San ethnographic sources/records in the United Kingdom
. Soon thereafter, the M.A. was upgraded, without David’s knowledge, to a Ph.D.
While still utilising Semiotic theory (particularly the work of Charles Sanders Peirce) as a heuristic device, David’s Ph.D. focused upon the various San ritual ceremonies, particularly the Healing or (so called) Trance Dance, and their connection to the rock art. Professor Lewis-Williams received his Ph.D. in 1978 and the dissertation would later be published as Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meaning in Southern San Rock Paintings.
After being the director of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand for many years, Professor Lewis-Williams retired in 2000 and he now serves as its senior mentor.
’s Excellence in Archaeological Analysis Award. At the beginning of 2005, David Lewis-Williams was awarded an A-rating (i.e. researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs) by the National Research Foundation of South Africa
. During 2006, he received an honourary D.Lit. from the University of Cape Town and an honourary Ph.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand. In mid 2008, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
During 2000, then-President Thabo Mbeki
invited Professor Lewis-Williams to translate the current South Africa
n national motto into the now extinct ǀXam Khoisan
language. Lewis-Williams has authored more than 135 articles in a wide variety of academic journals as well as having written (or co-written) more than 16 books. His book, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (Thames & Hudson) won the American Historical Association
’s 2003 James Henry Breasted
Award. His most recent books are Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods (Thames & Hudson) co-authored with David Pearce and published in 2005, Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion, published in 2010, and Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art, co-authored with Sam Challis and published in 2011.
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
) is a South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n scholar. He is professor emeritus
Emeritus
Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:...
of cognitive archaeology
Cognitive archaeology
Cognitive archaeology is a sub-discipline of archaeology which focuses on the ways that ancient societies thought and the symbolic structures that can be perceived in past material culture....
at the University of the Witwatersrand
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg is a South African university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University...
in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
.
David Lewis-Williams, as he is known to his friends and colleagues, is regarded as an eminent specialist in the San
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
or Bushmen
Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Barwa, Kung, or Khwe...
culture, specifically their art and beliefs. His fieldwork studying the Drakensberg
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to in height. In Zulu, it is referred to as uKhahlamba , and in Sesotho as Maluti...
rock art, together with a close analysis of the Wilhelm Bleek
Wilhelm Bleek
Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was a German linguist. His work included A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages and his great project jointly executed with Lucy Lloyd: The Bleek and Lloyd Archive of ǀxam and !kun texts.-Biography:Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek was born in Berlin on 8...
& Lucy Lloyd
Lucy Lloyd
Lucy Catherine Lloyd was the creator along with Wilhelm Bleek of the 19th century archive of |xam and !kun texts-Early life:...
Collection, in the 1970s led to his seminal and highly sought after book Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meaning in Southern San Rock Paintings (published by Academic Press in 1981). This work has fundamentally changed the way many researchers understand San rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
in southern Africa.
Career
Lewis-Williams graduated from the University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts, having majored in English and Geography. He then went into the teaching profession in 1958, starting at Selborne College. During his tenure there, David developed an amateur interest in Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
and published his first academic paper on rock art (engravings) in 1962. At the start of 1963, he moved to Kearsney College
Kearsney College
Kearsney College is a private boarding school for boys in Botha's Hill, a small town that lies between the provincial capital of Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the largest city of KwaZulu-Natal, a province in South Africa.- History :...
, where, despite wanting to be a senior Geography teacher he was given the post of English master instead; after a few years he was offered the Geography post but turned it down because he found he enjoyed teaching English more. Two years later, he received his B.A. Honours from the University of South Africa
University of South Africa
The University of South Africa is a distance education university, with headquarters in Pretoria, South Africa. With approximately 300 000 enrolled students, it qualifies as one of the world's mega universities.-History:...
.
While at Kearsney College, Lewis-Williams would arrange fieldtrips for the students to see archaeological sites in the Drakensberg
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to in height. In Zulu, it is referred to as uKhahlamba , and in Sesotho as Maluti...
mountains. Partly due to these school excursions as well as his own private amateur field work, he became familiar with the Drakensberg
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to in height. In Zulu, it is referred to as uKhahlamba , and in Sesotho as Maluti...
San rock art and started to ponder their meaning and significance. An early 1972 journal paper flirted with Structuralism
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
and Semiotics
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
as a means to decode their meaning. It was, however, a paper by Patricia Vinnicombe, in the same year that initially suggested a correlation between the Drakensberg
Drakensberg
The Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising to in height. In Zulu, it is referred to as uKhahlamba , and in Sesotho as Maluti...
rock art
Rock art
Rock art is a term used in archaeology for any human-made markings made on natural stone. They can be divided into:*Petroglyphs - carvings into stone surfaces*Pictographs - rock and cave paintings...
and San ethnographic work (she hypothesised that the art depicted scenes from San mythology).
David’s amateur fascination now became serious and he began a M.A. in Social Anthropology
Social anthropology
Social Anthropology is one of the four or five branches of anthropology that studies how contemporary human beings behave in social groups. Practitioners of social anthropology investigate, often through long-term, intensive field studies , the social organization of a particular person: customs,...
at the University of Natal
University of Natal
The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...
. He was awarded a visiting fellowship to Clare Hall, Cambridge University in 1975 so that he could study the various San ethnographic sources/records in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Soon thereafter, the M.A. was upgraded, without David’s knowledge, to a Ph.D.
While still utilising Semiotic theory (particularly the work of Charles Sanders Peirce) as a heuristic device, David’s Ph.D. focused upon the various San ritual ceremonies, particularly the Healing or (so called) Trance Dance, and their connection to the rock art. Professor Lewis-Williams received his Ph.D. in 1978 and the dissertation would later be published as Believing and Seeing: Symbolic Meaning in Southern San Rock Paintings.
After being the director of the Rock Art Research Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand for many years, Professor Lewis-Williams retired in 2000 and he now serves as its senior mentor.
Academic achievements, awards and honours
In 2003 Professor Lewis-Williams was a recipient of the Witwatersrand’s Distinguished Researcher’s Award and during 2004 he was given the Society for American ArchaeologySociety for American Archaeology
The Society for American Archaeology is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The Society was founded in 1934 and today has over 7000 members. The Society holds an annual conference and publishes the flagship journal of American archaeology,...
’s Excellence in Archaeological Analysis Award. At the beginning of 2005, David Lewis-Williams was awarded an A-rating (i.e. researchers who are unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars in their field for the high quality and impact of their recent research outputs) by the National Research Foundation of South Africa
National Research Foundation of South Africa
South Africa’s National Research Foundation is the intermediary agency between the policies and strategies of the Government of South Africa and South Africa's research institutions....
. During 2006, he received an honourary D.Lit. from the University of Cape Town and an honourary Ph.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand. In mid 2008, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
During 2000, then-President Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...
invited Professor Lewis-Williams to translate the current South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n national motto into the now extinct ǀXam Khoisan
Khoisan
Khoisan is a unifying name for two ethnic groups of Southern Africa, who share physical and putative linguistic characteristics distinct from the Bantu majority of the region. Culturally, the Khoisan are divided into the foraging San and the pastoral Khoi...
language. Lewis-Williams has authored more than 135 articles in a wide variety of academic journals as well as having written (or co-written) more than 16 books. His book, The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art (Thames & Hudson) won the American Historical Association
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
’s 2003 James Henry Breasted
James Henry Breasted
James Henry Breasted was an American archaeologist and historian. After completing his PhD at the University of Berlin in 1894, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago. In 1901 he became director of the Haskell Oriental Museum at the University of Chicago, where he continued to...
Award. His most recent books are Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods (Thames & Hudson) co-authored with David Pearce and published in 2005, Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion, published in 2010, and Deciphering Ancient Minds: The Mystery of San Bushman Rock Art, co-authored with Sam Challis and published in 2011.
Articles
- Lewis-Williams, J.D., 1982. The economic and social context of southern San rock art. Current Anthropology, 23(4): 429-449.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D., 1987. Paintings of power: ethnography and rock art in southern Africa. In: M. Biesele and R. Gordon (Editors), Past and future of !Kung ethnography. Buske Verlag, Hamburg, pp. 231–273.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D., 1996. Harnessing the brain: vision and shamanism in Upper Palaeolithic Western Europe. In: M.W. Conkey, O. Sopher, D. Stratmann and N.G. Jablonski (Editors), Beyond art: Pleistocene image and symbol. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 321–342.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D., 1998. Wrestling with analogy: a methodological dilemma in Upper Palaeolithic art research. In: D.S. Whitley (Editor), Reader in Archaeological theory, post-processual and cognitive approaches. Routledge, London, pp. 157–175.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 1998. Quanto?: the issue of 'many' meanings in southern African San rock art research. South African Archaeological Bulletin, 53: 86-97.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D., 2001. The enigma of Palaeolithic cave art. In: B.M. Fagan (Editor), The seventy great mysteries of the ancient world: unlocking the secrets of past civilisations. Thames and Hudson, London, pp. 96–100.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 2004. On Sharpness and Scholarship in the Debate on "Shamanism". Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 45(3): 404-406.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D., 2004. Consciousness, Intelligence and Art: A view of the West European Upper Palaeolithic Transition. In: G. Berghaus (Editor), New Perspectives on Prehistoric Art: A View of the West European Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition. Praeger Publishers, Westport.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Clottes, J., 1998. The mind in the cave - the cave in the mind: altered consciousness in the Upper Palaeolithic. Anthropology of Consciousness, 9(1): 13-21.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D. and Dowson, T.A., 1988. The signs of all times: entoptic phenomena in Upper Palaeolithic art. Current Anthropology, 29(2): 201-245.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Dowson, T.A., 1993. On vision and power in the Neolithic: evidence from the decorated monuments. Current Anthropology, 34: 55-65.
- Lewis-Williams, J.D. and Pearce, D.G., 2004. Southern African San rock painting as social intervention: A study of rain-control images. African Archaeological Review, 21(4): 199-228.
Books
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 1981. Believing and seeing: symbolic meanings in southern San rock painting. Academic Press, London.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 1990. Discovering southern African rock art. David Philip, Cape Town.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 2000. Stories that float from afar: further specimens of 19th Century Bushman folklore. David Philip Publishers, Cape Town.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 2002. A cosmos in stone: interpreting religion and society through rock art. Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, California.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 2002. The Mind In The Cave: Consciousness And The Origins Of Art. Thames & Hudson, London.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 2003. Images of Mystery. Double Storey, Cape Town.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J., 2010. Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion. Thames & Hudson, London.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Blundell, G., 1998. Fragile heritage: a rock art fieldguide. University of the Witwatersrand Press, Johannesburg.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Clottes, J., 1998. The Shamans of prehistory: trance magic and the painted caves. Abrams, New York.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Dowson, T.A., 1999. Images of power: understanding San rock art (Second Edition). Southern Book Publishers, Johannesburg.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Pearce, D.G., 2004. San Spirituality: Roots, Expressions and Social Consequences. Double Storey, Cape Town.
- Lewis-Williams, D.J. and Pearce, D.G., 2005. Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods. Thames & Hudson, London.
External links
- Staff Page at the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- The Shamanistic Theory by Mikey Brass explains, in some detail, the work of David Lewis-Williams. This page is slightly out-dated in terms of recent academic work.
- David Lewis-Williams interviewed by Jonathan DerbyshireJonathan DerbyshireJonathan Derbyshire is culture editor of the New Statesman. He is also a literary journalist whose work has been published in the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and the Financial Times.-External links:...
about his book Conceiving God on New StatesmanNew StatesmanNew Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
.