James David Lewis-Williams (born 1934) is a South African scholar. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa He is professor emeritus of cognitive archaeology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Emeritus (ɨˈmɛrɨtəs is an Adjective that is used in the title of a retired Professor, Bishop or other professional 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 The University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg is a leading South African University situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. Johannesburg ( Pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/ is the largest city in South Africa. He was born in Cape Town in 1934. Cape Town (Kaapstad Xhosa: Ikapa) is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar.
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. The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe are indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa 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). The Drakensberg ( Afrikaans: "Dragon's Mountain" Mountains are the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising up to in height Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek ( March 8, 1827 - August 17, 1875) was a German linguist. Lucy Catherine Lloyd ( 7 November 1834 - 31 August 1914) was the creator along with Wilhelm Bleek of the 19th century archive of |xam This work has fundamentally changed the way many researchers understand San rock art in southern Africa. Rock art is a term in Archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone
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Biography
Career
Lewis-Williams graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts, having majored in English and Geography. The University of Cape Town ( UCT) is a Public university located on the Rhodes Estate on the slopes of Devil's Peak, in Cape Town Year 1955 ( MCMLV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar) He then went into the teaching profession in 1958, starting at Selborne College. Year 1958 ( MCMLVIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. During his tenure there, David developed an amateur interest in Archaeology and published his first academic paper on rock art (engravings) in 1962. Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Kearsney College is an independent Boarding school for boys located in Botha's Hill, a small town that lies between the provincial capital of Pietermaritzburg 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. The Drakensberg ( Afrikaans: "Dragon's Mountain" Mountains are the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising up to in height 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. The Drakensberg ( Afrikaans: "Dragon's Mountain" Mountains are the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising up to in height An early 1972 journal paper flirted with Structuralism and Semiotics as a means to decode their meaning. Year 1972 ( MCMLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. For the use of structuralism in biology see Structuralism (biology Structuralism is an approach to the human sciences that attempts to analyze Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both 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 scences from San mythology). The Drakensberg ( Afrikaans: "Dragon's Mountain" Mountains are the highest mountain range in Southern Africa, rising up to in height Rock art is a term in Archaeology for any man-made markings made on natural stone Ethnography ( Greek ethnos = people and graphein = writing is a genre of writing that uses Fieldwork to provide a descriptive
David’s amateur fascination now became serious and he began a M. A. in Social Anthropology at the University of Natal. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. 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. Clare Hall is a College for Advanced Study (admitting only Graduate Students) in the University of Cambridge. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University) located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located 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. Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced purse) (September 10 1839 &ndash April 19 1914 was an American Logician mathematician, philosopher 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. Year 1978 ( MCMLXXVIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar)
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. 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.
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 Archaeology’s Excellence in Archaeological Analysis Award. "MMIV" redirects here For the Modest Mouse album see " Baron von Bullshit Rides Again " The Society for American Archaeology (SAA is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world At the beginning of 2005, David Lewis-Williams was awarded an A-rating (i. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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. The National Research Foundation (NRF of South Africa is a Government Research foundation. During 2006, he received an honoury D. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Lit. from the University of Cape Town and an honoury Ph. D. from the University of the Witwatersrand.
During 2000 President Thabo Mbeki invited Professor Lewis-Williams to translate the current South African national motto into the now extinct Xam Khoisan language. Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki (born 18 June 1942 is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1999 to 24 September 2008 The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa ǀXam, or ǀXam Kakǃʼe, is an extinct Khoisan language of South Africa, part of the ǃKwi language group Khoisan (increasingly commonly spelled Khoesan or Khoe-San) is the name for two major Ethnic groups of Southern Africa. 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: Exploring Consciousness and Prehistoric Art (Thames & Hudson) won the American Historical Association’s 2003 James Henry Breasted Award. The American Historical Association ( AHA) is the oldest and largest society of Historians and Teachers of History in the United States James Henry Breasted ( August 27 1865 &ndash December 2, 1935) was an American Archaeologist and Historian. His most recent book is Inside the Neolithic Mind: Consciousness, Cosmos, and the Realm of the Gods (Thames & Hudson) co-authored with David Pearce and published in 2005.
Selected publications
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: entropic 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. 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.
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