Bernard,
You might be interested in this article by my friend Thomas Dowson.
Greg


THOMAS A. DOWSON,
Debating shamanism in southern African rock art: time to move on. South African Archaeological Bulletin 62(185): 49-61, 2007

ABSTRACT
The shamanistic interpretation of southern African rock art has had a
significant impact on the study of rock art world-wide, as well as the
archaeology of southern Africa. Despite considerable theoretical and
methodological developments over nearly three decades the approach
has retained its basis in Cartesian thinking and overstated the role
of the shaman in the control of supernatural forces. By eschewing
Cartesian principles and resituating the shaman in an animic
hunter-gatherer ontology, I propose a new direction for southern
African hunter-gatherer rock art studies. I initiate this new approach
here by drawing on a specific set of themes in rock art – those that still
greatly influence the wider reception of hunter-gatherer arts, so-called
images of daily life. The interaction of non-human animals and rock
surfaces, rocks that have been rubbed smooth by rhinoceroses, is also
considered. I argue that the control of supernatural potency was not
the exclusive preserve of shamans, but that all human and non-human
animals were involved in maintaining the continued circulation of
these vital life forces through the various activities that constituted
human and non-human beings’ identities. The painting and engraving
of these activities revealed a deeper understanding of the world to
ensure its continued existence.