BELIEVING AND SEEING an interpretation of symbolic meanings in ...

San. In this oblique way we can collect exegetical
material that is relevant to an analysis of the rock art.
The exegesis of the rock art from the ethnography of the
southern San is also not direct, but largely by inference
from the symbols used in two other systems, myth and
ritual. In this way the position in southern Africa
differs from both Europe and Australia. In Europe there
is a total absence of any exegetical material, direct or
inferential; in Australia direct exegetical material is
available from the artists themselves, though even under
these apparently auspicious conditions there are
difficulties (7) • The southern African position is
intermediary between these two.
Exegesis is built on three semantic foundations:
the nominal, the substantial and the artefactual. In
discussing the nominal basis we observe the name assigned
to the symbol in ritual and in non-ritual contexts. Some
of the argument in the subsequent chapters is derived from
this basis. An example of the type of material relevant
to this discussion is the names given by the !Kung to
eland. In non-ritual contexts, !Kung men refer to the
eland as 8a; in ritual contexts they call it tcheni,
dance. Comparable data relating to the eland are
available from the southern San and will be discussed in
due course. The second basis for exegetical discussion
is the substantial. In this area of analysis we observe
what natural and material properties of the symbol are
selected by the informants for special comment. In the
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