Gunbalanya

CHAPTER 1
Archaeologies of Art: Time, Place, and Identity in Rock Art, Portable Art, and Body Art
Inés Domingo Sanz, Dánae Fiore, and Sally K. May

Time, place, and identity are some of the main issues archaeologists try to confront through the empirical and analytical study of visual arts (rock art, portable art, and body art). The classical view of these archaeological remains as art for art’s sake, created by a gifted individual or having a specific/unique aesthetic quality (for example, Reinach in Ucko and Rosenfeld 1967) is no longer supported in the academic arena. Just as with any other archaeological remains, visual arts are filled with significance and encode many levels of information about the identity of the artists and their sociocultural context. This information can be more or less successfully decoded through different ways of doing archaeology, understood as the study of past societies through the analysis of their material culture. Archaeological evidence is usually debris of human activities, often scattered fragments resulting from abandonment or destruction. However, the three particular artistic endeavours analysed in this book – rock art (images painted or engraved on rocks), portable art (decorated artefacts or artefacts shaped with specific forms), and body art (images painted or tattooed on the body) – are more than discarded fragments of human activity. They are both a reflection of, and a constructing force behind, human culture. Likewise, even if it is internationally accepted that the meaning of the message of past art traditions (particularly when they are prehistoric) is inaccessible in the present, there are enough data hidden in the motifs to place them in cultural, spatial, and temporal contexts. Considered within this context, this book unites international case studies to explore questions of time, place, and identity through the archaeological and ethnoarchaeological analysis of rock art, contemporary Aboriginal art, and body

References: Altman, J. 2003. Email correspondence, 24 August. Jon Altman is Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University, Canberra. Amit, V., and N. Rapport. 2002. The Trouble with Community: Anthropological Reflections on Movement, Identity and Collectivity. London: Pluto Press. Berndt, R. 1983. ‘A living art: The changing inside and outside contexts’. In P. Loveday and P. Cooke (eds.), Aboriginal Arts and Crafts and the Market, Darwin: The Australian National University North Australia Research Unit, 29−36. Brandl, E. 1973. Australian Aboriginal Paintings in Western and Central Arnhem Land: Temporal Sequences and Elements of Style in Cadell River and Deaf Adder Creek Art. Canberra: Australian Institute Of Aboriginal Studies. Brody, A. 1985. Kunwinjku Bim: Western Arnhem Land Paintings from the Collection of the Aboriginal Arts Board. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. Carrington, F. 1890. The Rivers of the Northern Territory of South Australia. Royal Geographic Society of Australasia (S.A. Branch) Proceedings 2, 56−76. Carroll, P. 1983. ‘Aboriginal art from western Arnhem Land’. In P. Loveday and P. Cooke (eds.), Aboriginal Arts and Crafts and the Market. Darwin: The Australian National University North Australia Research Unit, 44−49. Chaloupka, G. 1982. Burrunguy, Nourlangie Rock. Darwin: Northart. ———. 1984. From Palaeoart to Casual Paintings. Darwin: Northern Territory Museums and Art Galleries. ———. 1985. ‘Chronological sequence of Arnhem Land plateau rock art’. In R. Jones (ed.), Archaeological Research in Kakadu National Park. Canberra: Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service, 269−80. ———. 1993. Journey in Time: The World’s Longest Continuing Art Tradition − The 50,000Year Story of the Australian Aboriginal Rock Art of Arnhem Land. Reed Natural History Australia. Chaloupka, G., and P. Giuliani. 2005. ‘Strands of time’. In L. Hamby (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne, Museum Victoria. Cox, J. C. 1878. ‘Drawings by Australian Aborigines’, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 3(2):155−60. Dodson, M. 2003. Violence Dysfunction Aboriginality, National Press Club Presentation, 11 June, Canberra. Flood, J. 1997. Rock Art of the Dreamtime: Images of Ancient Australia. Pymble, N.S.W.: Angus & Robertson. DOMINGO_CH_08.indd 193 12/20/2007 2:49:10 PM 194 Chapter 8 Haley, B. D., L. R. Wilcoxon, M. F. Brown, J. Friedman, R. Handler, J. E. Jackson, J. Kealiinohomoku, K. B. Kelley, A. Linde-Laursen, J. T. O’Meara, A. D. Spiegel, and D. S. Trigger. 1997. ‘Anthropology and the making of Chumash tradition’, Cultural Anthropology 38(5):761. Lewis, D. 1988. The Rock Paintings of Arnhem Land, Australia: Social, Ecological and Material Culture Change in the Post-Glacial Period. Oxford: England, British Archaeological Reports, no. S415. Malinowski, B. 1960 [1944]. A Scientific Theory of Culture and Other Essays. New York: Galaxy Books. Manakgu, J. 2003. Taped personal correspondence. Kunwinjku artist from Kunbarlanja Recording in possession of Sally K. May, Australian National University, Canberra, 20 October. Maralngurra, G. 2002. Personal correspondence,12 November. Kunwinjku artist from Kunbarlanja. May, S. K. 2005. ‘Injalak arts and crafts: A brief history’. In L. Hamby (ed). Twined Together. Melbourne: Museum Victoria. ———. 2006. Karrikadjurren: Creating Community with an Art Centre in Indigenous Australia. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Australian National University. Minar, D. W., and S. Greer. 1969. The Concept of Community: Readings with Interpretations. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company. Morphy, H. 1983. ‘Aboriginal fine art: The creation of audiences and the marketing of art’. In P. Loveday and P. Cooke, Aboriginal Arts and Crafts and the Market. Darwin: The Australian National University North Australia Research Unit, 3743. ———. 1998. Aboriginal Art. London: Phaidon. ———. 2005. ‘Aesthetics across time and place: An anthropological perspective on archaeology’. In T. Heyd and J. Clegg, Aesthetics and Rock Art. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 51−60. Nagurrgurrba, I. 2002. In A. Murphy, ‘Feature art centre: Injalak arts and crafts, Oenpelli NT’, The Arts Backbone V.2 (May). Poplin, D. E. 1979. Communities: A Survey of Theories and Methods of Research (2nd ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Roberts, R. G; R. Jones, and M. A. Smith. 1993. ‘Optical dating at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory, indicates human occupation between 53,000 and 60,000 years ago’, Australian Archaeology 37:58−9. Ryan, J. 1990. Spirit in Land: Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria. Spencer, B. 1914. Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia. London: Macmillan. ———. 1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia. London: Macmillan. Taçon, P. 1989. ‘From the “dreamtime” to the present: The changing role of aboriginal rock paintings in western Arnhem Land, Australia’, The Canadian Journal of Native Studies IX(2):317−39. Taçon, P., and C. Chippendale. 1994. ‘Australia’s ancient warriors: Changing depictions of fighting in the rock art of Arnhem Land, N.T’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4(2):211−48. Taçon, P., and S. Davies. 2004. ‘Transitional traditions: “Port Essington” bark-paintings and the European discovery of aboriginal aesthetics’, Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004/2:72−86. Taylor, L. 1996. Seeing the Inside: Bark Painting in Western Arnhem Land. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Worsnop, T. 1897. The Prehistoric Arts, Manufactures, works, weapons, etc., of the Aborigines of Australia. Adelaide: Government Printer. Yulidjirri, T. 2002. Personal correspondence, 12 October. Senior Kunwinjku artist from Kunbarlanja. DOMINGO_CH_08.indd 194 12/20/2007 2:49:10 PM