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The origins of rock art in Australia are probably as ancient as the art of the hunter-gatherers of Western Europe, well known for the prehistoric caves of Altamira and Lascaux. That the practice of painting and engraving on rocks continues today in parts of Northern and Central Australia emphasises the importance of this art as a visual record for Australia's indigenous communities. Rock art can be 'read' to determine cultural processes and provides a durable testimony of thousands of years of cultural change, particularly as it oftern relates to the social realm more than artefacts.

This book is an up-to-date survey of Australian rock art and presents detailed case studies which show the significance of both recent and ancient art for Australia's indigenous communities. Australian Rock Art's combined archaeological/anthropological framework makes the book particularly valuable as the information on the art's content and location illuminates its cultural context. Archaeological data provide evidence of the ways in which rock art traditions have changed over 15,000 or more years in response to changes in the environment, the development of new forms of social organisation and the impact of European colonial settlement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Chapter One: Anthropological and archaeological approaches to Australian rock art
• A convergence of method
• Recent Australian rock art
• Continuity with other media
• Conclusions
2. Chapter Two: Rock art and indigenous religion
• The social background
• Rock art and the ancestral order in the western Kimberleys
• Rock art and increase ceremonies: a comparative survey
• Didactic role of paintings and engravings
• Geometric rock art and religion in central Australia
• Geometric rock art and other media
• General Conclusion: rock art and Australian religion
3. Chapter Three: Rock Art as an expression of secular and subversive themes
• Secular aock art in the Oenpelli area
• Comparative Material
• Capricious and malevolent figures
• Iconography, style and cultural context
4. Chapter Four: Rock art and the colonial impact
• A visual history of trade and colonisation
• The impact of colonisation
• Regional variation in colonial history
• Survival
• Continuity
5. Chapter Five: Putting statements in their cultural context
• What is Culture?
• Reading Rock Art
• Levels of Explanation
• Conjectural History
• Evaluation of Isolated Statements
6. Chapter Six: Figure and motif
• The problem of subjectivity
• Classification of geometric figures
• Contemporary iconography of geometric rock art
• The problem of Koonalda
• Classification of figures in silhouette styles
• Archaeological typologies of silhouette motifs
• Simpler silhouette traditions
7. Chapter Seven: Stylistic variations in time and space
• Definitions of technique
• Definitions of style
• Emblemic variation
• Style classes
• Definition of motif
• Stencils
• Geographical distribution of rock art styles
• Distribution in time
8. Chapter Eight: Rock art and human adaptation in Australia
• Changes in the natural environment
• Changes in indigenous culture
• The cultural context of Australian rock art
• Vandalism and alienation