Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia

Sally K. May; Luke Taylor; Catherine Frieman; Paul S.C. Taçon; Daryl Wesley; Tristen Jones; Joakim Goldhahn; Charlie Mungulda

doi:10.1017/S0959774320000104

Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia

Sally K. May, Luke Taylor, Catherine Frieman, Paul S.C. Taçon, Daryl Wesley, Tristen Jones, Joakim Goldhahn, Charlie Mungulda

College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

82 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This paper explores the complex story of a particular style of rock art in western Arnhem Land known as 'Painted Hands'. Using new evidence from recent fieldwork, we present a definition for their style, distribution and place in the stylistic chronologies of this region. We argue these motifs played an important cultural role in Aboriginal society during the period of European settlement in the region. We explore the complex messages embedded in the design features of the Painted Hands, arguing that they are more than simply hand stencils or markers of individuality. We suggest that these figures represent stylized and intensely encoded motifs with the power to communicate a high level of personal, clan and ceremonial identity at a time when all aspects of Aboriginal cultural identity were under threat.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	491-510
Number of pages	20
Journal	CAMBRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNAL
Volume	30
Issue number	3
Early online date	1 May 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774320000104
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

© 2020 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Keywords

stylistic chronologies
Aboriginal society
European settlement

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10.1017/S0959774320000104Licence: CC BY

May_survival_P2020Final published version, 2.01 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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AU - Goldhahn, Joakim

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Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia

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