Rock Art, Ritual and Relationships: An archaeological analysis of rock art from the central Australian arid zone

Abstract

Theoretical approaches adopted in recent rock art research throughout the world have explicitly or implicitly invoked ritual as an activity associated with the production of rock art but the articulation between the structure and composition of rock art assemblages and ritual behaviour is rarely made clear. In this thesis I investigate the relationship between the central Australian rock art assemblage and ritual behaviour. I have proposed a theoretical framework formulated from Roy Rappaport's anthropological study of ritual, which identified the structural form he saw as universal to all ritual. I have identified the form and structural features of the central Australian rock art assemblage and compared them with the theoretical framework in order to identify rock art assemblages associated with ritual behaviour.