The Language of Myth and Art

In 'primary oral societies', notions of repetition, addition, malleability of characters and agonistic contexts in narrative myths differ markedly from Western notions of time, orthodoxy and tediousness. What Western audiences and image-viewers expect as a consequence of their cultural background does not match the expectations of those who belong to oral societies. In The Language of Myth and Art, Witelson and Lewis-Williams strive to distance the language of Western myth and art from that of San myths and rock art.

The book argues that Western categories such as 'myth' and 'art' obscure the inner logic of Indigenous San (Bushman) expressive culture. Drawing on performance theory and the principles of orality, they show that nineteenth-century |Xam and related San languages illuminate the chains of allusion and metaphor that pervade everyday speech and performances of myth, ritual, and image-making. By placing language at the center of interpretation, The Language of Myth and Art offers a new approach to the expressive culture of oral societies, with implications far beyond southern Africa.