Like people in prehistory

The interpretation of shamanic art runs into a number of hermeneutic problems. Most noticeably, hallucinatory images are perceived as graphic metaphors produced simply to explain shamans’ experiences in the spirit‐world. Interpretations along these lines downplay the vast diversity of shamanic expression as well as diminishing the role these images play in structuring social relations. Shamans’ experiences, which include relations with supernatural beings, are at the heart of those shamans’ identities. For shamans, then, these supernatural relations are as real as the everyday social relations we all recognize and accept. In this paper I take a specific set of rock paintings and demonstrate how politically prominent shamans use supernatural relations and their depiction in rock art images to underwrite social relations, and vice versa.