ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book itself, of course, is subject to the transforming process which changes all human things. Itis how the classic approach constructs an expanding body of knowledge, like all systems of meaning, San rock art has strong consistencies and recurrences. The questions he poses and the answers he provides lie at the core of the methodological issues addressed in the book and speak to the global relevance of the research of David Lewis-Williams. The book is dedicated to David Lewis-Williams, and the prompt to its writing was David's retirement from his professorship at the University of the Witwatersrand. Finally, the book deals with change and its consequences: the changing social milieu of the rock artists, the relationship of their descendants and relations in a contemporary world to the art, and the role of the images in a changing world.
