ABSTRACT
This chapter examines unchanging interpretations of rock-art as representing the primordial origins of the San in Southern Africa and pottery traditions as exemplifying relatively recent intrusions of Bantu speakers into the region. The view that the San were the first people in Southern Africa is accepted in most literature as an a priori fact. Studies of the San have concentrated heavily on the interpretation of the symbolism, meaning and function of rock-art. Analyzing samples of pottery in the region, archaeologists have come to the conclusion that two southbound migration streams took place at the same time: Kalundu, the western stream taking a direct route south from West Africa; and Urewe-Kwale, the eastern stream, approaching the subcontinent via eastern Africa. The scientific classification of people supposedly on the basis of linguistics and physical anthropology has "constructed" mutually exclusive groups – the San and Bantu.
