cognitive neuroscience, shamanism and the rock art of native california

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Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California David S. Whitley 1COMOS Rock Art Committee 447 Third Street Fillmore, CA 93015 [email protected] Abstract The combination of ethnographic and cognitive neuroscience research provides considerable insight into the origin and symbolism of Native Californian rock art. Although made by different social groups for different purposes in various parts of the state, the ethnographic record demonstrates that the art depicts the mental imagery and somatic hallucinations of trance, taken to represent supernatural experiences. When this art is viewed from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, it suggests that the shamanistic state of consciousness was far from primarily "ecstatic," instead often involving the generation of unpleasant emotions; and that biochemical changes during trance necessitated the making of rock art if the memory of these supernatural experiences was to be preserved. Introduction No aspect of the archaeological record has captured the imagination — and frustrations — of anthropological archaeologists more than rock art. Although employed for decades as cover art for professional monographs, the commonness of this use of rock art motifs precisely belies the intellectual history of rock art research. Traditionally this has been marginalized in the United States because of difficulties in dating the art combined with the dominant materialist—adaptationist worldview of American archaeology. Art, along with related concerns such as ritual, belief, cognition and consciousness, are considered "epiphenomenal" from this perspective, and therefore intellectually irrelevant (Whitley 1992a). Despite American archaeology's traditional disregard of rock art, a revolution in rock art research nevertheless has occurred during the last decade (Whitley and Loendorf 1994)- Technological advances in chronometric techniques, for example, have made the direct dating of rock paintings (pictographs) and engravings (petroglyphs) feasible (e.g., Chaffee et al 1994; Dorn 1994). This has allowed the incorporation of rock art into regional culture-histories, and has demonstrated (among other things) that much of this art is recent in age (e.g., Whitley and Dorn 1987; Whitley 1994a). Inspired by the research ofDavid Lewis-Williams (e.g., 1980, 1981, 1982) in southern Africa, attention in North America has also turned to the ethnographic and ethnohistorical records, long said to contain no useful information about rock art (e.g., Steward 1968). This has revealed a rich source of indigenous commentary on the art (e.g., Whitley 1992b, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 1998, in press/ Anthropology of Consciousness 9(l):22-37. Copyright © 1998 American Anthropological Association 22

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Page 1: Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California

Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism andthe Rock Art of Native California

David S. Whitley1COMOS Rock Art Committee

447 Third StreetFillmore, CA 93015

[email protected]

Abstract

The combination of ethnographic and cognitive neuroscience research providesconsiderable insight into the origin and symbolism of Native Californian rock art.Although made by different social groups for different purposes in various parts of thestate, the ethnographic record demonstrates that the art depicts the mental imageryand somatic hallucinations of trance, taken to represent supernatural experiences.When this art is viewed from a cognitive neuroscience perspective, it suggests thatthe shamanistic state of consciousness was far from primarily "ecstatic," instead ofteninvolving the generation of unpleasant emotions; and that biochemical changesduring trance necessitated the making of rock art if the memory of these supernaturalexperiences was to be preserved.

IntroductionNo aspect of the archaeological record has captured the imagination — and

frustrations — of anthropological archaeologists more than rock art. Althoughemployed for decades as cover art for professional monographs, the commonness ofthis use of rock art motifs precisely belies the intellectual history of rock art research.Traditionally this has been marginalized in the United States because of difficultiesin dating the art combined with the dominant materialist—adaptationist worldviewof American archaeology. Art, along with related concerns such as ritual, belief,cognition and consciousness, are considered "epiphenomenal" from this perspective,and therefore intellectually irrelevant (Whitley 1992a).

Despite American archaeology's traditional disregard of rock art, a revolution inrock art research nevertheless has occurred during the last decade (Whitley andLoendorf 1994)- Technological advances in chronometric techniques, for example,have made the direct dating of rock paintings (pictographs) and engravings(petroglyphs) feasible (e.g., Chaffee et al 1994; Dorn 1994). This has allowed theincorporation of rock art into regional culture-histories, and has demonstrated(among other things) that much of this art is recent in age (e.g., Whitley and Dorn1987; Whitley 1994a). Inspired by the research ofDavid Lewis-Williams (e.g., 1980,1981, 1982) in southern Africa, attention in North America has also turned to theethnographic and ethnohistorical records, long said to contain no useful informationabout rock art (e.g., Steward 1968). This has revealed a rich source of indigenouscommentary on the art (e.g., Whitley 1992b, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 1998, in press/

Anthropology of Consciousness 9(l):22-37. Copyright © 1998 American Anthropological Association22

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March 1998 23

a, inpress/b, in press/c), and further confirmsthe recent age of much extant rock artsuggested by the chronometrics. Finally,combinations of cognitive neurosciencesresearch with the ethnography (e.g., Lewis-Williams and Dowson 1988, 1989; LewisWilliams in press) have yielded more detailedunderstanding of the origin of motif forms,and the symbolism of graphical metaphorsportrayed in the art (e.g , Hedges 1982,1992; Whitley 1988, 1994a, 1994b, 1998).

In this essay 1 outline certain of theconclusions about Native Californian rockart derived from these different lines ofresearch. In particular, I attend to theimplications of recent cognitiveneurosciences research for interpreting thisart and the cultural trad it ions responsible forits creation, as well as for understanding the"shamanistic state of consciousness" moregenerally. Figure 1. A petroglyph from the Coso

Range, eastern California. This is a so-

called "patterned body anthropomorph"

typical of this region. The quail topknot

headdress shown on this figure was a

characteristic ritual accouterment of rain

shamans. The concentric circle face, alsocommon in this region, symbolizes the

whirlwind which, like the shaman,

concentrates supernatural power.

(Scale- 10 cm).

Native Californian Rock ArtThe interplay of chronometric,

ethnohistorical and cognitive neuroscienceresearch is well illustrated in California, aregion inhabited until recent times by hunter-gatherers. These forebears left us aparticularly rich record of rock art: over3,200 rock art sites are known in the state(cf. Sonin 1995), including some of the most renowned sites in the world. The CosoRange located in eastern California, for example, contains the single largestpetroglyph concentration in the western hemisphere, and one of the largest suchconcentrations of engraved art in the world (Figure 1). Similarly, the mountainousterritory backing the central coast around Santa Barbara is renowned for itsChumash pictographs (Figure 2), many of which are among the most elaboratepolychrome paintings left by hunter-gatherers. Indeed, the richness of this record issuch that it has intrigued a number of the most significant historical figures inAmerican anthropology, including Alfred Kroebcr (e.g., 1925), Julian Steward(1929) and William Duncan Strong, among others.

Although various interpretations have been offered for this art, there has beenwidespread agreement since Kroeber published his Handbook of the Indians ofCalifornia in 1925 that much if not all of Native Californian rock art was a productof shamanism (e.g., Steward 1929; Gayton 1930, 1948; Driver 1937, Hcizer andBaumhoff 1958, 1962;Grant 1965,1968; Blackburn 1977;Hedges 1976,1982,1983,1992, Garvin 1978; Hudson and Underhay 1978; Riddell 1978, Wellman 1979;

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24 Anthropology of Consciousness 19U)]

Figure 2. A pictograph from the PleitoCreek Chumash site in south centralCalifornia. Painted in red and blue, thefigure portrays a very stylizedanthropomorph with a body "exploding"out of the shoulders of a lower torso (notearms and fingers), ultimately terminatingin the large 'starburst' motif. (Scale -10 cm).

Wilbert 1981, Hudson and Lee 1984;Whitley 1988,1992b, 1994a, 1994b, 1994c1996, 1998, in press/a, in press/b, in press/c;Christensen 1993, Dickey 1994, Parkman1994, Ritter 1994, Stoney 1994), albeitthere have been disagreements over theprecise nature of the shamanistic practicesinvolved. For example, Heizer andBaumhoff (1958, 1962) and their followers(von Werlhof 1965; Grant 1968) arguedthat rock art in eastern California resultedfrom shamanistic hunting-magic. Becauseall ethnographic informants categoricallydenied such a practice, these archaeologistsfurther inferred that the art was necessarilyprehistoric rather than potentiallyethnographic in age, and that it then had nocultural ties to historicalNativeCaliforniancultures. This served to strip these groups ofpart of their cultural patrimony.

Kroeber (1925), in contrast, providedan earlier suggestion for a connectionbetween rock art, hallucinogenic drugs andshamans' altered states of consciousness(ASC), implying that the art portrays themental imagery of trance. In part due to thenumerous empirical short-comings andlogical inconsistencies of the hunting-magic

hypothesis (see Steward 1963,1967;Rector 1979,1985;Mundy 1982), a developingconsensus has now accepted Kroebers early interpretation (see Blackburn 1977,Hedges 1976, 1982,1983, 1992,Garvin 1978, Wellman W78; Wilbert 1981; Dickey1994; Parkman 1994; Ritter 1994, Stoney 1994) This acceptance has been bolsteredby recent detailed ethnohistoric.il research (Whitlev 1988, 1^2h, 1994a, 1994b1994c, 1996,1998, in press/a, in pres.s/b, inpre.ss/c) which demonstrates that, duringthe ethnographic period at lea.st, rock art was explicitly made to depict the visionaryimagery of trance.

Note, however, that among different cultural groups this art was made bydifferent social groups and for different reasons, even though the intent to portrayvisionary imagery was widely shared. In southwestern California and along theColorado River, for example, the ethnographic record indicates that rock art wa>made by both .shamans and by puberty initiates, on the Modoc Plateau it was madeby these two social groups and by adults during life-crisis rituals, wherea.s in theintervening areas of .south-central California and the Great Basin it appears to havebeen the exclusive work of shamans (Whitley 1992b, 1996, 1998). Moreover, theethnography indicates that the purpose behind a shamans entering a trance andsubsequently portraying visionary imagery could also vary. Although trances most

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March 1998 Shamanijm and the Rock Art of Native California 25

commonly were intended to facilitate the acquisition of supernatural power in theform of an animal spirit helper, with the resulting rock art illustrating this spirittutelary and/or the shaman himself transformed into a spirit being, a shamans' tranceand rock art might also derive from rain making, sorcery or other shamanic activities.The creation of non-shamanic (but still shamanistk) rock art, on the other hand,appears to have exclusively involved the portrayal of spirit helpers and power "signs"(Whitley 1992b, 1996, 1997). The depiction of visionary imagery, in other words,is the unifying characteristic of Native Californian rock art, even though the creatorsof this imagery, its specific meaning, and its intended symbolic and ideologicalfunctions varied considerably.

Cognitive Neuroscience, the BraiivMind Paradigm and Rock ArtThough variability in the production and meaning of Native Californian rock

art existed, the unifying pattern that underlies this variability cannot beoveremphasized: pictographs and petroglyphs throughout Native California wereintended as graphic illustrations of trance experiences. This fact makes relevantrecent research in cognitive neuroscience, the combination of the sciences of thebrain (neurobiology) and the mind (cognitive science). Great advances have beenmade in cognitive neuroscience in the last decade, particularly with reference to thebrain-mind paradigm, which have significantly altered our understanding of humanconsciousness (Castillo 1996). From the perspective of western science, at least, anunderstanding of Native Californian rock art is then to some degree contingent onthis improved apprehension of human consciousness. Among others, such anapprehension precisely belies Vitebsky's (1995) recent argument that the prehistoricshaman's state of mind is entirely unknowable. Not only does cognitive neuroscienceallow us insight into the shaman's mind, but it can also help us access the prehistoricshaman's emotions, as I discuss below.

The Brain-Mind ParadigmThe brain-mind paradigm is an ongoing development of recent cognitive

neuroscience research on human consciousness that at least in part has resulted fromthe Mac Arthur Foundation Brain-Mind Network. J. Allan Hobson, one of thenetwork's participants, has outlined his view of this paradigm in The Chemistry ofConscious States (Hobson 1994; see also Kosslyn and Koenig 1992). According toHobson's synthesis, the brain-mind paradigm has a series of basic principles, the firstof which is the conclusion that the brain-mind is a single, unified system that(contrary to Freudian theory) has only two strata: consciousness and non-consciousness ("unconsciousness," in contrast, isamedicalcondition). Consciousnessis the brain's awareness of its own mental state, while non-consciousness is theinformation (memories, emotions and so on) stored at the cellular level in thephysical brain but not immediately accessible to us at all times. Second, threeprimary brain-mind states (or modes of operation) exist: waking, sleeping anddreaming. These and other brain-mind states (such as trance) are controlled by theinteractions of the aminergic—cholinergic chemical systems in the neural structureof the physical brain. These interactions comprise a condition of dynamic tension:while awake, the physical brain's chemical state is mediated by the aminergic system

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26 Anthropology of Consciousness [9(1)]-r

in which amine molecules such as norepinephrine dominate; during dreaming thecholinergic system dominates brain chemistry, in particular through its primarymediating molecule acetylcholine. In other brain-mind states intermediate orvariant chemical interactions and equilibria prevail. Thus, physical brain chemistrydetermines (and can explain) psychology but, likewise, psychology can explainphysiology, because mental and psychological states and brain neurochemistry areinextricably linked. As Kosslyn and Koenig (1992:4) put it: "a description of mentalstates is a description of brain function".

Third, since we may be aware of a dreaming state (to the degree that weremember our dreams), this is, strictly speaking, consciousness, as of course are otherbrain-mind states such as ASC, which may include self-awareness. The imagery andemotions of dreams and hallucinations in these brain-mind states then are not theresult of nebulous interactions between different layers of the mind, as Freud argued,but instead are fully contained within the non-conscious. Dreaming, ASC and evenorganic mental illness can then be understood as the brain-mind accessing, throughneurochemical changes, and bringing to the level of consciousness the informationstored at the cellular level in the non-conscious.

Fourth, while these conclusions might be taken to suggest neurobiologicaldeterminism, a kind of reductionism in which behavior and consciousness arereduced to predictable functions of neural (or other lower order) principles (cf.Gardner 1987), in fact no such determinism is implied. This is partly because of theinherent randomness of brain-mind function which, nevertheless, is mediated (butnot fully specified) by deterministic rules. As Hobson (1994) notes: "The brain-mind paradigm offers us security via the reliability of our own cellular processes, yetguarantees us freedom through the unpredictability that these processes can bring."The brain-mind, like all complex systems, exists in a dynamic interplay betweenchaos and unpredictability, and self-organization and orderliness. This unpredictabilityis partly due to the fact that while genetics accounts for certain innate neuralstructures in the brain-mind, other neural networks are shaped by an individual'slifetime of experiences. "Genes provide for one brain component with precisestructure," Damasio contends, "and for another component in which the precisestructure is to be determined" (1994*112, emphasis in original; see also Kosslyn andKoenig 1992). The paradigm then allows us to understand different brain-mindstates in organic terms, without recourse to poorly defined and unelaboratedpsychological and emotional concepts, because it explains how and" why thesedifferent states exist and develop, yet it stops short of predicting behavior on allcounts. Somewhat like culture, it is analogous to a set of rules within which thought,emotion and behavior may develop, but it is not a computer algorithm within whichall such phenomena are predetermined or foreordained (cf. Castillo 1996).

Implications for Native Califomian Rock ArtThe implications of the brain-mind paradigm for understanding Native

Califomian rock art turn on the fact that the origin of this art lies in the graphicportrayal of trance imagery; that, in essence, the art is a by-product of ASC, whichconstitutes a class of brain-mind states. Hobson points out that:

[Alterations of the brain-mind obey reliable and specifiable rules. Whether

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March 1998 Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California 27

the states are normal delirium, like dreaming, or an abnormal delirium, likealcohol withdrawal, they always have the same formal features and the samekind of cause. The common features of normal and abnormal delirium aredisorientation, inattention, impoverished memory, confabulation, visualhallucinations, and abundant emotions. The common cause of normal andabnormal delirium is a sudden shift in the balance of brain chemicals.(Hobson 1994:62)

There are two key concepts in this passage. The first concerns "formal features."ASC (and the reactions thereto) are structurally similar cross-culturally andtemporally, in the sense that they share characteristic features, even though thecontent (in the sense of a specific hallucination or vision) may vary from culture toculture, person to person, and/or case to case. This means that shared structuralcharacteristics of ASC can be used to understand Native Californian visionaryimagery, notwithstanding the fact that cultural conditioning, local context andpersonal expectations also effect the generation and content of this same imagery(Dobkin de Rios 1984; Dobkin de Rios and Winkelman 1989), thereby furtheremphasizing the non-deterministic nature of the brain-mind paradigm. The secondkey concept is "delirium": although the equivalence is imperfect because each brain-mind state has its own constellation of features, "normal" REM (rapid eye movement)dreaming serves as a general model for ASC due to the features the two brain-mindstates share, as La Barre (1980) also noted some time ago. This is valuable becausecognitive neuroscience research on ASC is in its infancy while REM dreaming is abetter studied, and understood, brain-mind state. Research on REM dreaming canbe used, then, as analog for ASC. One implication of REM dream studies for NativeCalifornia rock art, and shamanistic states of consciousness more generally, involvesthe reconstruction of prehistoric emotions.

The Emotions of TranceWhile recent research on the neuropsychology of trance has pointed out the

relevance of both the mental imagery and the somatic effects of ASC to rock artproduction (e.g., Lewis-Williams and Loubser 1986; Lewis-Williams and Dowson1988; Lewis-Williams in press; Turpin 1994; Whitley 1994b, 1998), the brain-mindparadigm suggests another important cross-culturally shared characteristic of trance.This is the phenomenon of abundant emotions, noted above as one of the commonfeatures of delirium.

Although science traditionally shunned the study of emotions (Hobson 1994),Damasio (1994) has recently shown that emotions are no more epiphenomenal thanare intellect or sensory perceptions but that, like these other faculties, they are alsochemically encoded in and created by the brain-mind (see also Kagan 1994; LeDoux1994)• Using neuroanatomical and clinical evidence, Damasio argues convincinglythat emotions and feelings are necessary adjuncts to reasoning and rationality; that,without emotions, human reasoning is seriously impaired. Further emphasizing theimportance of emotions, none other than Charles Darwin first demonstrated theiradaptive significance in his 1872 book, The Expression of Emotions in Man andAnimals (Darwin 1965). Neurally focused in the "evolutionarily older" brain stem,basal forebrain and limbic system (Damasio 1994; Restak 1994), emotions — as

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28 Anthropology of Consciousness [9(0]

powerful manifestations of drives and instincts — clearly "evolved" as adaptivemechanisms for our species (Damasio 1994). Moreover, emotions, originating inchemical brain-mind states, have physiological bases and effects, and thereforesomatosensory reactions, commonly called "feelings" (Hobson 1994; Damasio1994). Anxiety, for example, results in a series of physiological changes in thesympathetic nervous system, including elevated blood flow, heart rate and respiration,as many people know from personal experience. Police investigators use a polygraphmachine, which measures changes in skin conductivity resulting from changes inemotional states, because emotions are not epiphenomenal. Instead, emotions areimplicated in human adaptation, personal motivation and agency, and are measurablephysiological states. Their investigation, combining cognitive neurosciencesprinciples with archaeological data, can clarify aspects of Native Californian rockart.

Emotions have been overlooked in rock art research, but are widely even ifimplicitly acknowledged by reference to "ecstatic trance". Ecstasy, to be sure, is anemotion, and emphasis in the anthropological literature on "ecstatic trance" is atleast partly justified in terms of many culturally-defined types of ASC, including ourown, in which the popularity of recreational drugs and other mind-altering practices(such as yogic meditation) is precisely tied to the sense of euphoria these specificdrugs and practices yield. But this is only a (potentially misleading) part of thepicture, for ASC can also result in other equally strong emotional states, many ofwhich are not ecstatic or euphoric at all, as is well-attested by the ethnographic,clinical and pharmacological literature (e.g., Harner 1973; Naranjo 1973; Restak1994; Colmer 1995).

Using the structural analogy between trance generally and REM dreaming, forexample, it is useful to review Hobson's (1994) tabulations of 809 emotions describedin 200 different dream reports. First, over half (57%) of the recorded emotions werereported as extreme, meaning presumably intensely felt and are, thus, significant ifnot defining aspects of a dream experience. Second, over two-thirds (68.1 %) of theseemotions were unpleasant (fear, anxiety, anger, etc.), not ecstatic or euphoric, withpositive emotions (joy, elation, affection, eros, etc.) represented by slightly less than32% of the reported cases. In REM dreaming about two-thirds of a person's dreamson average then should be emotionally unpleasant, reflecting the fact (as Hobsonnotes) that anxiety is our most important emotion. The direct relevance of thisconclusion for other types of delirium, including ASC generally and the so-called"Shamanistic State of Consciousness" (SSC) specifically, is confirmed by Naranjo's(1973) laboratory experiments with the administration of yogi: about one-fifth of hissubjects reported feelings of rage, danger or the grief of their own death. Once it isrecognized that our own cultural fascination with ecstasy has contributed to a narrowintellectual view of the range of ASC and SSC brain-mind states, and that NativeCalifomian's culturally-defined view of shamanistic trance ran the gamut from REMdreaming to hallucinogenically-mediated SSC (Gayton 1948), the importance ofalternative emotional states, such as anxiety, to the SSC is greatly emphasized.

The importance of the unpleasant emotions of trance in the Native CalifornianSSC is revealed in general beliefs about the supernatural, in verbal accounts ofvisionary experiences, in descriptions of shamans' personalities, and in rock art itself.

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March 1998 S/iamanism and the Rock Art of Native California 29

toThe supernatural was thoughtinherently perilous and therefore waswidely feared. Rock art panels as aresult were avoided by non-shamans,even if the sites were located within

k M their villages (e.g., Gayton 1930,

V /^W *Y* ' 1948; Latta 1977; z ' g m o n d 1977>-^ ? ^ | c Narrative accounts of visionary

^ ^ ^ [ experiences, similarly, commonlybegin with a description of adangerous "test', such as wrestlingwith a skeleton, climbing through an

iii ^M^* ^ avalanche of falling boulders orr_̂ - 4niLU passing through clashing rocks; and,

PprCl especially, crossing fearsome guardianD^of spirits, most commonly an immense

£ ^ / f rattlesnake and grizzly (e.g., Park

D 1938; Steward 1941; Whiting 1950;Zigmond 1977, 1980; Hultkrantz1987). Likewise the main events ofthe visionan narratives themselvesreveal a significant incidence of whatmay reasonably be equated withnegative emotions. A good exampleof this is Whiting's (1950) reportthat fully 38% of 90 Northern Paiuteshamans maintained "bullet-woundpower" (an historical manifestationof an earlier "arrow-wound power").This was a specialized kind ofsupernatural potency associated with

fighting power. It could be acquired from visions of violence, fighting, aggressionand/or weaponry (Kelly 1936,1939;Steward 1938,1941; Olofson 1979),allofwhichimplicate non-ecstatic emotional states.

The shaman's entry into the supernatural in Native California, which is to saythe induction of an ASC, was then not necessarily ecstatic" at all. It was often aperilous test, during which the supplicant had to overcome and conquer negativeemotions such as fear and anxiety to obtain supernatural power, reflecting the factthat supernatural power itself was thought amoral and ambivalent (Bean 1976), notsolely beneficent. Probably as a result, in many parts of Native California shamanswere considered far from friendly or even benign. As men of power" they reflectedthe common associations of the supernatural, and thus were perceived as aggressive,dangerous individuals, believed to be sexually predatory, who were feared and, tosome degree, avoided whenever possible (Gayton 1930, 1948; Toffelmeier andLuomala 1936, Latta 1977, Boscana 1978, Laird 1984).

The unpleasant emotions of trance — fear, anxiety, aggression and so on — are

Figure 3. The unpleasant emotions of shamans'trances, specifically aggression, are portrayed inCoso petroglyphs in a variety of ways. 3A (twohumans shooting at one another) and 3B (coyoteattacking bighorn sheep) depict incidents ofsorcery, which were enacted in the supernaturalworld of trance. 3C is a panel of projectile pointengravings, visions of weaponry yielded fightingpower. 3D and 3E are anthropomorphs bristlingwith projectile points, symbolizing the status of theportrayed individuals as combative shamans."(Different scales).

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30 Anthropology of Consciousness I9(DJ

reflected in Native Cahfornian rock art in a variety

of ways. The dangers of the supernatural, encoded in

the belief that it was guarded by perilous animal

spirits, for example, are shown by grizzly and

rattlesnake paintings found at many pictograph sites

in south-central California (Whitley 1992b). But

j ^ ^T the importance of the negative emotions ut trance to

, jg\ I B H F r o c ' c a r t ' s ^ e s t s e e n W l t n reference t o a single corpuE f^^^n °^ a r t | Prov 'ded by the petroglyphs of the Coso

ML If Range. Aggression is portrayed in this corpus in a• variety of ways: humans shooting at one another

with arrows, coyotes attacking bighorn sheep;conflations of humans and weapons; and display o(weaponry in general (Figure 3). In the first two casessupernatural visions of sorcery are implied bv these

V T^M y&X depictions, reflecting two beliefs: shamans could^^^BBC ^5*\ bewitch a victim by propelling a magical disease

l ^ >\ J^Hf object into them, with this 'magical airshotlinguistically equated (and graphically portrayed) asthe shooting of an "arrow", while "dreams of coyote",as they were called, were considered portents ofsorcery. In the third and fourth cases, visions yieldingwarfare and fighting power are implied, with theportrayed weaponry representing the ritual talismansand ceremonial objects said to be recei\ed duringtrance (Whitley 1994d, in press/c).

But, more significantly, one of the most commonNative Californian metaphoric referents to entryinto the supernatural was death or (in the activecase) killing (Whitley 1994b, 1994c). Whileaccessing the sacred certainly could be described ordepicted with other more positive or even emotionallybenign metaphors (.such as mystical flight, goingunderwater or sexual intercourse), the violence,aggressiveness and extreme grief inherent in deathwere singled-out as a primary metaphor for the SSC.Narrative text.s, as a result, commonly describe anindividual's entry into the supernatural as "dying"(e.g., K'roeber 1907, 1957; Benedict 1923; Latta1936, 1977, Oayton and Newman 1940; Uayton

1948; Blackburn 1975; Hudson et al 1977; Zigmond 197, 1980). Confirmingaccounts, reporting the grief of death as a common yage induced reaction in alaboratory setting, are provided by Naranjo (1973).

Reflecting th is death metaphor as well as the fact that a shaman was semanticallyand linguistically indistinguishable from his spirit helper, Kelly (1936) noted in a keystatement that 'rain falls when a mountain sheep is killed. Becau.se of thus some

Figure 4. The grief of death and

the aggressiveness of killing are

among the most common

unpleasant emotions associated

with the shamans ASC, and

death and killing were frequently

used as verbal and graphic

metaphors for this experience.

These are shown in the Cosos

petroglyphs with killed bighorn

sheep (top), and "hunters"

shooting sheep (middle and

bottom). The bighorn was the

special spirit helper of the rain

shaman Because the shamanand his helper were

indistinguishable, the concept of

"killing a bighorn" was a

metaphor for the auto-sacrifice

of a rain shaman — his entry

into the supernatural — to make

ram. (Different scales).

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March 1998 Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California 31

mountain sheep dreamers thought they were rain doctors." That is, rain was madeby the rain shaman when he killed his spirit helper, which is to say when he enteredthe supernatural realm through his trance (Whitley 1994c). Killed animals and"hunting scenes" (Figure 4), then, can be inferred to graphically portray a complexmetaphor intended to show that the shaman and his spirit helper alter ego committedan emotionally violent act of auto-sacrifice to enter the supernatural. In the case ofthe bighorn sheep petroglyphs commonly found in the Coso Range and other partsof the Numic-speaking Great Basin, this specifically pertained to rain-making,because the bighorn was the specialized spirit helper for rain shamans. The so-called"hunting scenes" of Native Californian rock art then have nothing to do withhunting, but instead may be understood as metaphors for the rain shaman's trance(Whitley 1994c, in press/a).

The death metaphor for trance and its reflection in rock art, in other words, ispartly a function of the physical and physiological analogies between mortal deathand an ASC (Whitley 1994b). But it is also partly attributable to the emotions oftrance, not all of which are ecstatic. Indeed, these sometimes involved the extremegrief of death, the fear of bodily injury and the aggressiveness of battle, all of whichcan be triggered in the interaction of the aminergic—cholinergic systems during thevarious shamanistic brain-mind states we gloss as "ecstatic trance." It is then likelythat the symbolic and iconographic themes of the shaman's "death and rebirth," aswell as the "combative shaman," which are common to many shamanistic cultures(e.g., Eliade 1964; Furst 1977; Wilbert 1987), originated in the non-ecstaticemotions of SSC.

Two conclusions derive from this circumstance. The first is that emphasis on"ecstatic trance" (especially in popular literature) as definitive of the SSC reflects ourown cultural interest in ecstasy and euphoria more than the cross-cultural realitiesof specific shamanistic cases, due to the multi-dimensional emotional characteristicsof ASC and SSC brain-mind states. Trance can be and perhaps in the majority ofcases is ecstatic, but unpleasant emotional reactions are also common, and thesereactions have served to influence perceptions (as well as graphic depictions) of thesupernatural realm, as well as shamanistic symbolism in general. Second, it is alsoclear that, by using cognitive neuroscience research, we can in some casesarchaeologically reconstruct the emotional states of shamans at specific points intime, and thereby access a realm of the past heretofore thought archaeologicallyunapproachable.

Rock Art and ShamanismA final question that has always plagued rock art research is the obvious one:

Why did shamans make rock art? Although social and cultural factors were clearlycentral to any specific historical or prehistoric case, cognitive neurosciences suggestsa physiological basis as a partial explanation for this problem. This is the fact thatREM dreaming and ASC generally result in impoverished memory: specifically,short-term memory loss due to drops in the levels of norepinephrine and serotonin,which are required for the storage of recent memories (Hobson 1994). It is for thissimple reason that most people do not recall their dreams. This suggests that the artwas partly made to permanently fix the supernatural imagery that it depicted, before

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this was lost due to the neurochemistry of SSC, and further explains why the concernwith not forgetting a visionary dream was so strongly emphasized by ethnographicinformants (e.g., Kelly 1932,1939; Gayton 194; Applegate 1978; Hultkrantz 1987).Native Californian rock art then was at one level simply a mnemonic device, albeitone concerned with recording the sacred, rather than counting seasons, moons orhunting kills, as some writers have suggested.

As should be clear from this and other essays in this issue, attention toethnography and the cognitive neuroscience principles of ASC has dramaticallyimproved our interpretation of rock art in many parts of the world, the understandingof which had been elusive for almost a century of investigation. This is not to say thatsuch an approach is an end in and of itself, for there are many other social and culturalissues concerning the production and meaning of rock art that also warrantinvestigation, as have been explored elsewhere (e.g., Lewis-Williams 1982; Dowson1994; Whitley 1988, 1994c). Still, this approach provides a key to unlocking themind and emotions of prehistoric shamans and other creators of rock art, and therebyplays an important part in a better understanding of hunter-gatherer cultures andsocieties more widely.

NotesAcknowledgments: 1 am indebted to Allan Hobson, who has shared some of his thinking about these

archaeological problems with me, and to Gen-Ann Galanti for the opportunity to prepare this essay. Anearlier version of it was presented at the Society for American Archaeology meetings, Nashville, 1997.1 also thank the Commander of the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, the location of the CosoRange petroglyphs upon which much of my research has focused, for permission to conduct investigationson this facility, along with the Maturango Museum of the Indian Wells Valley, which has aided myresearch in the Cosos for many years. The opinions and interpretations presented here are, of course, myown.

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