{"title":"Lovo, rock images, and mythology in the Land of the Kongo","authors":"Geoffroy Heimlich, J. L. Quellec, C. M. Nsangathi","doi":"10.1177/1469605317751171","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In Kongo Central, rock art sites stretch from Kinshasa to the Atlantic coast and from northern Angola to southern Congo-Brazzaville. Preliminary research revealed one coherent entity situated north of the Kongo kingdom: the Lovo Massif, presently inhabited by the Ndibu, one of the Kongo subgroups. Comparison of the ethnological, historical, archaeological, and mythological points of view confirms that certain Kongo ritual and symbolic aspects are pre-Christian and refer to cosmogony, anthropogony, or narratives associated with the mythical origin of death. Investigating rock images allows us to better understand the link between the images, the myths, and their repercussions on the life of the Kongo today.","PeriodicalId":46391,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social Archaeology","volume":"18 1","pages":"30 - 49"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2018-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/1469605317751171","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Social Archaeology","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/1469605317751171","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
In Kongo Central, rock art sites stretch from Kinshasa to the Atlantic coast and from northern Angola to southern Congo-Brazzaville. Preliminary research revealed one coherent entity situated north of the Kongo kingdom: the Lovo Massif, presently inhabited by the Ndibu, one of the Kongo subgroups. Comparison of the ethnological, historical, archaeological, and mythological points of view confirms that certain Kongo ritual and symbolic aspects are pre-Christian and refer to cosmogony, anthropogony, or narratives associated with the mythical origin of death. Investigating rock images allows us to better understand the link between the images, the myths, and their repercussions on the life of the Kongo today.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Social Archaeology is a fully peer reviewed international journal that promotes interdisciplinary research focused on social approaches in archaeology, opening up new debates and areas of exploration. It engages with and contributes to theoretical developments from other related disciplines such as feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism, social geography, literary theory, politics, anthropology, cognitive studies and behavioural science. It is explicitly global in outlook with temporal parameters from prehistory to recent periods. As well as promoting innovative social interpretations of the past, it also encourages an exploration of contemporary politics and heritage issues.