The new interpretation helped explain why Bushman art is dominated by depictions of large antelopes and giraffes and is largely free of dangerous predators such as lions, not to mention the smaller animals on which the San depended for the bulk of their meat. According to the new interpretation, the rock paintings were in fact created as places of worship where the San would congregate to dance themselves into spirit trances. The rock is like a veil between this world and the spirit world. Australian rock art, while varying greatly from one language group to the next, is typically more abstract and geometrical than the Bushman art, but the researchers have come to see it as a similar window into the Dreamtime. This is, admits Dr Smith, still a controversial theory in Australia.
Some people say rock art is mainly totemism, territorial, or depictions of daily life - doodles.
But the more you study them, here and in Australia, the more you realise the spiritual and intellectual sophistication of the artists. Both of them generally deal with the relations between the spirit world and this world.