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ArtandShamanhood
KennethLymer
SensuousVisions:Encounteringthe
shamanisticrockartoftheBayanJurek
Mountains,Kazakhstan
Introduction
Traditionally,unusualanthropomorphicfiguresfoundatrockartsitesaround
theworldareinterpretedthroughthelensofprimitivereligionandinevitably
becomedescribedas‘maskedmen’or‘sorcerers’performingsavagerites.These
descriptionshavebeenusedtimeandtimeagainasconvenientholdallexplana-
tionsformanyhuman-likefiguresthatappearoutoftheordinarytoWestern
eyes.Moreover,suchinterpretationsareproblematicastheyfetishizetherole
ofancientimagesandconceivethemasonlythesnapshotsofirrationalprehis-
toricrituals.Unfortunately,suchout-of-datenotionscastthephenomenonof
rockimageryassimplytheproductof‘primitivesuperstition’.Rockart,how-
ever,isoneofthemoreelementalformsofmaterialcultureasitsproduction
involvesthedirectsensualengagementwithnaturalstonesurfacesfoundinthe
landscape.
Inordertoreaddressthesimplisticnarrativeofprimitivereligiontheensu-
ingdiscussionsseektoengagewiththetwoshamanisticfiguresthatcameto
lightinthemountainsofBayanJurek1,southeasternKazakhstan(Samashev
1998,1999,2002;Lymer1999,2004,2006a,2006b).Therockartcomplexof
BayanJurekhasbeenarchaeologicallysurveyedsincethe1990sandresearchers
foundanextensivecollectionofpetroglyphs(imagescarvedintonaturalstone)
1TheRussianformБаянЖурекcanalsobetransliteratedintoEnglishasBayanZhurek(from
theeditorialcommittee).
