David Lewis-Williams Books

Collected articles of the world's preeminent rock art researchers and cognitive archaeologists.

Delving into the intricate social dynamics of hunter-gatherer societies, this work examines the motivations behind the creation of rock art. It highlights the cultural significance and communal aspects of these artistic expressions, providing insights into the lives and beliefs of early humans. The book offers a nuanced perspective on how these artworks reflect the relationships, rituals, and identities of the people who produced them.

Responsible for some of the biggest hits of the 60s, Scott Walker was once more popular than The Beatles and his music influenced the likes of Radiohead, Leonard Cohen and David Bowie. The Rhymes Of Goodbye tells the amazing story of Scott Walker's life and work through his songs a track by track commentary in the tradition of Revolution In The Head that encompasses his entire career from the first Walker Brothers single up to his final work before his death in March 2019.

How did prehistoric peoples those living before written records think? Were their modes of thought fundamentally different from ours today? This book deals with these questions.

In this unique and enthralling collection of folk stories that float to us from afar, the voices of long-dead ‘Bushmen’, or San people, of southern Africa speak of their poignant myths and beliefs. We hear them speak of their tormented lives as the early colonist expanded into the semi-arid interior.All these stories have lain hidden since they were first collected more than a hundred years ago by a remarkable family in Cape Town who devoted their lives to recording the life-ways of the Xam San before their disappearance. Today there is a need for us to listen to these voices from the past. They fill in one of the tragic blanks in South Africa’s history. Suddenly a people who have spoken only through other’s voices, now speak out and come alive on the pages of this book.

Offers an explanation for the origins of prehistoric cave art, providing a glimpse into the mind of humankind's earliest ancestors and insights into the relationship between consciousness and artistic representation. Reprint.

San rock paintings, scattered over the range of southern Africa, are considered by many to be the very earliest examples of representational art. There are as many as 15,000 known rock art sites, created over the course of thousands of years up until the nineteenth century. There are possibly just as many still awaiting discovery.Taking

Suitable for those interested in the origins of religious thought, and the respective roles of science and religion in contemporary society, this title explores how science developed within the cocoon of religion and then shows how the natural functioning of the human brain creates experiences that can lead to belief in the supernatural realm.

A brilliantly argued and elegantly written examination of the intricate web of belief, myth and society in the Neolithic period.

In 1958, geophysicist A. G. Lewis travelled to the Antarctic to investigate the landscapes and skies of that vast and icy continent.Now Elizabeth Lewis Williams traces her father’s journeys, from the Peninsula to Mt Erebus. They are real, imagined, and artistic journeys, exploring communication across time and space, and experiments in scientific and poetic measure.Erebus transports us to an Antarctic of paradox. A land where perpetual daylight balances months of austral darkness. A land of encounters with the unknown, and with mortality – but where camaraderie and faith are the only defence against catastrophe.At its heart, Erebus is a visit to the frozen underworld, and an exploration of how we find a place for ourselves in this vast and often unforgiving world we call home.