African sketches

This is a picture of rock carvings that I took while abroad this summer in Namibia. The animals are sketches of the Bushmen, an ancient tribe in western Africa who used these carvings to learn about the animals they hunted and to tell stories of drought, prosperity, and to teach young hunters what they would be up against in the field.
We discussed in class yesterday that the more something in art becomes more accurate, the less it is art, as formalism tells us. While some artistic accuracy is necessary for conveying messages to inexperienced tribe hunters to identify what animals are edible and which ones should be avoided, there is much deeper value here. The way the animals are arranged, the number and species of animals seen traveling together or apart suggests important lessons that are a large cultural part of the Bushmen lifestyle. By showing rather than by seeing, they could inform future generations of necessary precautions before venturing out into the desert for food.
I feel a certain connection to these carvings as I actually came into contact with native tribes on my trip. Though I did not speak their language, I learned through other media (these carvings, the trees in which they use to hide weapons, their bartering system, and their agricultural systems) how such a primitive tribe survives out in such an arid environment. It was the arrangement of certain images, not the level of accuracy of the objects themselves, that delivered the message to me. Furthermore, I can not understand their unique clicking language, but have experienced how they communicate through other expressions.