Only 1000 copies of People of the Eland were printed in 1976. It was neither reissued nor reprinted. It has become one of the rarest and most expensive of all books on the African past. One of the things that most disturbed Patricia Vinnicombe while she was working at the Rock Art Research Institute at Wits University in the early 2000s was that  students could not access her book. As in many libraries, Wits University locks People of the Eland away in its rare and valuable book section.

In 2002, Pat started to explore the possibility of republication. But, she did not feel that the book could be reissued without adding additional sections to explain how knowledge had expanded in the decades since the publication of the book. Tragically, Pat died in March 2003 before she could start work on the new sections. Peter Mitchell and Ben Smith have taken up this challenge and brought together the leading scholars in the field to write new sections to explain both how knowledge has changed since the publication of People of the Eland, and how current research is still influenced by this landmark volume.

The Eland’s People is thus intended as a companion volume to People of the Eland and it is hoped that this new volume will provide a richer appreciation of the importance of Pat’s original work, as well as allowing readers an
overview of current understandings of Drakensberg rock art.

Peter Mitchell is a Professor at the School of Archaeology, St Hugh’s Colleg e, Universit y of Oxford, United Kingdom. Benjamin Smith is the Direct or of the Rock Art Resea rch Institute, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg.

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1. Introducing The Eland’s People – Peter Mitchell and Ben Smith

• Chapter 2. Patricia Vinnicombe: a Memoir – David Lewis-Williams
• Box One: The Vinnicombe Archive at the Rock Art Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand – Justine Olofsson
• Box Two: The Vinnicombe collections at Natal Museum – Jeremy Hollmann and Val Ward

• Chapter 3. Contextualising People of the Eland – Lynn Meskell
• Box Three: The Sociopolitics of Rock Art – Shiona Moodley

• Chapter 4. Originals and Copies: a Phenomenological Difference – Nessa Liebhammer
• Box Four: Vinnicombe’s Tracing and Colour Rendering Technique – Justine Olofsson

• Chapter 5. Meaning Then, Meaning Now: Changes in the Interpretative Process in San Rock Art Studies -David Pearce, Catherine Namono and Lara Mallen
• Box Five: The presentation of Bushman rock art in the uKhahlamba- Drakensberg – Ndukuyakhe Ndlovu
• Box Six: Visitor Attractions in the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg: Main Caves, Kamberg and Didima – Aron Mazel

• Chapter 6. Images in Time: Advances in the Dating of Maloti- Drakensberg – Rock Art since the 1970s – Aron Mazel
• Box Seven: The Early History of Rock Art Research in the Maloti- Drakensberg Mountains – John Hobart

• Chapter 7. Gathering Together a History of the People of the Eland:Towards Archaeology of Maloti-Drakensberg Hunter-Gatherers – Peter Mitchell
• Box Eight: Taking the Reins: the Introduction of the Horse in the Nineteenth-Century Maloti-Drakensberg – Sam Challis

• Chapter 8. ‘Their Village is Where They Kill Game’: Nguni interactions with the San – Gavin Whitelaw
• Box Nine: Can Rock Art Conservation be Legislated? –  Janette Deacon

• Chapter 9. Basotho Oral Knowledge: the Last Bushman Inhabitants of the Mashai District, Lesotho – Patricia Vinnicombe (with additional comments by Peter Mitchell)
• Box Ten: Protecting rock art in Lesotho – Peter Mitchell

• Chapter 10. Rereading People of the Eland – David Whitley

• Chapter 11. List of Publications by Patricia Vinnicombe on Africa

[scribd id=22889751 key=key-g2lf8bu1nv10j6w0ni9 mode=list]