In the following, available space allows me to focus on only a few of the key issues, taken on a regional and topical basis, rather than a point-by-point tabulation and correction of Quinlan's systematic errors. But once Quinlan's central factual misrepresentations and mistakes are outlined—and the nature of his commentary is unmasked—it becomes apparent that shamanism remains the most robust ethnographic interpretation for recent rock art.

Visions of the Sky: Archaeological and Ethnological Studies of California Indian Astronomy. Robert A. Schiffman, ed. Salinas: Coyote Press Archives of California Prehistory No. 16, 1988, xiv + 171 pp., 84 figs., 13 tables, $9.95 (paper).

Although the Grant hypothesis is provocative, the absence of any remains indicative of intensive sheep hunting in the excavations of the Rose Spring, Stahl and other sites in the region has been problematical. An examination of the etiological mythology of the Numic speakers of the western Great Basin, however, provides insight into the symbolic significance of the bighorn sheep to the historic aboriginal inhabitants of this area. This suggests that while the hypothesized, formal sheep-hunting cult may be an oversimplification of the prehistoric situation, there was an ideological and mythological preoccupation with hunting specifically the bighorn sheep, and this animal served as a symbolic referent to male sexual and hunting success.

Rock art is the most visible aspect of the prehistoric hunter-gatherer archaeological record. Covering cave walls, cliff slides and boulder faces with painted and engraved designs, it challenges the archaeologist to address the symbolic, aesthetic, and religious sides of the past. Though traditionally marginalized in mainstream archaeology, recent advances in chronometric dating and interpretive techniques along with the development of cognitive archaeology, have brought rock art studies to the substantive and methodological forefront of the discipline.

Series: Monograph 36