Algonquian rock art and the landscape of power

Abstract

This article explores how a relational ontology of landscape provides important insights into the contexts and meanings of Northern Algonquian rock art of the Canadian Shield region. I propose that rock art emerged within and cemented a potent moral landscape that was experienced in terms of reciprocal relations between human and ‘other-than-human’ persons. Rather than counterposing dualities of natural and supernatural, this landscape was predicated on the flow of power between agencies in a relational and intensely social universe.