Texas anthropologist Carolyn Boyd, founder of t SHUMLA (Studying Human Use of Materials, Land, and Art), an education and research center in Comstock, Texas, has put forward a detailed interpretation of some of the enigmatic rock art of the Pecos region in West Texas by comparing it with modern day Huichol and Yaqui legends. While generally in agreement with the accepted interpretations of the art as depicting elements of shamanic religious experience, Boyd’s theories boldly attribute specific meanings to groups of human figures, animals and symbols, all detailed in a recent piece in Discover Magazine.
