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Abstract: San rock paintings in the Cape, South Africa, are residual but readable images that contain some intentionally ambiguous figures. Male and female figures were almost never ambiguous at the time of painting but many have become so, after much loss of detail. The boundary between animals and people, by contrast, is often ambiguous with therianthropic, animal-headed human figures quite commonly depicted. These decisions are rooted in a world view that is well documented in San folklore and ethnography. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]