There is a lingering paradox in archaeological studies of southern African huntergatherers, renowned for their highly adapted way of life and the extraordinary legacy of their rock paintings at archaeological sites throughout the region. Despite considerable progress in research, the economy and ritual life of the hunter-gatherer society have remained essentially separate areas of investigation, almost always approached from different premises. The result is that southern African hunter-gatherers exemplify, on the one hand, the apotheosis of ecological knowledge, while at the same time subscribing to a complex of religious precepts that appear to contradict this very image. Although the need for a more unified view of social and environmental relations is clearly apparent, there is little to compare with the attention paid to the same general issue elsewhere.