Researchers in southern Africa have widely acknowledged the existence of motif variation in the rock art of the region. However, little has been done to use the cultural rock art diversity to understand the social and economic structure of the prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The question is why were artists from different areas choosing different symbols? This paper examines case studies from Zimbabwe to illustrate ways in which variation in rock art motifs can allude to the social and economic dynamics among Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers. The fact that similar cultural diversity has been noted among contemporary hunter-gatherers from the Kalahari, whose culture is often used as for analogy with the prehistoric societies buttresses the argument for their existence in Late Stone Age communities.