Venus figurines and role of women

[Anthrophile]

Dear members,

I've been doing research for a summer independent project on Venus figurines and how they relate to the role/status of women in the European Upper Paleolithic. Through research I aim to answer three questions:

1. Who made the figurines? Where they predominantly men or women?
2. What purpose did they serve in Upper Paleolithic society? Were they symbols of a "Mother Goddess" cult, obstetrical aids, paleo-erotica, self-representations, representations of females in various stages of their life cycle, or something else?
3. What can they tell us (or how do they reflect) the role and status of women over 20,000 years ago?

So far, research has been plagued by a lack of general consensus about what the Venus figurines meant for their creators and a slew of less than reputable ultra-feminist conjectures. The scholars in the field can't seem to agree on any points other than the inadequacy of the data and problems with interpretation (for example, a long-standing androcentric bias).

Right now, I'm leaning toward saying that the figurines were created by medicine women or female shamans as obstetrical ritual aids. I've come across some indicators of female status from ethnographic and primate analogies and I hope to test these indicators against the Upper Paleolithic record to get some clue as to where the Ice Age woman lay.

I would be indebted if you could offer your personal learned thoughts to the above three questions.

Thanks for your time,
Allegra.

[trehinp]

Hi Alegra,

You may find some information on the following website :

http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/prehistlinks.html

No garranty though...


This site points towards several sites on the place of women in prehistory and has some beautiful pictures of"prehistoric venus"

Let us know if you find some interesting indormation on these sites of on the links  that these sites may provide.

Paul

[Anthrophile]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply. I checked out the site and it features some very interesting-looking links, but unfortunately most of them were dead, :-(. Maybe they moved elsewhere.