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Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines Author(S): Leroy Mcdermott Source: Current Anthropology, Vol

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Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines Author(S): Leroy Mcdermott Source: Current Anthropology, Vol Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines Author(s): LeRoy McDermott Source: Current Anthropology, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 227-275 Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2744349 . Accessed: 09/07/2013 17:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press and Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Current Anthropology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Tue, 9 Jul 2013 17:25:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume 37, Number 2, April I996 ? I996 byThe Wenner-GrenFoundation for Anthropological Research. All rightsreserved OOII-3204/96/3702-0003$2.50 The world's oldest survivingworks of art fashioned afterthe human image appear in the archaeological strataof the Upper Paleolithic in Europe,shortly after Self-Representation Homo sapiens sapiens emergedonto the centerstage of bioculturalevolution. Questions about theirmean- in Upper Paleolithic ing and significancebegan with Piette's (i895) and Reinach's (i898) earlydescriptions of findsfrom the rock sheltersand caves of southernFrance and north- Female Figurines1 ern Italy. Since these pioneeringefforts, several hun- dred additional images have been identifiedfrom the European Upper Paleolithic,most notablyfrom mod- by LeRoy McDermott ern France,Italy, Germany, Austria, the Czech Repub- lic, Slovakia, and the Commonwealthof Independent States. The rich possibilitiesraised by a centuryof comparativeand interpretivestudy have yet to gener- ate a consensus about why our ancestorsfirst began to This studyexplores the logicalpossibility that the firstimages of the humanfigure were made fromthe pointof view of self create representationalimages of the human body or ratherthan other and concludesthat Upper Paleolithic "Venus" what functionsthey initially served (Conkey I983). figurinesrepresent ordinary women's views oftheir own bod- This study challenges the assumptionthat images of ies. Usingphotographic simulations of what a modernfemale the human figurewere firstcreated fromthe point of sees ofherself, it demonstratesthat the anatomicalomissions view of otherhuman beings and arguesinstead that the and proportionaldistortions found in Pavlovian,Kostenkian, and Gravettianfemale figurines occur naturally in autogenous,or art of representingthe human body originatedwith vi- self-generated,information. Thus the size, shape,and articula- sual informationderived primarilyfrom the physical tion ofbody parts in earlyfigurines appear to be determinedby point of view of "self." Afterrestudying the originals theirrelationship to the eyes and the relativeeffects of foreshort- fromthis neglectedpoint of view,2I conclude that the ening,distance, and occlusionrather than by symbolicdistor- tion.Previous theories of function are summarizedto providean oldest images of the human body literallyembody ego- interpretivecontext, and contemporaryclaims of stylistichetero- centricor autogenous(self-generated) visual information geneityand frequentmale representationsare examinedand obtained from a self-viewingperspective (McDermott foundunsubstantiated by a restudyof the originals.As self- I 98 5). Furthermore,since all the earliest,best-preserved, portraitsof women at differentstages of life, these early figurines and most refinedpieces appear to be analog representa- embodiedobstetrical and gynecologicalinformation and probably signifiedan advancein women'sself-conscious control over the tions3of women lookingdown on theirchanging biolog- materialconditions of their reproductive lives. ical selves, I conclude that the firsttradition of human image makingprobably emerged as an adaptiveresponse LE ROY MC DERMOTT is AssociateProfessor of Art at Central to the unique physical concerns of women and that, MissouriState University (Warrensburg, Mo. 64093,U.S.A.). whateverelse these representationsmay have symbol- Bornin I943, he was educatedat OklahomaState University ized to the society which createdthem, their existence (B.A.,I965) and at the Universityof Kansas (M.A., I973; Ph.D., signifiedan advance in women's self-conscious I985). His researchinterests lie in the psychologyof visual per- control ceptionand arthistory. He has published"The Structureof Artis- over the materialconditions of theirreproductive lives. tic Evolution:An InterdisciplinaryPerspective," in Problemsof Beforerepresentational art or mirrors,there were only Method: Conditions of a History of Art (Proceedings of the 24th two sources of visual informationabout human appear- InternationalCongress of theHistory of Art, Bologna, Italy, Sep- temberio-i8, I979) (Milan: L'ElectaEditrice, i982), and (with H. C. McCoid),"Towards Decolonizing Gender: Female Vision KansasAnthropology Museum. I thankElizabeth in the European Paleolithic" Banks,Jill Cook, Upper (AmericanAnthropologist, in CatherineHodge McCoid,Bradley Lenz, Anta Montet-White, and The presentpaper was accepted27 iv press). 95, and thefinal ver- Olga Sofferfor their critical and conceptualcontributions to this sion reached ii viii the Editor'soffice 95. project.Cathy Clark, Suzanne Olmstead,and Lisa Schmidthave developedphotographic inventories in supportof the project. I also gratefullyacknowledge the cooperationof the expectantmothers who made it possiblefor me to explorethis hypothesis. i. The thesisof this paperwas firstpresented at the 6th Annual 2. This studyreexamined, either in theoriginal or as casts(or both), Meetingof the Midwest Art History Society, held at theUniversity mostWestern and CentralEuropean images dated to thePavlovian of Kansas,April 5-7, I979, and subsequentlyto the i2th Inter- and Gravettian.Study of Kostenkianpieces was limitedto four nationalCongress of Anthropologicaland EthnologicalSciences castsfrom Gagarino, two fromAvdeevo, and threefrom Kostenki, (ICAES),meeting at Zagreb,Yugoslavia, July 24-3I, I988. The re- courtesyof the MoravianMuseum in Brno,Czech Republic. searchhas been assistedby grantsfrom Eastern Montana College 3. An "analog"image is notto be confusedwith the use of"analogi- and CentralMissouri State University, and the followinginstitu- cal" methodologiesin archaeologicalinterpretation. Analogy re- tionshave made casts and/ororiginals available: Mus6e des Anti- quiresonly that there be sufficientsimilarity to justify comparison. quit6sNationales at Saint Germain-en-Laye;Mus6e de l'Homme, In contrast,a modernphotograph or otheranalog image is a physi- Paris; Museo Preistoricoed EtnograficoLuigi Pigoriniin Rome; cal transformor recordof the energy(or light)which it captures. MittelrheinischesLandesmuseum, Mainz; PrahistorischeSamm- Thus,in theory,a continuousphysical variable links any realistic lungen,Ulm; Sammlungendes Institutsfur Vor- und Fruhge- imageand theoriginal visual information which it represents,even schichteder UniversitatTuibingen; Prahistorische Staatssamm- ifin practicethat link can rarelybe reconstructed.Ifthe firstim- lung in Munich; NaturhistorischesMuseum at Vienna; Mo- ages ofthe human body were created from self-generated informa- ravsk6Muizeum in Brno,Czech Republic,and the Universityof tion,they necessarily have the structurewe observe. 227 This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Tue, 9 Jul 2013 17:25:57 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 228 CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY Volume37, Number2, AprilI996 ance-either one's own body or that of anotherhuman The FirstHuman Images being.4At the beginningof arthistory there would have been no a priorireason to choose one source over the The earliest prehistoricrepresentations, the so-called other.Admittedly, there is the practiceof more recent Venus figurines,constitute a recognizablestylistic class millennia to influenceour thinking,but what otherba- and are among the most widelyknown of all Paleolithic sis do we have for assuming that at the beginningof objects (figs.i and 2). As a group they have frequently image making a prehistoricartist would "naturally" been describedin the professionaland popularliterature have chosen to representanother human being rather (Abramova i967a, b; Bahn and Vertut I988; Burkitt than self?To determinewhat choice of visual informa- I934; ConkeyI987; DelporteI993a, b; Dobres igg2a, tion actuallyprevailed at the beginningof representation b; Duhard I993b; Gamble i982; Giedion i962; Gomez- in the Upper Paleolithic,the attributesof the surviving Tabanera I978; Gvozdover Ig8gb; Graziosi I960; Had- images should be experimentallyexamined for the ingham I979; Hancar I939-40; Jelinek I975, I988; structural regularities predicted if the artist's body Leroi-GourhanI968a, b, i982; Luquet I934; Marshack servedas the originalmodel. There is no reason to sus- I99Ia, b; McDermott I985; Pales and de St.-Pereuse pect that informationfrom direct visual self-inspection I976; PassemardI938; Pfeifferi982; Praslov I985, I986; has changed since the Upper Paleolithic, and thus the
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