Sheela-Na-Gig Shae Clancy
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Sheela-na-gig Shae Clancy Sheela-na-gigs are stone carvings of naked females that use one or both hands to direct the viewer's attention to their genital area. Although some were carved in the 12th century, they did not come to the attention of scholars until about 1840. There has been much debate about their origin, meaning and role since then. This essay is an attempt to gather some of the current views on these figures that are an important but neglected component of European and, especially, Irish heritage, and to speculate on their raison d'être. I use the spelling 'Sheela' throughout, except when quoting published sources. Origin and meaning of the term 'Sheela-na-gig' Although it is now a type-name to describe the figures, many had individual local names such as Evil Eye Stone, Hag of the Castle, Witch on the Wall, Julia the Giddy, and St Gobnait. The term 'Sheela-na-gig' seems to have been adopted as a generic name for female exhibitionists because of some coincidental reports during the early 1840s in Ireland. R. P. Collis, a member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, reported that a 'rude carving' on a church wall at Rochestown, Co. Tipperary, was called a 'Sheela-na-gig by the country people.' [1] About the same time, Johann Kohl, a German visitor to Ireland, recorded some aspects of Irish folklore. He noted the prevalence of the fear of the 'evil eye' among the Irish and recorded that a man who believed he was afflicted would resort to the services of a certain type of woman. According to Kohl: They persuade a woman to display to them what women regard as their most secret part Thereusedbe...womenwhomadeaprofessionoutofit.Thesewomenwereandare called even now 'Shila na gigh.' [2] It seems clear that the term referred not only to the stone carvings themselves but also to real live women who displayed their private parts in order to avert evil. However, the term was recorded long before the carved figures came to the attention of 19th c. antiquarians. In 1781, the French captured a British naval vessel, HMS Shelanagig, in the Caribbean and, around the same time, 'Sheela-na-gig,' with variations of the spelling, was the name of a dance tune that appeared in Scottish, English and Irish publications. The tune is identified as Irish in each case [3] In 1676, two Irish Church regulations ordered the burning of obscene carvings of naked women and, even earlier in 1631, provincial statutes for Tuam, Co. Galway, ordered parish priests to hide away such carvings and 'take note of where they were hidden.' [4] Although the church regulations don't use the term, it is very possible that the figures referred to were those known today as sheela-na-gigs. The order to 'burn' them suggests that some were made from combustible material. As for the meaning of the name, Eamonn Kelly is of the opinion that it comes from the Irish language, although he admits its meaning is uncertain. [5] He suggests it is derived from Sighle na gCíoch (the old hag of the breasts) or Síle-ina-Giob (the old woman on her hunkers). The 'old hag of the breasts' seems unsafe because, although some Sheelas have well-defined breasts, they are in a minority. Many Sheelas have either vestigial breasts or none at all. The most famous of all Sheelas, at Kilpeck in Herefordshire, U.K., is almost entirely lacking a torso! 'Old woman on her hunkers' might be more acceptable because many Sheelas are depicted in a squatting position. However this explanation is also somewhat unsatisfactory because not all Sheelas are squatting. Some, such as that at Liathmore, Co. Tipperary are either sitting or standing. Jack Roberts is of the opinion that the term 'sheela' or Síle means "femininity" but it also describes a special kind of woman: a Hag or Spiritual Woman perhaps of the Sidhe, inhabitants of the Irish Otherworld. [6] None of these explanations addresses the most obvious feature of Sheelas: the often grossly exaggerated vulva. Among numerous modern Irish slang terms that refer to the vagina is gee (with a hard 'g'). Dictionaries of slang and obsolete English and Scottish words define gig, gigg and geig as 'pudenda muliebria,' 'a woman's privities' or 'the vulva.' 'Sheela-na-gee' could then be interpreted as the 'Hag of the vulva,' [7] which describes the figures more accurately than the other explanations. Origin of Sheelas Conventional wisdom suggests that Sheelas had their genesis in the exhibitionist carvings that adorn 11th and 12th century Romanesque churches on Continental Europe. Among the many exhibitionists that warn against the sins of the flesh are naked (often voluptuous) women in compromising situations, adulteresses, ithyphallic men, misers, musicians with bestial faces and contortionists with exposed anus. These sinners are usually in the company of others of their ilk in, for example, depictions of the Damned in Hell. Pilgrims to Compostella or Rome were confronted by these images at almost every stop on the journey, and wealthy English patrons had some of them incorporated in churches on their return from pilgrimage. There is general acceptance that these exhibitionist figures were then brought to Irish churches by the Normans. The earliest surviving carving of an Irish Romanesque exhibitionist is on the chancel arch of the Nun's Church. Although often described as a Sheela, it is an acrobat or contortionist and is not a Sheela. [8] However, its presence on a pre-Norman Irish structure casts some doubt on the conventional theory that the Normans introduced exhibitionists to Ireland. Irish Sheela-na-gigs, although undoubtedly exhibitionist, have characteristics that distinguish them from the sinners portrayed on Continental churches. Continental female exhibitionists are almost always in the company of other sinners, are anatomically correct, and most are inside churches. Insular Sheelas in their original location are always solitary and are often anatomically distorted. The heads of many are triangular with protruding eyes and ears, and grotesque mouths that display either an ugly array of teeth or a toothless grimace. Most are baldandsomehavedeeplyincisedribcages,featuresassociatedwithagedhags.However, their arms and legs are often those of a young woman. Unlike Continental exhibitionists, insular Sheelas are almost always on the outside of churches. Perhaps significantly, they are not confined to churches but also appear on Irish secular tower houses dating from the 13th to the early 17th centuries. Most, whether on churches or secular structures, are at or near an entrance or other threshold. They are, therefore, liminal, being deliberately positioned on a boundary between one place or state and another. Using these criteria to distinguish between medieval Continental exhibitionists and Sheelas, there are, or are records of, at least 110 Sheelas in Ireland, about 30 in Britain, and only a few on the Continent. It is curious that of all the different types of exhibitionists seen by pilgrims to the continent, only Sheela-type figures were to become popular in Ireland and Britain. [9] Is it conceivable that Sheelas were not of continental origin? Helen Hickey acknowledges 'the likelihood...thattheideabehindthesestrangecarvings germinated in France,' but suggests 'the possibility that the traffic of ideas was in the opposite direction should also be considered.' [10] Three Irish stones that have Sheela-like carvings provide some support for this latter thesis. Although impossible to date with certainty, the carvings are undoubtedly pre-Norman and two - at Tara, Co. Meath, and Stepaside, Co. Dublin - are much earlier. A stone in the graveyard on the Hill of Tara bears a carving in relief of a human shape that has Sheela-like features. [11] However, the carving is too badly weathered to make out much detail and, as there is a suggestion of head adornment, it may represent Cernunnos, a Celtic horned god, and not a Sheela. The status of the Stepaside figure as a Sheela is also questionable. Andersen describes it as 'a massive figure, standing with hands joined around a hidden pudenda.' [12] This figure, like the one at Tara, is on a free-standing stone in the shape of a cross which suggests to Roberts thatitis'...oftheearlyChristiantype..'possiblyearlierthanthe8thcentury.[13] The Swords, Co. Dublin, Sheela is also on a pillar, used until recently as a gatepost. Its origin is unknown but Kelly suggests it 'may have originally flanked the doorway' of one of a number of nearby ruined medieval buildings. [14] Although there is no reliable evidence to suggest that Sheela-type figures pre-date continental Romanesque origins, these three carvings indicate enough circumstantial evidence to warrant further investigation. Such widespread use of the symbol in Ireland suggests that their role and function must have been of some significance to those who continued to commission them over such a long time and, since a few candidate prototype Sheelas survive in Ireland, it is at least possible, if not probable, that Sheelas are of Irish, rather than of Continental origin. Function "An apotropaic device, the vestige of a pre-Christian fertility cult, a representation of the Great Goddess Earth Mother, a Celtic goddess of creation and destruction, an obscene hag, a sexual stimulant, a medieval Schandbild aimed at castigating the sins of the flesh, a Christian sculpture representing Mater Ecclesia - these are some, but by no means all, of the divergent interpretations of the Sheela-na-gig." [15] Barbara Freitag's succinct summary shows the widely varying range of functions popularly attributed to Sheelas. In her more recent publication, she makes a very strong case that they belong to the realm of folk religion relating to birth and associated traditions in rural Irish settings.