SELF-REPRESENTATION IN UPPER PALEOLITHIC FEMALE FIGURINES

This study explores the logical possibility that the first images of t he human figure were made from the point of view of self rather than o ther and concludes that Upper Paleolithic ''Venus'' figurines represen t ordinary women's views of their own bodies. Using photographic simul ations of what a modem female sees of herself, it demonstrates that th e anatomical omissions and proportional distortions found in Pavlovian , Kostenkian, and Gravettian female figurines occur naturally in autog enous, or self-generated, information. Thus the size, shape, and artic ulation of body parts in early figurines appear to be determined by th eir relationship to the eyes and the relative effects of foreshortenin g, distance, and occlusion rather than by symbolic distortion. Previou s theories of function are summarized to provide an interpretive conte xt, and contemporary claims of stylistic heterogeneity and frequent ma le representations are examined and found unsubstantiated by a restudy of the originals. As self-portraits of women at different stages of l ife, these early figurines embodied obstetrical and gynecological info rmation and probably signified an advance in women's self-conscious co ntrol over the material conditions of their reproductive lives.