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*McDermott - Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines*
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Table of Contents <index.htm>

The First Human Images

The earliest prehistoric representations, the so-called Venus figurines,
constitute a recognizable stylistic class and are among the most widely
known of all Paleolithic objects (figs. 1 and 2). 

FIG. 1. Anatomical distortions encountered in
Pavlovian-Kostenkian-Gravettian figurines (redrawn after Leroi-Gourhan
1968a: 90), showing the relationships Leroi-Gouthan called the "lozenge
composition": an abdominal circle with a diameter defined by the
greatest width of the image (a, b), the incorrect proportions seen in
the upper and lower body (c, d), the unnatural elevation of the vertical
midpoint and greatest width of the female body (a-h), and the
representation of what should be half of the body (pubes to ground) as
being closer to one-third the total length (e, f, g). a, Lespugue; b,
Grimaldi 'lozenge"; c, Kostenki no. 3; d, Gagarino no. 1; e, Willendorf
no. 1; f, Laussel "woman with the horn"; g, Dolní Vestonice no. 1; h,
Gagarino no. 3.

FIG.2. PKG-style figurines, illustrating the central tendency of the
style. a, Grimaldi "yellow steatite statuette"; b, large  Khotylevo
piece; c, Gagarino no. 4; d, Avdeevo no. 1; e. Moravany; f, g, h,
Kostenki nos. 1, 2, and 4.

As a group they have frequently been described in the professional and
popular literature (Abramova 1967a, b; Bahn and Vertut 1988; Burkitt
1934; Conkey 1987; Delporte I993a, b; Dobres 1992a, b; Duhard 1993b;
Gamble 1982; Giedion 1962; Gomez Tabanera 1978; Gvozdover 1989b;
Graziosi 1960; Hadingham 1979; Hancar 1939-40; Jelinek 1975, 1988;
Leroi-Gourhan 1968a, b, 1982; Luquet 1934; Marshack 1991a, b; McDermott
1985; Pales and de St.-Pereuse 1976; Passemard 1938; Pfeiffer 1982;
Praslov 1985, 1986; Putnam 1988; Saccasyn-Della Santa 1947; Ucko and
Rosenfeld 1967; White 1986). Scholars and the public alike have been
struck by the generally realistic quality of many of these early female
figurines (Abramova 1967b:67; Duhard 1993b; Luquet 1934:439; Piette
1895:130; Praslov 1985:182; Saccasyn-Della Santa 1947). Almost everyone
sees nude women either opulently endowed or embarrassingly obese
(Regnault 1912). Upon analysis, however, the actual forms of the
figurines are revealed to be so much at variance with anatomical
exactitude that many researchers have seen them as reflecting arbitrary
convention and abstract schematization rather than observational reality
(Conkey 1983:215; Dobres 1992b:225; Leroi-Gourhan 1968a: 207). In fact,
it is the specific way in which reality is integrated with presumably
conceptual departures from anatomical objectivity that best defines this
style of mage. 

These mostly palm-sized statuettes appear to depict nude obese women
with faceless and usually downturned heads, thin arms which commonly end
or disappear under the breasts (but occasionally cross over them), an
abnormally thin upper torso carrying voluminous and pendulous breasts,
exaggeratedly large or elevated buttocks often splayed laterally but
sometimes distended rearward, a prominent, presumably pregnant or
adipose abdomen with a large elliptical navel, and what often appear to
be oddly bent, unnaturally short tapering legs which terminate in either
a rounded point or disproportionately small feet. Although readily
recognizable, these anatomical details do not add up to an accurate
image of the human figure. 

I contend that it is the fixed angle of self-regard which accounts for
both the odd "realism of parts considered independently one from
another" observed by Saccasyn-Della Santa (1947:96) and Leroi-Gourhan's
conclusion that the figures appear "centered on the torso, breasts,
thighs and abdomen," with the rest "attentuated" or "dwindling away"
above and below (1968a:207). The latter researcher christened the
collective result of these distinctive distortions, anatomical
omissions, and general disproportion of parts the "lozenge composition"
(1968:90; 1968b). The structural nature of these distortions has often
been overlooked by scholars who see gender or variations of feminine
morphology and reproductive histories in the style of these works
(Dolores 1992b; 252); Duhard 1991, 1993a, b; Nelson 1993; Pales and de
St.-Pereuse 1976; Rice 1981; Soffer 1987). In fact, the consistent
departures from nature seen in these early images involve basic
structural alterations in the normal vertical and horizontal proportions
of the human body (Pales and de St.-Pereuse 1976:68-73). 

In human beings, half the body's length typically lies below the level
of the hip joint or crotch and half above. For the average woman, this
vertical midpoint of the body also coincides with its greatest
horizontal or lateral width. In the typical "lozenge composition,"
however, while the vertical midpoint and greatest horizontal width
continue to occur together, their intersection is unnaturally elevated
to the level of the navel. This effect results from a general atrophy of
the lower body wherein the distance from the cratch to the ground is
typically represented as about one-third of the total body length
instead of half (Pales and de St.-Pereuse I976:7I).^6 <footnotes.htm#6>  

Women today, regardless of race, weight, or reproductive history, do not
have such disproportionate structural relationships between body parts.
While Delporte recognizes the critical importance of understanding this
generalized atrophy of the upper and lower body (1993a:244, 275), he
perpetuates an unfortunate assumption by seeking the explanation in "a
psychological imperative which corresponds to a conception of women in
the life and behavior of prehistoric men" (1993c:10). Why speculate
about psychological mechanisms before experimentally examining the
material evidence of human vision? We should not simply ascribe the
"violation of certain body proportions" to the deliberate "accentuation"
or "willful distortion" of female body parts (Gvozdover 1989b; Delporte
1993a:259) before asking if a physical mechanism could be responsible
for the "violations" observed. I contend that their origin lies in what
all humans and especially expectant mothers can and cannot see when they
look down at their own bodies. 

The distortions in these first images are produced by three structural
regularities inherent in the body as directly self-inspected but not
necessarily observed from the point of view of other human beings.
First, because it begins with the same fixed point of view, everyone's
experience of self-generated visual information has the same structure,
including a distinctive canon of proportions, despite variations
expressive of individual physiognomy, age, and gender. Second, because
of the oblique angle of self-regard, self-generated information is
always strongly foreshortened, and body parts close to the eyes project
a proportionately larger image on the retina than those farther away.
Both an invariant order of proportional relationships and foreshortened
shapes are imposed upon human anatomy viewed egocentrically. In
addition, many objective relationships between regions of the body
cannot be directly apprehended, among them the true length of the lower
extremities and the thickness of the torso, while otherwise prominent
anatomical features such as the buttocks are virtually or completely
absent from the visual field. Finally, since one cannot visually
apprehend one's own body as a whole, any image of self as an independent
three-dimensional entity must be the mental combination or integration
of the multiple viewpoints possible in direct visual self-inspection.^7
<footnotes.htm#7> Multiple viewpoints, having more or less finite if
overlapping boundaries, are an inherent requirement of all
(technologically unassisted) human self-inspection. Operating together,
these structural regularities provide a material origin for the "lozenge
composition." Moreover, the discontinuous nature of the visual
information thus produced about the human body and the sequence or order
in which it is experienced may be relevant to the content and
fabrication processes seen in other categories of female representations
from the Upper Paleolithic such as "sketches" /(ebauches) /and "buttock"
images. 

Next: Chronological and Geographical Distribution  <3.htm>