AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

Science, the Media, and Interpretations of Upper Paleolithic

Figurines
April Nowell and Melanie L. Chang

ABSTRACT Using the recent discovery of the Hohle Fels figurine as a catalyst, in this article we briefly review
the history of scholarship regarding Upper Paleolithic figurines that are often referred to as Venus figurines.
We integrate this review with a critical examination of the assumptions underlying the Venus hypothesisthe
perspective that these artifacts are best understood as sexual objectsbased on the available data from both inside
and outside of the field of Paleolithic archaeology. We suggest that interpreting the figurines in a purely sexual
context obstructs their objective, scientific study and has unintended social consequences. Following from this, we
consider why the Venus hypothesis persists in the popular media and scholarly research despite decades of reflexive
critiques. Finally, building on these critiques, we argue for the importance of contextualization in the study of Upper
Paleolithic figurines and discuss new approaches to their study. [Upper Paleolithic, figurines, pop culture, media,
science]

`
`
`
R ESUM
E Utilisant la decouverte
recente
de la figurine de Hohle Fels comme catalyste, le present
article passe en
`

ere

revue brievement
lhistoire de la recherche concernant les figurines du Paleolithique
superieur
auxquelles on ref

le plus frequemment
par le terme de figurine Venus.
La revue comporte un examen critique des presuppositions
` de Venus,

sous-jacentes a` lhypothese
notamment quil sagit de facon plausible dobjets sexuels, sappuyant sur
disponibles, dans le cadre mediatique

les donnees
populaire en deca` ainsi qua` linterieur
du domaine de la recherche

sur le Paleolithique.
Nous suggerons
que toutes interpretations
dans un contexte exclusivement sexuel masque une

demarche
scientifique objective comportant des repercussions
sociales imprevues.
Poursuivant ce raisonnement,
`

nous abordons les causes dune telle persistence de lhypothese

Venus
dans le monde mediatique
ainsi que dans

la recherche erudite, malgre des decennies

de reflection
critique. Finalement, nous fondant sur ces critiques, nous

soutenons limportance de replacer letude

des figurines du Paleolithique
superieur
dans leur cadre contextuel et

discutons de nouvelles demarches

pour leur etude.
[Paleolithque
superieur,
statuettes feminines,
culture populaire,

medias,
science]
RESUMEN Usando el reciente descubrimiento de la estatuilla Hohle Fels como un catalizador, en este artculo
brevemente revisamos la historia del cuerpo de conocimientos sobre las estatuillas del Paleoltico Superior que
con una examinacion
crtica de las
a menudo se refieren como las figuras de Venus. Integramos esta revision

asunciones subyacentes de la hipotesis

de Venusla perspectiva que estos artefactos se entienden mejor como
disponible tanto de dentro como fuera del campo de la arqueologa
objetos sexualesbasados en la informacion
paleoltica. Sugerimos que interpretando las estatuillas en un contexto puramente sexual obstruye su estudio

objetivo, cientfico y tiene consecuencias sociales imprevistas. Siguiendo esto, consideramos por que la hipotesis
de

C 2014 by the American Anthropological

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 116, No. 3, pp. 562577, ISSN 0002-7294, online ISSN 1548-1433. 

Association. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1111/aman.12121

Nowell and Chang Science, Media, and Upper Paleolithic Figurines

563

e investigacion
academica,

Venus persiste en los medios populares de comunicacion

a pesar de decadas
de crticas
en el
reflexivas. Finalmente, basados en estas crticas, argumentamos por la importancia de la contextualizacion
estudio de las estatuillas del Paleoltico Superior y discutimos nuevas aproximaciones para su estudio. [Paleoltico
ciencia]
Superior, estatuillas, cultura popular, medios de comunicacion,

he headless, engraved Aurignacian Venus of Hohle

Fels (see Figure 1), dating to 35,000 B.P., created a
sensation when it was discovered (Conard et al. 2009). Its
dimensions (66 mm in length) are modest, but its morphology inspired hyperbolic introductions in the mass media. The
figurine was described as the worlds first Page 3 Girl (The
Sun 2009) and smut carved from a mammoth tusk (The
Economist 2009). Perhaps surprisingly, the popular press
was echoing voices originating from within scientific institutions. Nature referred to the figurine as a prehistoric pinup
and a 35,000-year-old sex object with an explicitly, almost aggressively, sexual nature (Mellars 2009:176177),
while Science asked whether the figurine could be the earliest
pornography (Curry 2009). The Urgeschichtliches Museum
Blaubeuren, where the Hohle Fels figurine is housed, advertised it as an earth mother or pin-up girl, as if those were
the only two possible interpretations. The Register newspaper quoted a well-respected Paleolithic archaeologist, who
stated, [The Hohle Fels figurine is] sexually exaggerated to
the point of being pornographic . . . Theres all this sexual
symbolism bubbling up in that period. They were sex-mad
(Page 2009), in an article headlined Archaeologists Unearth
Oldest 3-D Pornography.
It is not unusual for paleontological or archaeological discoveries from the Paleolithic to receive widespread popular
press coverage. The general public is fascinated by human
evolution, and the mass media may be expected to present
related news in a manner that is designed to attract the maximum readership. Researchers benefit from such coverage,
as highly publicized research tends to receive more citations
in peer-reviewed journals, more inquiries from other scientists, and more funding opportunities than research that receives less popular attention (Caulfield 2004; Shuchman and
Wilkes 1997). However, sensationalist language becomes
problematic when placed in a scientific context. When individuals and institutions involved in archaeological research
and discovery draw on the language of the popular media,
they validate it. The echo chamber expands to include scientists in other fields, who may unquestioningly apply such
facile interpretations in their own research to naturalize
and legitimize modern biases, behaviors, and values.
In this article, we briefly review the history of scholarship regarding Upper Paleolithic figurines that are often
referred to as Venus figurines. We integrate this review
with a critical examination of the assumptions underlying the
Venus hypothesisthe perspective that these artifacts are
best understood as sexual objectsbased on the available

data from both inside and outside of the field of Paleolithic

archaeology. We suggest that interpreting the figurines in
a purely sexual context obstructs their objective, scientific
study and has unintended social consequences. Following
from this, we consider why the Venus hypothesis persists in
the popular media and scholarly research despite decades of
reflexive critiques. Finally, building on these critiques, we
argue for the importance of contextualization in the study of
Upper Paleolithic figurines and discuss new approaches to
their study.
UPPER PALEOLITHIC FIGURINES AS SEXUAL
OBJECTS
Woman was [the] Gate of Life . . . the Object of Desire; between
these two poles . . . [mans] emotions swung. J. Laver, Homage
to Venus [1948:2]

Over 200 anthropomorphic, mostly female figurines (and a

handful of more abstract portable artworks that are sometimes considered to be part of this corpus) are known from
the Upper Paleolithic record (Beck 2000; Nelson 2004).
They are made from a variety of materials, including stone,
bone, ivory, and fired loess, and occur over wide geographic
(from France to Siberia) and temporal ranges (40,000 to
ca. 9,000 B.P.) (Delporte 1993). Since their discovery in
the late 1800s, interpretations of these figurines have reflected the social and political contexts of the times. Initial
analyses identified racial types, focusing on the perceived
African or Hottentot characteristics of certain pieces and
identifying them as representatives of a conquered people (Piette 1895:129130, quoted in White 2006). The
term Venus was introduced at this time in reference to the
perceived resemblance of some figurines to the so-called
Hottentot Venus, Sartje Baartman, a Khoisan woman who
was brought from South Africa to Europe in the early 19th
century and exhibited in a sensationalist and exploitative
fashion across England and France (White 2006).
Since World War II, however, scientific inquiries have
tended to focus on perceived gender and sexual characteristics of the figurines without racial connotations, in part due
to the fact that many early approaches to Paleolithic parietal art assumed that the imagery was related in some way
to human sexuality, fertility, and gender (see discussion in
Bahn and Vertut 1997 and references therein). Kelly HaysGilpin (2004) argues that this change in perspective has less
to do with the properties of the art itself or related ethnographies and more to do with the interpretive frameworks

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American Anthropologist Vol. 116, No. 3 September 2014

FIGURE 1. Venus of Hohle Fels: lateral and front views (photo credit:
H. Jensen; photo courtesy of Professor Nicholas Conard).

that are employed. This observation seems to be equally true

of the Venus hypothesis. As Rosemary Joyce has observed,
the choice of which features to observe and explain begins
with the questions we think are yet to be debated and which
ones we assume are already answered (2008:8).
The Venus hypothesis is based on a series of primarily
androcentric assumptions about the archaeological past that
have been the subject of numerous pointed, reflexive feminist critiques over the past 2030 years (e.g., Conkey and
Spector 1984; Dobres 1992b; Conkey and Tringham 1995).
Building on the groundwork of these more general critiques,
in the following sections we specifically examine the scientific validity of the assumptions underlying the Venus hypothesis and consider why it remains so persuasive for many
scholars and laypeople alike.
Venus Figurines Were Made by Men for Men
The bulging Venus figurines with enormous buttocks and pendulous breasts, along with vulva drawn on the cave walls were
undoubtedly male art creations, for themselves or for other men
. . . the drawings or carvings were made, touched, carved, and
fondled by men. Onians with Collins, The Origins of Art [1978:63]

It is commonly assumed that the makers of Paleolithic artifacts, be they handaxes (e.g., Kohn and Mithen 1999)
or Upper Paleolithic figurines, were male (e.g., LeroiGourhan 1967:90; Onians 2000; Onians with Collins 1978;
see also discussions in Conkey 1997; Conkey and Gero 1991;
Dobres 1992b; Nelson 1990, 2004; Russell 1991). MarciaAnne Dobres (1992b:1215) identifies a series of prehistoric Barbie Doll models describing common archaeological
interpretations of Venus figurines, in which the figurines
are variously described as serving to educate men, titillate men, or even commemorate acts of violence against
women by men. For example, in the context of an academic
consideration of Upper Paleolithic figurines, Randall Eaton
confidently asserts that whether the females were raped,

stolen or killed, [the figurines] appear to represent brave

acts among males of a group and would qualify them as
trophies (1978:7).
The assumption of male authorship is often perpetuated
in the media. For example, while a recent review of an
Ice Age portable art exhibit at Londons British Museum is
careful to consider authorship of the art from a variety of perspectives (Kohn 2013), the strapline (summary of the article)
chosen by an editor reads, Figures up to 40,000 years old
reveal how early man saw and stylized the world around him
and put art before practical concerns (emphasis added).1
This point of view also underlies a recent popular book
by Arctic biologist Dale Guthrie (2005), who characterizes
the overwhelming majority of Paleolithic art as sexually
charged images and violent hunting scenes and argues that
the images are best interpreted as graffiti created by sexually excited teenage boys based on handprints in cave art.
This is an inaccurate assessment of the corpus of Paleolithic
art, not only because specialists are hard-pressed to identify
any unambiguous examples of violent hunting scenes or
sexually charged images (Bahn 1986, 2006; Jonaitis 2007)
but also because subsequent studies of handprints and finger
fluting in European caves such as Rouffignac, Pech Merle,
and El Castillo (Sharpe and van Gelder 2004, 2006a, 2006b,
2006c; Snow 2006, 2013) and at Upper Paleolithic cave sites
in Borneo (Chazine 1999; Chazine and Fage 1999a, 1999b;
Chazine and Noury 2006) indicate that men, women, adolescents, and even very young children and babies may be
associated with or have been responsible for such markings.
While such studies do not positively identify who made
Upper Paleolithic figurines, they illustrate that the available
data cannot be used to argue that most Paleolithic art was
made exclusively by boys and men. By extension, it is equally
invalid to assume that female figurines were made only by
men. While the gender(s) of the artists who created Upper Paleolithic figurines remain unknown (Bahn 1986), we
believe that the assumption of male authorship is based primarily on the accepted wisdom that great art has, throughout history, been made by men only and on the notion that
the perceived sexual natures of the figurines would uniquely
appeal to men.
Only Men Are Aroused by Visual Stimuli
This may be very politically incorrect but thats the way it is
. . . Its all part of our ancestral conditioning. Bob Guccione,
publisher of Penthouse magazine [quoted in McCaughey 2008:72]

It is commonly assumed, in both academic and popular

discourses, not only that the makers of Upper Paleolithic
figurines were male but also that they were motivated to
make figurines because men find erotic meaning in images
and objects while women do not. For example, Discover, a
magazine considered by much of the general public to be a
reliable source of scientific information, described a recent
study in evolutionary psychology (Ogas and Gaddam 2011a,
2011b) as proving that the male obsession with pornography

Nowell and Chang Science, Media, and Upper Paleolithic Figurines

dates back to Cro-Magnon days, that mens brains are

designed to objectify females, and that this objectification
of women extends deep into the mists of prehistory (Ogas
and Gaddam 2011b:47). The writers, who were also the
studys authors (2011b:47), support these conclusions with
references to Upper Paleolithic figurines such as the 26,000year-old Venus of Willendorf that features GG-cup breasts
and a hippopotamal butt, but no face [and] the 40,000-yearold Venus of Hohle Fels [that] boasts even more prodigious
hips and mammariesand titanic labia. This sensationalist
article received a great deal of attention because it conformed
neatly to the accepted wisdom about gender and sexuality.
According to Roger Lancaster, much has been written and said about the supposedly visual nature of mens
sexuality and the supposedly non visual nature of womens
(2003:131). Such views are greatly influenced by the findings
of the landmark Kinsey Reports (Kinsey et al. 1948, 1953),
which suggested that (Western) men are sexually aroused by
nude photos and drawings while (Western) women are not.
This claim of gender-based differences in sexual response
has been repeated in the sociobiological literature, as well as
in mainstream feminist discourse, as an unquestioned characteristic of human sexuality (Lancaster 2003). Specifically,
the scientific literature on sexual selection and evolutionary
psychology (e.g., Buss 1994, 2006; Salmon 2012; but see
Thompson and OSullivan 2012) posits that eager, aggressive men seek youth and beauty as indicators of fertility,
while coy, choosy women eschew surface evaluations and
instead shrewdly calculate mate value in contexts such as
status or income (i.e., provisioning capacity). Evolutionary
psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker therefore argued that
it would make no sense for a woman to be easily aroused
by the sight of a nude male (1997:471472).
However, research exploring female response to sexual
imagery has in fact challenged many assumptions regarding
gender-based differential response. Studies performed in the
1980s and 1990s found, using objective, clinical measures of
biological arousal, that women are sexually stimulated by visual representations of male nudity (Lancaster 2003). More
recent studies (Chivers et al. 2004; Kukkonen et al. 2007;
Rupp and Wallen 2009) demonstrate that overall interest,
timing, and duration of sexual arousal are comparable between men and women. According to Nielson/Net ratings
(Blue 2009), one-third of all visitors to adult websites are
women, with close to 13 million women in the United States
watching pornography online monthly. Theresa Flint, vice
president of Hustler magazine, stated in an interview that 56
percent of her stores customers are women (Blue 2009).
Why are the findings of recent studies (and market research data) so different from those of the Kinsey Reports?
These differences beg the question of what has changed about
human sexuality between the 1950s and today. It is not plausible that significant evolution in human sexual response has
occurred during this time. A more likely explanation is that,
as Lancaster observed, pornography and peoples tastes for
assorted forms of erotic images are not outside the history of

565

mens and womens changing desires (2003:133). Cultural

and historical changesincluding the sexual revolution, the
rise of and normalization of feminism, and the eroticization
of the male body in advertising and pop culturemay all
explain these changes (Lancaster 2003). By extension, the
assumption that Paleolithic people would have responded
to images of female nudity in the same manner as modern
peopleor, rather, a sample of modern people drawn from
a single Western culture group at a specific point in timeis
untenable. While it is (or should be) clear to anthropologists
that responses to erotic images are highly culturally mediated, this is not the accepted wisdom that is perpetuated by
the media and by some scholars outside of anthropology.
All of the Figurines Are the Same
These figures must indicate what the men who produced them
found interesting and desirable. C. Seltman, Women in Antiquity
[1957:19 quoted in Russell 1998:263]

Upper Paleolithic female figurines are stereotypically described as hyper-female, with exaggerated secondary sexual characteristics. There have been some attempts to quantify the morphological variation in these figurines to facilitate
interpretation. In The Nature of Paleolithic Art, Guthrie (2005)
devotes approximately 70 pages to the argument that
all Venus figurines represent paleo-erotica, based on
their waist-to-hip ratios (WHRs). The WHR describes the
amount and distribution of body fat in living women, both
of which change throughout a womans life due to factors
such as puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. WHR also
varies across populations (Singh and Luis 1995). The WHR
has been described as an indicator of fertility and long-term
health (Buss 2004; Singh 2006; Singh and Singh 2006), and
low WHRs (small waist, large hips) are thought to be desirable across cultures (Buss 2004; Henss 1995; Singh 1993;
Singh and Singh 2006; Wing et al. 1991). The contemporary
ideal female WHR cross-culturally is 0.7 (see Tripp and
Schmidt 2013). Guthrie (2005) argued, based on a study
of 53 Venuses, that all Upper Paleolithic female figurines
cluster together around a ratio of 0.655 (i.e., slightly below
the cross-cultural ideal of 0.7) and that therefore Paleolithic
men must also have preferred women with small waists and
curvaceous hips. This interpretation also assumes that Paleolithic sexual attraction was strictly heterosexual and based
on reproduction and fertility.
Upper Paleolithic figurines are actually extremely diverse in style and morphology (see Figures 2 and 3; see
also Dobres 1992a; Nelson 1990; Rice 1981). In fact, the
very first figurine to be discovered, in 1864, was termed
the Venus Impudique or Immodest Venus because its
slim, nude form was thought to be reminiscent of classical
sculpture (White 2006). Furthermore, careful observations
of figurines such as the Venus of Lespugue (esp. when seen
in person; see figure 46 in Cook 2013:97) suggest that it
may be overly reductive to describe the exploration of form
engaged in by the sculptors of some of these figurines as

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American Anthropologist Vol. 116, No. 3 September 2014

Range of diversity in Upper Paleolithic figurines: (a) Dame de Brassempouy, 25,000 BP (France) (photo credit: MAN and Loc Hamon; photo
courtesy of Musee dArcheologie nationale et Domaine national de Saint-Germain-en Laye); (b) Marionette figure, 26,000 BP (Czech Republic) (photo
from the collection of and courtesy of the Moravske zemske muzeum); (c) Venus of Willendorf, 25,000 BP (Austria) (photo courtesy of the Naturhistorisches
Museum, Wien).

FIGURE 2.

focused solely on female sexual characteristics, at least not

in a straightforward manner. In a recent study, Alison Tripp
and Naomi Schmidt (2013) tested the hypothesis that all
or most Gravettian Venus figurines (ca. 28,00021,000
B.P.) are characterized by low WHRs as well as the argument that these figurines represent paleo-erotica. They
found that WHRs varied significantly rather than clustering around ideal values, with higher average WHRs across
geographical samples (i.e., Siberia, 0.961; Central Europe,
1.011; Western Europe, 0.970; and Russian Plains, 1.15)
than those reported by Guthrie (2005).
The discrepancies between the findings of
Guthrie (2005) and Tripp and Schmidt (2013) may
be explained by the fact that, while Guthrie relied on
photographs to make measurements, Tripp and Schmidt
measured either the figurines themselves or reliable casts.
It is very difficult to consistently and accurately measure
circumferences using two-dimensional images, and in
fact it is impossible to deduce WHRs from photographs
because it not possible to accurately measure the exact
protrusions of the belly or the buttocks (Tripp and
Schmidt 2013:59). Further compounding the difficulty of
measuring photographs, some figurines lack anatomical
landmarks such as navels. Many figurines appear hourglass
shaped from the back but are apple shaped when viewed
from the front (Tripp and Schmidt 2013). In addition,
Guthrie does not list the figurines he included in his sample,
and it is possible that he included Magdalenian figurines in
his study. Magdalenian figurines feature much more abstract
representations of the female form, and calculating WHRs

using Magdalenian figures would therefore have significant

effects on the resulting data (Tripp and Schmidt 2013). As
Tripp and Schmidt note, if the figurines are read literally,
the appearance of variation in nearly all the samples
[supports] Rices (1981) hypothesis that the Venuses
represent women of all ages since WHR is not constant
throughout a womans life (2013:59). This interpretation
contradicts the assumption that all of the figurines represent
women of reproductive age.2
All of the Figurines Are Female
[The figurines] match almost exactly the erotic interests of the
sensually alert modern male. D. Collins and J. Onians, The
Origins of Art [1978:13]
[The figurines are] . . . a straight line from the ice-age to Rodin
and the playboy bunnies of later days. Bjorn Kurten, How to
Deep-Freeze a Mammoth [1986:113114]

Although discussions of Upper Paleolithic figurines are often framed as though all of the figurines are female, many
are quite obviously not female. There are figurines of nude
males, male animals, and possibly male fantastical characters (e.g., the lion-human hybrids from Hohlenstein-Stadel,
Geienklosterle, and Hohle Fels in Germany), but these are
not interpreted within a sexual framework. While at least
half of all Upper Paleolithic figurines cannot be unambiguously classified as male or female (Dobres 1992a), many abstract forms such as the artifact commonly referred to as the
rod with breasts from Dolni Vestonice (see Figure 4) are
routinely described as female: This statuette shows us that

Nowell and Chang Science, Media, and Upper Paleolithic Figurines

567

Range of diversity in Upper Paleolithic figurines: (a) Figurine from Malta 23,000 BP (Siberia, Russia) (photo credit: Vladimir Terebenin;
photo copyright and courtesy of The State Hermitage Museum); (b) Venus from Dolni Vestonice, 25,000 BP (Czech Republic) (photo from the collection
of and courtesy of the Moravske zemske muzeum).
FIGURE 3.

the artist has neglected all that did not interest him, stressing
his sexual libido only where the breasts are concerneda
diluvial plastic pornography (Absolon 1949:202). In some
cases, it may just as easily be argued that such abstract figures
are male as that they are female. Is the description of the
Dolni Vestonice artifact as a rod with breasts the most parsimonious explanation of its form or is it possible, or even
more likely, that it represents male genitalia, as suggested
by Alice Kehoe (1991)?3
The interpretations of nearly all Upper Paleolithic
portable artworks as female is perpetuated in both the Ice
Age art exhibit at the British Museum referred to above and
in the volume that accompanies it (Cook 2013:6870). In the
volume chapter entitled Soft Curves, Full Figures: Female
Sculptureseven though many of the images included in
the chapter are either male or are decidedly not full-figured
females, such as the stick-like figurines from Siberia (see Figure 3b) or are isolated heads such as the Dame de Brassempouy (see Figure 2a) and the gender-ambiguous portraits
from Dolni Vestonicethe rod with breasts, a similarly
ambiguous neck with breasts, and a forked piece of ivory
are all described as female. Joyce (2008) commented that
the relevant literature makes it seem more difficult to sex
skeletons, for which sex is a biological reality, than to sex
figurines that are categorized based on cultural conventions
for depicting gender.
Researchers often focus on how female bodies differ
from male bodies (the presumed default) rather than seeing

them as human bodies. This results in the disarticulation of

the female body into parts. Thus, the identification of the
rod with breasts as female is part of a larger tendency to
describe any image in Paleolithic art that is circular, oval,
triangular, open-angled, or bifurcated as female (see detailed
discussion in Bahn 1986). A recent example is provided by
Randall White and colleagues (2012), who described an engraved block found in an early Aurignacian level at Abri
Castanet, France (see Figure 5a) as a vulva, not because the
image itself resembles an actual vulva but because, historically, similar oval images have been described as vulvas.
Even if it is argued that the engraving is a highly stylized
or abstract image of a vulva, it is impossible to know that
the Q-shaped image has been interpreted correctly because
we have little knowledge of the cultural conventions that
might have been used to depict disembodied vulvas during
the Paleolithic or even if vulvasdetached and free-floating
from actual representations of bodieswere being depicted
at all. The New York Times reported the Abri Castanet discovery in an article headlined, A Precursor to Playboy: Graphic
Images in Rock with an accompanying figure that depicted
a nude mudflap girl in the center of Paleolithic animals
painted on a cave wall (Figure 5b).4 Thus, the inferential
leap from a Q-shaped engraving to a vulva to erotica was
completed by the popular press. Referring to the notion that
certain symbols or shapes always represent female gender
with erotic intent as one of the most durable myths of prehistory (Bahn 1986:99), Paul Bahn and Jean Vertut argue

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American Anthropologist Vol. 116, No. 3 September 2014

(A) Engraved vulva from Abri Castanet (photo credit: R.

Bourrillon, Castanet Project; photo courtesy of Randall White) and (B)
the illustration created by The New York Times to accompany its article
on the find (illustration credit: Chris Gash; illustration courtesy of Chris
Gash).
FIGURE 5.

Rod with breasts, mammoth ivory, 8.5 centimeters, Dolni

Vestonice (Czech Republic) (photo from the collection of and courtesy of
the Moravske zemske muzeum).
FIGURE 4.

that images of female genitalia are far rarer than has been
claimed in the past, and those which were depicted may well
have been intended simply to indicate gender, rather than
be erotic; the vast majority of Paleolithic art is clearly not
about sex, at least in an explicit sense (1997:89).
Paleolithic Systems of Meaning Recognized Only
Two Genders
For [paleolithic men] as for us . . . the mother who gives and
transmits life is also the woman who gives and shares pleasure:
could the paleolithic have been insensitive to this novel duality?
H. Delporte, Image de la Femme dans lArt Prehistorique [1979:308],
translated and cited in Nelson [1990:16]

Discussions of Upper Paleolithic imagery often assume that

this corpus of art represents only two sexes, and only
two genders, and that there is a one-to-one correlation
between sex and gender, therefore projecting dominant

modern Western gender constructs into the past. Classic

examples include the tremendously influential works of Annette Laming-Emperaire (1962) and Andre Leroi-Gourhan
(e.g., 1966, 1967, 1978), both of whom divided all cave art
(figurative and nonfigurative) into male and female symbols.
While both Laming-Emperaire and Leroi-Gourhan abandoned this approach and most scholars have moved away
from such explicit categorizations of Upper Paleolithic art,
these ideas remain implicit in scholarly interpretations. By
applying modern Western constructs of gender to the past,
these constructs are given authority and legitimacy and made
to appear natural (see discussion in Joyce 2008; Voss 2008).
However, as anthropologists are aware, gender constructs vary cross-culturally among modern human populations (e.g., Blackwood 1984, 1997, 2009; Devore 1989;
Kalra 2012; Kulick 1998; Lewin 1993). For example, historically, native North American two-spirit individuals (commonly referred to as berdaches by Western academics)
have been considered to house both male and female essences
in a single body (Blackwood 1997; Jacobs et al. 1997;
Prine 2000; Voss 2008), and in some cultures gender is
thought to emerge or change over time (e.g., Creed 1984;

Nowell and Chang Science, Media, and Upper Paleolithic Figurines

Joyce 2008). In India, those who identify with a third sex

(hijras), including transvestites, transgenders, and eunuchs,
may now identify as other on official ballots (Shields 2010).
In 2013, Germany became the first western European nation to allow a third gender option (indeterminate) on
birth certificates, while Australia moved to allow citizens to
identify as intersex on official documents such as passports
(Chappell 2013). In early 2014, the online social network
Facebook added 50-odd options to the traditional binary
male and female gender categories that users may choose
from to self-identify (Weber 2014). While it is clear to
anthropologists that it is not valid to assume that the traditional binary Western system of gender, rather than other
more fluid ways of thinking about gender and gender relations, was in place during the Paleolithic, this understanding
does not characterize traditional approaches to studying Upper Paleolithic figurines (see Conkey 1997; Dobres 1992a;
Hays-Gilpin 2004; Joyce 2008; Nelson 1990; Tringham and
Conkey 1998).
Related to this point is the assumption, exemplified by
the 201011 Urgeschichtliches Museum Blaubeuren exhibit
discussed above (Pin-Up Girl vs. Earth Mother), that we
understand Paleolithic gender roles. As Sarah Nelson noted,
it is clear that an attitude toward women as sex objects has
been read into the distant past. But it goes beyond the pinup mentality with a mixing of the idea of figurines as erotic
with the notion of fertility . . . women are explicitly described as functionaltheir uses are to satisfy mens desires
and to produce children (2004:127128). For example,
Jill Cook, the curator of the 2013 Ice Age art exhibit at the
British Museum, divided the figurines into categories: pregnant, beyond child-bearing age, and, in the case of a figurine
described as representing a young woman who had not yet
had a child, flaunting her sexual potential.5 This approach
is outmoded and particularly surprising given the work of
Patricia Rice (1981) and Pamela Russell (1993), who demonstrated as much as 30 years ago that it is not always possible
to distinguish pregnant women from nonpregnant women
and mothers from nonmothers (Bahn and Pettitt 2013).
Furthermore, the question of whom the women portrayed
by Paleolithic figurines might have been, or whether they
were real people (that is, subjects instead of objects), is only
rarely addressed. Rather, the figurines are described purely
in terms of the feelings that they might have evoked in Paleolithic men, who act (in this context) as surrogates for
modern viewers (archaeological researchers).
The fact is, we do not know what it meant to be a
man or a woman (or some other gendered category) during
the Upper Paleolithic. Our conceptions of life during this
period for all peoples have changed significantly in recent
years. We now know that 15,000 to 25,000 years before
agriculture, Upper Paleolithic peoples fired ceramics, dyed
loom-woven textiles and made nets (Adovasio et al. 1996;
Kvavadze et al. 2009; Soffer 2004; Soffer et al. 2000, 2002),
played flutes (Conard et al. 2009), engaged in extensive trade

569

networks, manufactured complex tools (Bar-Yosef 2002),

and created parietal art (Clottes and Geneste 2012; Valladas et al. 2001) as well as standardized items of personal
adornment (Vanhaeren and dErrico 2006) and other forms
of portable art (Conard 2003). Our current understanding
of life in the Upper Paleolithic is richer and more complex
than ever, and as scientists we should endeavor to uncover
evidence of gender constructs through data analysis rather
than impose modern Western gender constructs on the data
that we collect. As Joyce writes, for archaeologists, differences from place to place sketch out a landscape filled with
unique histories. In those local histories, mens and womens
lives could develop in many different ways (2008:13). This
is likely as true of the Upper Paleolithic as any other period, and this should be our starting point when studying its
archaeological record.

Being Unclothed Is Erotic

Female figures [in Paleolithic art] often appear in sexually inviting attitudes, which may be quite the same as those in the most
brazen pornographic magazine. There are also anatomically detailed pictures of the vulva, showing the female sex organ sometimes frontally, sometimes inverted and from the back, open to
penetration. Bjorn Kurten, How to Deep-Freeze a Mammoth [1986]

In 1979, Guthrie wrote: The female figures in Paleolithic art

bear a great resemblance to the images portrayed in mens
toilet stalls and in erotic magazines (1979:63). To illustrate this point, Guthrie compared anthropomorphic figures
that have been described as female from the European Upper Paleolithic with illustrations of common erotic poses
based on photographs from the October 1979 German edition of Playboy Magazine. Guthries argument is problematic
for a number of reasons, one being that it is not clear that
all of the figures he cites are actually female. In addition,
the figures are taken out of contextthe female figures
from Pech Merle, for instance, are more highly stylized
than Guthries redrawing suggests and have been described
variously in the literature as women-bison and womenmammoths (Lorblanchet 2010:29, 143144, figures 67).
Furthermore, a nude engraving of a male from the same
region as Pech Merle, who is also portrayed as leaning forward, is not described as assuming a common erotic pose
or as pornographic (see Lorblanchet 2010:437, figure 10).
Guthrie (1979:68, figure 19) also argues that the Venus of
Dolni Vestonice is wearing nothing but stockings or thighhigh boots and suggests that a figurine from Kostenki 1 in
Russia is engaging in bondage (Guthrie 2005:365, figure is
not numbered; but see Soffer et al. [2002] and Joyce [2008]
for a discussion of the variation in textiles and clothing depicted on figurines). As Bahn notes, people often see what
they want to see in rock art, and I think it is safe to say that
few of Guthries [2005] interpretations would be readily
accepted by most specialists in Ice Age art (2006:575).

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American Anthropologist Vol. 116, No. 3 September 2014

viewing sexualized images of women are more likely to perceive them to be less moral, less competent, less likeable,
and even less human than do men who have not viewed
such images (Heflick and Goldenberg 2009; Loughnan
et al. 2010; Rudman and Borgida 1995), while women who
perceive themselves to be objectified are observed to narrow their social presence or withdraw in social interactions
(Saguy et al. 2010). It can be argued that by turning this objectifying gaze (Mulvey 1975) onto our evolutionary past,
some modern Western archaeologists validate it and serve
to perpetuate its negative effects within modern Western
society.
Why Does the Venus Hypothesis Have Such Staying
Power?

FIGURE 6. Mammoth (top) and bison (bottom) statuettes from the nearby

Aurignacian site of Geienklosterle (photo credit: P. Frankenstein, H. Zwietasch; Landesmuseum Wurttemberg, Stuttgart; photo courtesy of the Landesmuseum Wurttemberg, Stuttgart). These blocky statuettes are described
as being depicted in a symmetrical and neutral fashion (Porr 2010:99,
100, see figures 67).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Social Consequences of the Venus Hypothesis

In this article we have argued that, whether consciously

or unconsciously, some of the most influential scholars in
Paleolithic archaeology have tended to make assumptions
about the meanings and makers of Paleolithic art that are
problematic. By embedding such assumptions deep into our
evolutionary past(1) that the authors and intended audiences of media or art are heterosexual males and (2) that
men are subjects and have agency while women are objects
and do notsuch voices of authority naturalize them. The
perspective that sexual objectification is a natural, evolved
behavior is in turn often eagerly accepted and amplified by
the popular media.
A large body of research in social science suggests that
the control of perspective and the objectification of women
in modern media and social practice are not harmless. Men

The question remains as to why the Venus hypothesis continues to be so pervasive in both scholarly and popular contexts,
despite the existence of pointed and reflexive feminist critiques (including recent discussions by Hays-Gilpin 2004;
Molnar 2011; Nesbitt 2001). We believe that there are at
least three possible explanations for its persistence.
First, few comprehensive studies of Upper Paleolithic
figurines that postdate these reflexive critiques have been
published in English (but for notable exceptions, see
Farbstein 2010, 2011a, 2011b; Farbstein et al. 2012, discussed below). Furthermore, much of the recent scholarship
discussing the figurines (other than the announcements of
new discoveries, e.g., Conard 2009)including those publications that have garnered the most media attention (e.g.,
Guthrie 2005; Ogas and Gaddam 2011a, 2011b)actually
comes from outside the field of anthropology, focusing on
aspects of figurines ranging from their roles in psychohistorical frameworks for art appreciation (Bullot and Reber 2013)
to their depictions of patterns of human obesity during the
Upper Paleolithic (King 2013). These studies usually unquestioningly accept and echo pre-1990s interpretations that
the figurines functioned in context primarily as sexual objects, symbolizing aspects of female gender such as sexuality,
fertility, and fecundity.
Second, equally plausible (or implausible and equally
untested) alternative interpretations of Upper Paleolithic
figurines have tended to be treated as niche or fringe studies
by paleoanthropologists and have had relatively little lasting
impact on the popularity of the Venus hypothesis. These
alternative hypotheses include the propositions that the figurines functioned to create and maintain social alliances
(Gamble 1982); that they were used in rituals involving
the purposeful destruction of figurines (Soffer et al. 1993a,
1993b); that they acted as good luck charms or totems during
childbirth (e.g., Augusta 1960); that they represent female
self-portraits (McDermott 1996); or that they are illustrative
of a gynocentric, preagricultural society where particularly
female characteristics were prized (e.g., Gimbutas 1982).
Third, there is an extensive, innovative tradition of
research on non-Paleolithic figurines that has long questioned binary gender categorization and heteronormativity

Nowell and Chang Science, Media, and Upper Paleolithic Figurines

and has focused on the construction of identity, materializing practices, and the social context of figurine production
(e.g., Bailey 1994, 2007, 2013; Knapp and Meskell 1997;
Kokkinidou 1997; Nakamura and Meskell 2009). However,
this tradition appears to have had limited impact on the
study of Paleolithic figurines, and these studies are rarely
cited by Paleolithic archaeologists (this is the case, for example, in the recent work by Cook [2013]). To the best
of our knowledge, the only scholars studying Paleolithic
figurines who have cited this body of work are the same
researchers who called for a reexamination of the Venus
hypothesis in the first place. Therefore, the third possible explanation for the persistence of the Venus hypothesis is that many of the most cogent and relevant critiques
of such gendered interpretations in a broader archaeological context have simply gone unread by most Paleolithic
archaeologists.
Contextualization and New Approaches to the
Study of Upper Paleolithic Figurines

In archaeology, as in life, context is critical to understanding meaning. It is clear that Venus figurines should be
studied in the same manner as other Paleolithic artifacts,
by undertaking basic analyses that examine raw materials,
knowledge or skills required of the makers, age, and indicators of action (Joyce 2008). The roles of such figurines in
Paleolithic society may also be illuminated by studies of artifact modification, alteration, repair, decoration, and reuse
(Tringham and Conkey 1998). It is critical to conceptualize
these figurines as products of local histories that reflect cultural practices and beliefs that were specific to certain times
and certain places, just like contemporary material culture.
Following Joyce (2008), we suggest examining details
that result when different artists try to do the same thing in
order to understand the significance of variation rather than
shoehorning Paleolithic figurines into interpretive rubrics
relying on notions of erotica or fertility. It is also necessary to consider the different contexts in which the figurines
are found (e.g., in ritual pits, burials, or refuse areas, or
mounted or worn as jewelry; see Kirkness 1999; Tringham
and Conkey 1998) and to compare them with other examples of portable art. For example, the blocky, fragmented
body of the Hohle Fels figurine, covered with engraved lines,
seems less idiosyncratic and less overtly sexual or pornographic (as specifically suggested by some academics and the
popular media) when compared to bison and mammoth figurines from the nearby Aurignacian site of Geienklosterle
(see Figure 6) that are very similar in proportions and style.
When placed into a broader context, the Hohle Fels figurine
becomes part of a larger tradition of visual representation
that does not rely on analyses of its secondary sexual characteristics.
In this regard, Rebecca Farbsteins research on Upper Paleolithic figurines from Eastern Europe (e.g., 2010,
2011a, 2011b; Farbstein et al. 2012) represents an important new direction in the study of Pleistocene visual cultures.

571

Building on earlier work by Margaret Conkey (e.g., 1993),

Marcia-Anne Dobres (2000, 2001), and others, Farbstein
argues for an approach that combines an anthropology of
technology with the concept of chane operatoire (operational
sequence; see also Gaydarska et al. 2007 for this approach
applied to Copper Age figurines). This perspective allows
for the study of relationships among technology, society,
aesthetics, local knowledge, materiality, symbolic behavior,
decision making, and the development of communities of
practice. As Farbstein notes, her approach is one that positions art production within its social context and recognizes
that the physical qualities of handmade figurines result from
individual and group considerations of material properties,
acquisition strategies and technical choices (2010:9). Rather
than interpreting the figurines in a vacuum, Farbstein cloaks
them within layers of context by considering such anthropomorphic figures alongside zoomorphic figures; by studying
figurative and nonfigurative images together; by comparing artifacts made of similar and different materials; and, in
some cases, by recording more than 100 distinct technical
and stylistic characteristics of the figurines.
The resulting data have permitted Farbstein not only to
identify broad social and technical traditions across cultural
landscapes but also to tease out what she has referred to as
nuanced differences between closely related settlements
(Farbstein 2011b:142). For example, Farbstein (2010) analyzed ivory figurines from Pavlov 1 and Dolni Vestonice
1, two sites in the Czech Republic dating to the early Upper Paleolithic that are normally considered to be tightly
linked culturally. Through her analysis, Farbstein was able
to demonstrate that the people working with ivory at these
sites conceived of and manufactured figurines in distinct
ways. This close reading of the archaeological materials allowed her to demonstrate that even though these Upper
Paleolithic peoples shared a unified cultural identity to a
large extent, local traditions and values were dynamic and
could differ based on local histories. Farbstein (2010:9)
demonstrates how figurines can be a window onto or a
physical expression of a societys priorities and interests
and, in this way, she is advancing the study of Paleolithic
figurines.
In conclusion, there are many legitimate scientific questions that we can ask about Upper Paleolithic figurines, but
there are equally as many (perhaps more emotionally compelling) questions about their meanings and cultural roles
that cannot be answered with the kinds of data that are
currently available. By not challenging, and therefore tacitly accepting, questionable interpretations and assumptions
about the artifacts and what they meant to Paleolithic people, many paleoanthropologists embed current constructs
of gender and gender relations into the past, possibly with
negative social effects. The interpretation of these figurines
through a sexual lens is problematic for many reasons but
most of all because their possible erotic significance is a
hypothesis that should be tested rather than a meaning that
can be assumed. As Nicholas Conard observed, how we

572

American Anthropologist Vol. 116, No. 3 September 2014

interpret [the Hohle Fels figurine] tells us just as much about

ourselves as about people 40,000 years ago (2009).6
April Nowell Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria,
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2Y2; anowell@uvic.ca
http://www.uvic.ca/socialsciences/anthropology/people/faculty/
nowellapril.php
Melanie L. Chang
Victoria,

Victoria,

Department of Anthropology, University of

British

Columbia,

Canada

V8W

2Y2; mlchang@uvic.ca

NOTES
Acknowledgments.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the following people and institutions for their permission to reproduce
the photographs and the illustration that appear in this article: R.
Bourrillon (Castanet Project); Nicolas Conard; P. Frankenstein; Chris Gash; Loic Hamon; The State Hermitage Museum (Russia); H. Jensen; Landesmuseum Wurttemberg, Stuttgart
(Germany); Moravske zemske muzeum (Czech Republic); Musee
dArcheologie nationale et domaine national de Saint-Germain-en
Laye (France); Naturhistorisches Museum, Wien (Austria); Vladimir
Terebenin; Randall White; and H. Zwietasch. We thank Nicolas
Conard for his particularly helpful comments after a presentation of
this research at the Society for American Archaeology meetings in
Memphis, TN. We thank Prof. Nicolas Rolland and Kirsten Blomdal
for help in the preparation of the manuscript. Finally, we thank eight
anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and thought-provoking
comments on earlier drafts of this article.
1. Gendered pronouns (e.g., man and caveman) also continue to be
used by popular science magazines such as Archaeology for Internet
search engine optimization (Jude Isabella, personal communication, December 11, 2013).
2. In a 2011 study, Dixson and Dixson asked 161 Australian undergraduate students (both men and women) to assign ages and rate
the attractiveness of images of 14 Upper Paleolithic figurines, including the Hohle Fels figurine. Most of the figurines (all of which
had high WHRs) were rated not attractive, further undermining
the universality and timelessness of the paleoerotica hypothesis
(Dixson and Dixson 2011).
3. See figure 4 in Cook 2013:70 for particularly striking support
for this interpretation while Cook herself argues for exactly the
opposite interpretation.
4. The discoverers themselves objected to this presentation and
made their objections known to the editors (R. White, personal
communication, November 29, 2013).
5. Signage in the exhibit indicated that some figurines were of young
women who had not had children yet but who flaunt their sexual
potential.
6. Conard was quoted in an Associated Press news article titled
Sexually Charged Figurine Could Be Worlds Oldest. (See
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,520068,00.html, accessed May 14, 2009.)

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