Analyzing Fertility and Attraction in the Paleolithic: The Venus Figurines

Science, the Media, and Interpretations of Upper Paleolithic Figurines

“…The discrepancies between the findings of Guthrie () and Tripp and Schmidt () 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 :59). Further compounding the difficulty of measuring photographs, some figurines lack anatomical landmarks such as navels.…”

“…The WHR has been described as an indicator of fertility and long‐term health (Buss ; Singh ; Singh and Singh ), and low WHRs (small waist, large hips) are thought to be desirable across cultures (Buss ; Henss ; Singh ; Singh and Singh ; Wing et al ). The contemporary “ideal” female WHR cross‐culturally is 0.7 (see Tripp and Schmidt ). Guthrie () 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.…”

“…when seen in person; see figure 46 in Cook :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 focused solely on female sexual characteristics, at least not in a straightforward manner. In a recent study, Alison Tripp and Naomi Schmidt () tested the hypothesis that all or most Gravettian “Venus” figurines (ca. 28,000–21,000 B.P.)…”

“…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 ). 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.…”

“…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 ). As Tripp and Schmidt note, “if the figurines are read ‘literally,’ the appearance of variation in nearly all the samples [supports] Rice's (1981) hypothesis that the ‘Venuses’ represent women of all ages since WHR is not constant throughout a woman's life” (2013:59).…”