Women in prehistoric times were just as diverse, important, and relevant as they are today.
Well, they are not represented.
In order to continue justifying the inequalities, the story was built in the 19th century that women in prehistory had a secondary role, and that story has been maintained throughout the 20th century.
Are the archaeologists dismantling that story?
Yes. When women were introduced to archeology in the 1980s, they asked different questions and reviewed the answers.
With what result?
The denial of women in certain activities that are considered very important such as hunting, art or war turn out to have no scientific basis.
Did the women hunt?
We found burials of women with weapons associated with big game. One in Peru brought the issue to light, an 18- or 19-year-old woman was found buried with the set of weapons for hunting big game. When they analyzed all the graves with weapons from the same period, they realized that up to 30% are of women.
Currently, in ethnographic societies, do women hunt?
Yes. Societies that still live in a very primitive way in sub-Saharan Africa or in certain parts of Asia, women hunt today.
Is there no scientific reason to say that women did not hunt?
No. And if there is evidence to say that they hunted, the same thing happens with rock art. Artistic creation has been understood as the acme of the symbolic and of thought and, therefore, it has been attributed to men.
Without any proof?
Indeed. However, there is very clear evidence that women painted: fingerprints, women’s hands… That was the form of expression of the entire group.
Did the archaeologists deduce that since they hunted, they painted the animals?
Yes, but to affirm that you don’t need scientific evidence. However, if you say that women paint you have to have a fingerprint because if not, they will question you.
Still today?
Yes. In the area of ​​the Cantabrian coast and in the south of France, up to 60% of the hands in the caves are women’s.
That is compelling evidence.
They not only painted, they also participated in violent conflicts as documented in Bronze Age burials from around 3,000 to 3,500 years ago throughout central Europe.
Tell me.
They are tombs of very young women buried with weapons, with arrows, with shields and who have the traces of battle on their bodies: defensive wounds, stuck arrows, head trauma.
In the Paleolithic era societies were egalitarian?
Completely. When agriculture and livestock start up, they begin to be interested in controlling reproduction because they need more labor, and that is where the application of women to care begins.
Before the children were from the tribe.
In Paleolithic populations yes, in producer populations no. In fact, many of the collective burials, which were like that, already show that some are buried with possessions and others are not: the class distinction begins.
In prehistory, the worldview of the world was feminine?
Yes, because the reproduction of plants and animals is at the base of their survival. Throughout the Paleolithic, where the most important caloric intake came from harvesting, the relationship with nature is unique, we have never had it again.
They were environmental experts.
They knew the life cycles of all plants and animals, and since the reproductives are females, they understood the feminine as an element of special spiritual value.
Did the matriarchy exist?
We don’t have scientific proof, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, and there is a clear recognition and worship of the feminine.
Some say that the Eva statuettes were men’s sex toys.
They were divinities, nothing to do with paleolithic pornography and similar atrocities that have been said. There are also engravings full of vulvas and it was said that it was for the comfort of the man, like the Playboy of the time.
It doesn’t seem like it makes much sense.
None, because we are transferring to prehistory concepts from the 20th century that cannot even be applied to the 15th century.
The women were travelers.
In the Bronze Age they traveled a lot and with them knowledge and technology, and they did it alone. Thanks to the new analytics we see that there are a lot of powerful women moving around Europe.
