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Imagerie féminine du Paléolithique. L'apport des nouvelles statuettes de Grimaldi.

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Having participated in the re-discovery in Montréal of seven nearly unpublished anthropomorphic figurines from the caves of Grimaldi (Liguria, Italy), the authors present a description and analysis that reunites these seven pieces from thejullien collection with those from the musée des Antiquités nationales at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. They attempt a seriation that yields a provisional chronology within the total collection of statuettes. They then seek an explanation for the statuettes which takes into account the cultural context of their fabrication, use and disposal. With the judicious use of ethnographic analogies, they hypothesize that these objects were used by women to ensure safe completion of pregnancies and safe deliveries of infants, rather than to ensure fertility.
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... symbolic meaning of the figurines; however, it seems to be very important (R. White, M. Bisson, 1998) There is no contradiction between the two hypotheses, that of magic and that of fertility, just as in the Palaeolithic, the aesthetic component of the figurines was probably not ignored (A. Z. Abramova, 1995). ...
... again in the Neolithic and even in the Bronze Age. The interpretation of female figurines as fertility goddesses is not very fortunate, as Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers were not organised in hierarchical societies, neither from the patriarchal perspective promoted by S. Reinach nor from the matriarchal one supported by M. Gimbutas (R. White, 1997;R. White, M. Bisson, 1998). ...
... understood in their graphic, symbolic and socio-economic context. Additionally, interpretations began to increasingly consider the importance of raw materials and the form of the blank to better understand the technique of creating figurines within the context of cultural traditions (M. Conkey;C. Hastorf, 1990, A. Z. Abramova, 1995, R. White, 2006R. White, M. Bisson, 1998;K. Fritz, 1999;G. Bosinski, P. Schiller, 1998;D. Dupuy, 2007;M. D. Gvozdover, 1995). ...
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Palaeolithic art in general and female figurines in particular have been subjects that have sparked the imagination of many generations of researchers, generating countless controversies from which new visions regarding their deeper interpretation have emerged. Discussions on such topics are far from being exhausted. Through our endeavour, we have tried to bring back, perhaps disparately, some of the theories that fundamentally marked the sensitivity and experiences of our distant ancestors, which laid the foundation for the emergence of rites and beliefs in forces superior to their daily existence and, why not, religions that would dominate the lives of subsequent generations.
... The above characteristics are shared to varying degrees by known Palaeolithic figurines. Three stone figures retained our attention (Fig. 12): the femme au cou perfore´(in talc) from Grimaldi (White and Bisson, 1998), the Venus of Willendorf (oolitic limestone) (Weber et al., 2022) and the woman with the horn from Laussel. The Grimaldi and Laussel examples because they are on relatively flat supports or surfaces that restricted full three-dimensional development of more protruding parts of the anatomy. ...
... Although Leroi-Gourhan's (Leroi-Gourhan, 1968) old hypothesis that Gravettian figurines conformed to a geometric structure (Fig. 14b) characterized by a diamond (Roussot, 2000); b. The Venus of Willendorf (Willendorf 1) (Weber et al., 2022); c, d, e. La femme au cou perfore´from Grimaldi (White and Bisson, 1998); f, g. The losenge from Grimaldi (Italy); h, i. ...
... Comparaisons possibles : a. Femme à la corne, Laussel (France) (Roussot, 2000) ; b. Ve´nus de Willendorf (Willendorf 1) (Weber et al., 2022) ; c, d, e. La femme au cou perforé de Grimaldi (White et Bisson, 1998) ; f, g. Losange de Grimaldi (Italie) ; h. ...
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... From a stylistic point of view, the La Marmotta figurine must be attributed to the Upper Palaeolithic figurines of the Gravettian technocomplex (Hansen 2007;Skeates 2017). It shows striking resemblance to similar figurines from the Balzi Rossi/Grimaldi caves in Liguria (White and Bisson 1998) or even the famous 'Venus of Willendorf' (Wachau, Lower Austria) (Antl-Weiser 2008). Although M. A. Fugazzola Delpino (2000 would like to establish a connection with Neolithic figurines from Thessaly, Anatolia, and the Levant, this is not obvious. ...
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