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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Women's power, 1000 A.D.: figurine art and gender politics in prehistoric southern Africa
Author:Dederen, Jean-MarieISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:Nordic Journal of African Studies (ISSN 1459-9465)
Volume:19
Issue:1
Pages:23-42
Language:English
Geographic terms:Southern Africa
South Africa
Subjects:sculpture
fertility
archaeology
External link:https://njas.fi/njas/article/view/212/200
Abstract:Archaeological excavations in southern Africa have yielded a wide variety of small clay figurines, the origins of which have been traced back to early farming communities. Whereas many of these artefacts are fairly naturalistic in appearance, others clearly are not. The purpose of this essay is to explore the social significance of one of the stylized figurine types, an intriguing phallic-shaped female representation. Ever since R. Summers completed the first systematic figurine study in 1957, interpretive efforts of art historians, archaeologists and anthropologists have focused on the concept of fertility. This paper compares the archaeological fertility icons with contemporary carvings of a male and female pair, as well as marriage dolls from South Africa. It argues that the fertility paradigm, far from being irrelevant, has remained poorly defined. Moreover, it has produced an understanding that is tainted by a masculine bias, and does not do justice to the conceptual originality of the icon. An alternative reading of fertility is proposed, in which a symbolic war between the sexes features centrally. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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