Women & cave art

[ArabellaScott]

It's been found fairly recently that 75% of cave art was made by women, challenging the accepted idea of cave artists being predominantly male.

As far as I know, previously hand/thumb ratio had been analysed, seems that recently fingerprints have been analysed to asses the sex and age of the artists.

www.theartnewspaper.com/news/fingerprints-help-identify-prehistoric-painters

I thought the 28 days was for the moon cycle? I love that anecdote though.

Well," she said, rather wryly, "The textbooks have had to be changed, of course. In addition to illustrations of groups of men bravely hunting bison, we now have illustrations of groups of men bravely foraging for nuts and berries."

I've had some nasty encounters with brambles, tbf.

Anyhow... if it becomes established that prehistoric painting was mainly done by women it will presumably become downgraded from significant art to home decor.

It seems obvious when you think about it - and I've often wondered the same about inventions and developments with tools, technology etc. You always see illustrations of male prehistoric people chipping away at tools and carving bones, but if physical size and strength did mean that men were more often out hunting or doing the more heavy lifting type work, then it would be women who were more in the sphere of doing smaller-scale, less heavily physical but more thought-based jobs. If women were tasked with caring for children, then they'd be in more of a position to paint the wall or potter around inventing things while watching kids.

Also painting pics of male hunters doesn't mean the painters had to be male - they would be at least as likely to be observers.

This thread brings to mind Germaine Greer's moving speech at Town Bloody Hall in 1979 on the 'masculine artist'. The findings about the cave art is wonderful, but also a sad reminder that we grow up without being able to know the full extent of women's artistic and cultural contributions, which have often been made, in Greer's words, by those "with no ego, and no name."

If women were tasked with caring for children, then they'd be in more of a position to paint the wall or potter around inventing things while watching kids

Can well imagine that women were making the pigments

Errol, I bloody hope not! But yes, it wouldnt surprise me.

Women tend to have better fine-motor skills (at least, girls are quicker to pick these up than boys), LadySeaThing, so yes, I can I imagine women might well have made lots of tools and tech.

Thanks for the link, talesofginza. Germaine Greer ROCKS. I've not seen footage of her as a younger woman. She was magnificent. What an orator.