Just spent some time reading up on ancient female figurines, and thought maybe FWR would find some of the material interesting.
https://archive.org/details/shamansqueensfig0000nels
Shamans, queens, and figurines : the development of gender archaeology
"Sarah Nelson, recognized as one of the key figures in studying gender in the ancient world and women in archaeology, brings together much of the work she has done over three decades into a single volume. The book covers her theoretical contributions, her extensive studies of gender in the archaeology of East Asia, and her literary work on the subject. Included with the selections of her writingtaken from diverse articles and books published in a variety of placesis an illuminating commentary about the development of her professional and personal understanding of how gender plays out in ancient societies and modern universities and her current thinking on both topics"--
https://archive.org/details/2744349/page/n1/mode/2up
Self-Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines
Interesting paper suggesting that the exaggerated forms of many female figurines may be explained by the viewpoint of a woman looking down at her body.
'This study explores the logical possibility that the first images of the human figure were made from the point of view of self rather than other and concludes that Upper Paleolithic ''Venus'' figurines represent ordinary women's views of their own bodies. Using photographic simulations of what a modem female sees of herself, it demonstrates that the anatomical omissions and proportional distortions found in Pavlovian, Kostenkian, and Gravettian female figurines occur naturally in autogenous, or self-generated, information. Thus the size, shape, and articulation of body parts in early figurines appear to be determined by their relationship to the eyes and the relative effects of foreshortening, distance, and occlusion rather than by symbolic distortion. Previous theories of function are summarized to provide an interpretive context, and contemporary claims of stylistic heterogeneity and frequent male representations are examined and found unsubstantiated by a restudy of the originals. As self-portraits of women at different stages of life, these early figurines embodied obstetrical and gynecological information and probably signified an advance in women's self-conscious control over the material conditions of their reproductive lives. '
Women in prehistory
by
Ehrenberg, Margaret R
'The search for prehistoric woman. Anthropological evidence. The behavior of other animals and primates. Archaeological evidence. -The earliest communities. The role of women in human evolution. Women in modern and Paleolithic foraging societies. Matriarchy, patriarchy, or equality. Mother goddesses or Venus figurines? -The first farmers. The discovery of agriculture. The expansion of agricultural communities. -The Bronze Age. Was Minoan Crete a matriarchy? Burials, grave goods and wealth in north-west Europe. A trade in women? Rock art in the Alps and Scandinavia. -The Celtic Iron Age. Domestic organisation in Iron Age Britain. Decoration on Hallstatt pottery and bronze vessels. -Literary sources. Prophets and priestesses. Descent and marriage patterns. Women in war. Tribal chiefs and commanders in battle '
https://www.suppressedhistories.net/articles/notvenusfigurines.html
'They are not Venus Figurines' by Max Dashu
'The term “Venus figurine” is also widely used, which imposes an alien interpretative framework, not only because of its eurocentrism, but because it projects a narrow presumption of “sex object” onto iconography that has a far broader range of meanings and ceremonial uses. Some will say, “But Venus was a goddess — what’s wrong with that?” Few people are even aware that the naming itself originates from the Marquis de Vibraye’s sardonic description of a small paleolithic statuette found in 1864 on his Laugerie-Basse estate in Dordogne. The classically-educated aristocrat called her a "Vénus impudique,” seeing her as “immodest” in contrast to the Roman archetype of Venus Pudica.