1.) Discuss the meaning of the Paleolithic Venuses. Identify Rice’s position and explain it. Discuss four other interpretations of these figurines mentioned in class or in the reading. Do any or all of these interpretations support the views of the 19th century evolutionist Johann Jakob Bachofen?Paleolithic Venuses are prehistoric sculptures that are traditionally thought, by experts to be images that adore and glorify female fertility. There are three reasons why most historians who study the Paleolithic era support this traditional idea. One, most analysts only use a sampling of the 188 figurines and most of them are pregnant. Secondly, the name Venus itself conjures up the notion of fertility. Thirdly, most analysts assume that during the Paleolithic era that childbearing was something that was sacred and thus needing to be glorified with a statue. Rice offers an alternative point of view of the motivation for the creation of the Paleolithic Venuses. Rice’s position on Paleolithic Venuses is that they do not solely represent women’s fertility, but instead symbolize womanhood. Rice’s position is based on her study of the Paleolithic Venuses and the Paleolithic society itself. In her study, she examined all 188 figurines. First she identified five body attributes; hips, stomach, breasts, faces, and buttocks. After Rice identified these features, she categorized them into three groups: young, which are women who are pre-reproductive. Two, “middle” which are women who are reproductive. In this category she subdivided this group into two types, pregnant and non-pregnant. Finally, the third group are “old” or the post-reproductive women. Four raters were trained to use these five attributes to determine which age category each of the figurines belongs to. Any major discrepancies were not allowed into her study. And the result was that only 70% or 132 figurines were used to complete the stud...
