Marga Sánchez Romero: «35,000 years ago there was no porn»

The archaeologist Marga Sánchez Romero (Madrid, 1971) recounts in her book, ‘Prehistorias de mujeres’ (Destiny), that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, the tendency to represent scenes from our dawn as humanity became widespread in Europe. In the illustration ‘A family in the stone age’, by Émile Bayard, a stocky man appears standing, looking decisively at the horizon. Next to her, seated and with her head bowed, a woman devotes all her attention to the baby she is holding in her arms. She is a mother and she does not seem to be interested in the future of the world. Nothing to do with the models of Achille Lemoine’s prehistoric-style erotic photographs, also from the beginning of the century. They are exhibited half-naked, with bone necklaces and animal skins, in wild landscapes. An image of a sexy troglodyte that Raquel Welch, dressed in an iconic bikini, would take to the height of absurdity in the movie ‘A Million Years Ago’ (1996). These examples summarize the two roles that have traditionally been given to the first ‘Eves’. Other than that, little else. “Prehistoric women were not only mothers or sexual objects without the capacity to intervene,” says Sánchez Romero, professor of Prehistory at the University of Granada. “To sustain the society we live in, which still has strong inequalities between women and men, we are using stereotypes and preconceived ideas from prehistory that, in most cases, have no scientific basis,” she adds. Her book tries to combat these myths about our first ancestors. Related News standard No The oldest known ‘family’ discovered: a Neanderthal father with his daughter and several relatives Judith de Jorge standard Yes Huesca Neanderthals, even more carnivorous than wolves Judith de Jorge —Myth number 1: Women did not hunt . “Yes they did. Hunting has been considered such a masculine activity, linked to the domain of nature, that women have been pushed aside. But a find (released in 2020) was a revolution: a burial in Wilamaya Patjxa (Peruvian Andes) of a 9,000-year-old woman buried with a pile of big game weapons. It is not an anecdotal thing. When they checked, the researchers realized that about 30% of the bodies buried with weapons are women. And at this very moment there are women hunting with bows and arrows in the world. Another thing must be taken into account: we have mythologized hunting at the moment the arrow is shot, but hunting with a sling and with a trap is also hunting, and it is the most daily practice for many women, although it is more difficult to remain in the archaeological record. Tomb of the Birka Warrior—Myth number 2: They did not go to war. “Women have also participated in the war. In the Bronze Age we have several dozen graves of women with swords, shields, halberds… In addition, they show signs of having fought on their bodies: head injuries, sword cuts caused by a hand-to-hand fight, defensive wounds. .. Again, between 20 and 30% actively participated in the battle. They are not the majority, but there they were. Denying their presence makes us lose valuable information about past societies. It is not only unfair to women, but also to history. I don’t like to talk about historical truths, but we do need to get closer to the reality of the populations of the past, and that includes certain women who fought. But it is also that, leaving your home with your children and crossing half of Europe, as many women in Ukraine are doing now, is also participating in the war, it carries risks and uprooting. “Any notable female warrior?” —In the Central European plain, precisely in areas very close to the Ukraine, two burials were found with three very young girls equipped with all the war panoply of the time. Their bodies showed injuries, some fatal. The silver diadem —And the famous Vikings? —For a long time it was believed that the warrior from Birka (Sweden) was a man because her grave, excavated at the end of the 19th century, contained weapons. When osteological and anthropological studies were carried out, they realized that she was a woman and so they reported it in a high-impact scientific journal. But the whole academy jumped on them saying it was impossible. They analyzed the DNA of the remains and confirmed it. But even then he told himself that there had to be some mistake. She was the Viking warrior victim of machismo, who didn’t even believe her with her DNA. —However, the Valkyries already gave some clue. ‘Norse mythology does include female warriors, but they were accepted as an entelechy, not real women. Because, be careful, if it really happens, there is a risk that others want to be like them. —Myth number 3: they did not make art. —That is perhaps the one that bothers me the most, because art is a way of being in the world and representing it that has been practiced for tens of thousands of years in all parts of the planet, how could women not participate? But we have mythologized it, just like war and hunting. Art is not only the bison of Altamira. The community tells who they are on that giant screen that is a cave, a rock shelter. We find examples such as the Cueva del Trucho, in Aragón, where women and men of all ages, including month-old babies, express their hand both negatively and positively on that large panel. This means: I am here and this is my group. “Did they leave their mark?” —A study in which I participated, which went around the world, was the discovery of the fingerprint of a woman in a rock shelter in Granada (Los Machos, 7,000 years ago). But, did you really need a fingerprint to consider that women painted? Isn’t it logical to think that they also participated in these cultural manifestations? Silver diadem of a lady from El Argar —Myth number 4: they had no power. —There have been powerful women in all historical moments. Sometimes because there were no other solutions: she was an only child or she couldn’t govern the man to whom she belonged. But in more egalitarian populations, women decided on the elements that worked: food, care… And that is also power. “Yes, but I mean power in capital letters.” —3,700 years ago in La Almoloya (Murcia) a woman was buried with a silver diadem, the highest symbol of power in the societies of El Argar. It must also have been exercised by the 30-year-old woman buried inside the Lady of Baza (4th century BC), with her four warrior panoplies, painted ceramics and whose grave had a privileged location. Academics have resisted for decades to say that she was a woman, until the National Archaeological Museum, where she is exhibited, decided to do an analysis. And there was no doubt. —Why are there so many misconceptions about women in prehistory? —Because when archeology emerged as a scientific discipline in the 19th century, promoted by men from the intellectual and economic elite, stories began to be constructed in a very specific social, political and economic context. The suffragettes are asking for the vote and, before that, many speeches begin to circulate about how badly things are going for societies where women rule. When feminism reaches archaeology, it will use technology and innovation to look at it and understand it from a different perspective. Venus of Willendorf — Facebook censored an image of the Venus of Willendorf as pornographic, and some researchers have explained it in similar terms. —You can’t talk about pornography 35,000 years ago! It is a current concept that responds to a certain ethical and moral regulation. It cannot be said, as has been done many times, that these figurines were made by men for their pleasure, like the ‘Interviú’ of the moment. The look that the Paleolithic populations had on their bodies and their reproduction is totally different from ours. Thanks to science, we understand how things are produced, but these people did not know what to attribute some phenomena to. Some of these sculptures respond to the need to understand or call for reproduction. In addition, there are hundreds of figurines and not all of them are the same: there are teenagers, older women… But we call them all ‘Venus’, an image that has to do with Greek morality, but nothing to do with the thoughts of these populations . —Are there different hypotheses about these figurines? “Yes, it is believed that they could be fertility charms that were passed from mothers to daughters. We oversimplified these societies that were so rich and so culturally diverse. She was a girl —They have discovered that the boy from the Gran Dolina, a famous 800,000-year-old fossil from Atapuerca, was a girl. Why is this difference important? —It is important when investigating fossils, to recognize the traits that differentiate males from females. But also to visualize and represent women in human evolution. We have masculinized it. The example of the Gran Dolina is very significant. When they called him a boy they didn’t really know her sex, but no one raised any scientific doubts. However, when a fossil is said to be female, it has to be proven. We have that rule etched in fire. The girl from the Gran Dolina, in Atapuerca —She says that museums are not very fair when it comes to representing women in prehistory. -Absolutely not. I am optimistic and I see that things improve. In scientific illustrations, this is already very present. And also in temporary exhibitions, but it is difficult to change a permanent one. And that has consequences. -In what sense? —When girls go to a museum and only see male representations, they can understand that they are the ones who have made history. And that women have done nothing. That supports the current inequalities. Raquel Welch, prehistory as a sexual fantasy in the film ‘A Million Years Ago’ (1996) —There are those who will precisely resort to prehistory to justify them as the natural order of things. —It is true that historically women have dedicated themselves to jobs more linked to the care and maintenance of the group, and men to other tasks. The problem is that from the present we have valued these activities and we have said which are important and which are not. But it is also not possible to make absolutes. Currently, among the Aka Pygmies, who are nomads, when the women have to move to the next point where they are going to settle, they are the ones who take care of the children. MORE INFORMATION news No They insert human ‘mini-brains’ into rats and manage to change their behavior news No Monkeys come down from the trees to the ground because of climate change —Prehistoric societies, were they already patriarchy? —It is very likely that the first inequalities between men and women occurred in the Neolithic. Because clearly patriarchal texts are already being written in Greece and Rome, so there had to be a previous tradition. It doesn’t change from night to day. They are very slow and subtle processes.