Cavemen Scrapbooks
Ok, so for this class blog, I want to combine what I am learning in two of my classes. First, women are expected to carry on the burden of passing down cultural and familial information. Essentially they are encouraged to be present and collect as many memories as possible while the men get to sit back and do nothing. Second, I want to ask a question you may have never considered. Who made cave paintings? Of course, the answer is that ancient cultures have been lost to the sands of time. But no WHO made cave paintings. You probably assume men. After all, every movie centered around cavemen is centered around men. So why would you think anything else? I do not blame you, of course. Nevertheless, since we know women have been in charge of scrapbooking, does it not make sense that this pattern that continues to the present day might have extended from the distant past? Is a cave painting anything more than a scrapbook on the wall of prehistoric homes?
Pictures On Walls
To make this easy, every time I use the term "scrapbooking," I am referring to Humans recording memories and information about themselves for people years later to view. So follow along! Scrapbooking in the 90s was heavily photo album based and verbal. Now in the present day, it is digitally based, and "scrapbooking" is done mainly on social media. This is because times have changed, yet we are still doing the same thing, just with different vessels. Now think back to the past. Like the Before Common Era past. They did not have scrapbooks or cameras. Instead, they had their fingers and wet red clay along with other minerals to make a variety of colors. In came cave paintings. Now not much is known about the people who made these except the fact that they were our ancient ancestors. However, recently, an Archaeologist named Dean Snow actually believes women did a majority of cave paintings. At least, this is what he noticed when looking at paleolithic cave art.
Dean Snow has been studying the size and finger length left behind on many cave paintings. Men's index fingers tend to be shorter than their long ring fingers, and women are the opposite (usually). Snow was studying a painting when he made the realization that the handprints had to belong to women. This led him down a rabbit hole. Furthermore, in modern people, Snow's theory was right 60% of the time, and he believes ancient cave people most likely had more pronounced differences as features now overlap. The main reason cave art was believed to be done by men was because of the depiction of women and wild animals. However, what about that really says a man drew it? Nothing at all. If anything, that strikes me more as a woman drawing a story to put her kids to sleep. Alternatively, a retelling of the time she met the love of her life. Whatever the story is, why do we inherently think a man had to do it yet also believe women have always been society's "scrapbook"? Why hold these two ideas at once? Do they not contradict each other?
Those Who Write History…
Now, this may or may not surprise you, but the answer to the question of why we assume men made cave art is a fairly straightforward one. Sexism. Most modern archaeologists who first discovered cave paintings found them in a time when gender roles were very rigid. Snow believed that since male archeologists were doing the work, they most likely assumed so were men eons back then. As Paul Whitefield puts it, "those who write history often determine who makes history".
So it seems to me that the earliest form of scrapbooking was cave paintings. Moreover, while these were not solely done by women, it is safe to assume they did a large portion. At least more than the general society thought before reading this. However, it is also essential to recognize that men and adolescent boys did a noticeable amount. So with this notion, should we throw away the idea that scrapbooking is inherently gendered? Because historically, the earliest form was not. While it was mainly women, men were still present in this "scrapbooking" more than present-day men. So why was there a shift? Why were women banned from popular society as painters and artists in medieval times? Why did men take over as historians of lineage just to give it back to women centuries later?
The Story Continues
If you want to learn more about the real history of cave painting, then I suggest keeping up with Snow and his research. An article that really goes into depth is "Were the first of prehistoric times women?". Snow explains his methodology and elaborates how this small sample may represent something entirely bigger. However, a lot of people still try to disprove Snow by saying the artist of "stencil art" may be different from the artist of other forms of cave painting. I believe that women painted a majority of all cave paintings. In a society where men handled the hunting, this just makes sense. Plus, if you want to hold on to "scrapbooking" being inherently gendered, then you have to believe that the most ancient form was gendered to an extent as well.
Works Cited
Cannizzaro, L. (2022, August 3). Were the first artists of prehistoric times women? Archeotravelers.com. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.archeotravelers.com/en/2021/03/16/were-the-first-artists-of-prehistoric-times-women/
Whitefield, P. (2013, October 15). Women did most prehistoric cave paintings: Religion, or just lazy men? Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2013-oct-15-la-ol-prehistoric-cave-paintings-men-vs-women-20131015-story.html
Yirka, B. (2013, October 11). Archeologist suggests much of Paleolithic cave art was done by women. Phys.org. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://phys.org/news/2013-10-archeologist-paleolithic-cave-art-women.html
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