Women's International day

A somewhat belated thought, and don't watch the video if blurry naked bodies worry you;)


"I'd like to see the evidence for attributing gender to any ideas from any prehistoric period . "

An impossible task of course, I picked this statement up on a forum, could have argued that the contrary applies we cannot say that women were inferior during the prehistoric era because we cannot prove it one way or the other, but that only the appearance of burial of men seemed to imply that grave goods denoted war objects and power just because a sword/knife is placed across his breast.  But evidence that women were respected only came from a later age during the Iron Age/Celtic.  Evidence can point towards the 'magical' gifts women had as shamans, and later as witches, but we become undone by the usage of words.  You can almost hear the sneer as I mention witches so lets call them 'wise woman' instead, it wasn't just the male monks who practiced herbal cures after all!

There is a feeling, and of course a recognition that women have had a rotten deal in the fact that their artistic talents have never been recognized we are so used to viewing the world from the male perspective that women in earlier history passed by without so much as a mention.  Now we live in an age when this view of history is questioned and women, whilst not dominating, play a greater role in the world of work.

The British Museum blog on 'Women's International day' started this thought, but maybe it was perhaps listening to a radio talk on Elizabeth Gaskell and thinking what a marvellous lot of female authors came out of the 19th century,  willing to judge the times they lived in.

There were female archaeologists as well  as there were female artists all through the centuries, but they just haven't been noticed;)