Female Symbols

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According to Leroi-Gourhan’s interpretation, the cave itself can also have played the role of a female symbol, as an opening that introduces into the womb of the earth. In some of the caves, natural niches and crevices have been found which are supposed to have been regarded by prehistoric visitors as female sexual organs: some of them have been highlighted with red ochre painting. Moreover, the presence of several genital symbols in deep passages of the caves reinforces the hypothesis of a woman-cave. “It could be presumably supposed that the cavern appeared to the eyes of Paleolithic men as a mysterious complex of female shapes” (Leroi-Gourhan, 1981).

[Image: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/niaux/palaeolithic_cave_art_depth_psychology/mercy_in_the_cave_of_niaux2.php]