Whilst there is no evidence that human representations in Palaeolithic art are an accurate reflection of contemporary social demography, they can yield valuable data on Palaeolithic populations and their social organization. The paper analyses a group of Palaeolithic figures which show that women seem to have been accorded a privileged role in hunter-gatherer society, based on their physiological functions as mothers and sexual and social partners.

Our earliest ancestor, homo sapiens sapiens, appeared at the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic period, and was responsible for the earliest known artistic3gurative representations, among them figures of human beings. We believe, with Leroi-Gourhan, that figurative art obeys the same laws and has the same aims as speech, and that it should be analysed in the same way as language. This language can be natural or conventional, morphological, postural or mimic; it allows us to recognise in different instances representations of actual appearance, action and even emotion. Women are represented more ojien than men, always in a peaceful context, and in a variety of morphological forms ('physiological identity 7. We believe that palaeolithic artists intended to show women in their various functions, especially that of mother, and that if it is possible to speak of a 'language of art', then we are dealing with a physiological language of the female body.

The name of ‘Venus’ for the carved female figures of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe is an inappropriate nick-name, for we cannot be certain that they are goddesses of love nor patterns of ideal women. When analysing these figures, their shape seems to be very similar to the morphology of modern women.

Pour les Néolithiques, confectionner un élément de parure en roche dure n 'était pas un travail aisé mais n 'offrait pas davantage de difficultés que la taille des outils en silex, comme les armatures bifaciales pédonculées à ailerons de têtes de flèche par exemple. Par contre, le perçage était une étape délicate, l'abondance des pièces brisées sur les ateliers en témoignant. Ce n 'est pas dans les procédés actuels que nous pouvons trouver la solution aux problèmes techniques que pose leur confection, mais plutôt dans l'étude des pièces en notre possession.

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