This is a brief response to a really strange suggestion: that the Upper Paleolithic “Venus” figurines are self-portraits. An odd moment in the historiography of feminism, anthropology, and self-portraiture. Only my reply is posted here: if you’re interested you should look up the original article and all the other replies.
Here’s the entire essay, originally published as a reply to LeRoy McDermott, “Self–Representation in Upper Paleolithic Female Figurines,” in Current Anthropology 37 no. 2 (1996): 255–58.