“Another reason we thought it was men all along… ‘[M]ale archaeologists were doing the work,” Snow said, and it’s possible that “had something to do with it.’”
This is exciting both in its own right, and as an example of how science can be improved by elimination of patriarchal values that attribute works to one gender or another based on assumption, rather than evidence.
In other words, it is exciting to see that so many early artists were women, and equally exciting to see scientists breaking through conditioned patriarchal thinking in order to reach better conclusions.
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Girl power.
The erasure of women’s roles in human history is tantamount to violence. To this day, men – prominent men – feel totally comfortable saying women just aren’t good artists or writers. Admitting women are good at something – as good as men! maybe better! – means admitting that men have had an undeserved level of access to success in that field.
Last week, a few news sources reported on a recent study that suggests women are generally better investors than men. I saw it posted on Facebook, and because I’m a masochist, I read the comments. To paraphrase the majority of comments left by men: “But ladies be shoppin! LOLLLL” Even when we’re proven, statistically, to be better at something, men feel the need to tear us down. (You can’t really prove with math that women artists are just as good as men, but with something that’s entirely numbers-based like investing, it’s a little easier.) And in the case of the story above, it’s just assumed that something culturally and historically significant was done by men. A fist bump across time and space to the cave ladies making art before it was cool.