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1 results

  • Waist-to-hip ratios of Jomon figurines

  • Mark J. Hudson, Mami Aoyama
  • Journal:
    Antiquity / Volume 81 / Issue 314 / 1 December 2007
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    02 January 2015, pp. 961-971
    Print publication:
    1 December 2007

  • The authors show that the Jomon clay figurines made by hunter-gatherers use imagery that emphasises a narrow waist and full hips, showing that a female construct was part of the symbolism of these possibly shamanistic objects. In creating these figurines, prehistoric people were no doubt turning a recognition of health and fertility into more cultural icons. Admirers of the female form will be interested to learn that preference for the fuller, curvaceous ‘hourglass’ shape ‘has probably been the norm over much of human evolution’.