#19 PREHISTORIC WOMEN: FROM THE SHADOW TO THE LIGHT Episode #19

Episode #19 June 2021

#19 PREHISTORIC WOMEN: FROM THE SHADOW TO THE LIGHT

Marylène Patou-Mathis

On the occasion of the first full moon of the summer, Sabrine Kasbaoui welcomes Marylène Patou Mathis, prehistorian, specialist in the behaviour of Neanderthals, director of research at the CNRS and author of the essay L’Homme préhistorique est aussi une femme (2020, éditions Allary). She explains how the way in which history and prehistory are written represents a key political issue for gender equality, and highlights the systemic invisibilisation, inferiorisation and denigration of women in these disciplines. Also in this episode, Marjorie Delle Case and Alexandra Fournier’s column “Searching for the Witch”. On the programme: excerpts from Caliban and the Witch, Women, Bodies and Primitive Accumulation, the major work by Silvia Federici. Have a good listen!

Suscribe to this podcast:

Episode #19
Summary

01:24 – Our guest gives us her point of view as a researcher on the issue of the invisibilisation of women in the study of prehistory, and how she has placed women at the heart of her research.

04:45 – On what patriarchal assumptions was the study of prehistory born?

14:40 – Women’s inferiority goes back a long way in history.

20:44 – How did the study of prehistory contribute to the perpetuation of rape culture?

25:21 – What is gender archaeology?

41:41 – “Seeking the Witch“, by Marjorie Delle-Case and Alexandra Fournier.

44:17 – What can we say today about the place of women in prehistory, with the new research methods?

51:16 – Why is anthropology still racist?

57:16 – The evolution of societies and the emergence of gender inequalities in the Neolithic period.

01:12:20 – Our guest gives us his interpretation of the figure of the witch.

References cited
in the episode #19

L’homme pré-historique est aussi une femme: Marylène Patou-Mathis, Allary edition, 2020.

L’Encyclopédie de Diderot et D’Alembert: The first French encyclopaedia is conceived as a vast system of classification, hierarchy and apprehension of human knowledge. 16th century.

Nicolas de Condorcet: French mathematician, philosopher, politician and publisher, representative of the Enlightenment.

Olympe de Gouges: French woman of letters, turned politician, pioneer of french feminism.

Pierre Cabanis: French physician, physiologist, philosopher.

Janet D. Spector: American archaeologist.

Joan Gero: American archaeologist and pioneer of feminist archaeology.

Marija Gimbutas: American archaeologist.

When god was a woman: Merlin Stone, Barnes and Noble, 1976.

Race et Histoire: Claude Lévi-Strauss, Gallimard, 1952.

Credits

Guest: Marylène Patou-Mathis
Animation: Sabrine Kasbaoui
Production: Gang Of Witches
Conception: Gang Of Witches, Sabrine Kasbaoui
Editing: L’Arrière Boutique
Sound design: Gang Of Witches
Musics: Gang Of Witches / Les soeurs Goadec – Ar sorserez
Mix: Thibault Delage, Adrien Beccaria, L’Arrière Boutique
Photography: Olivier Marty / Allary Éditions
Branding: Vivien Bertin

Press review

What
they say

“The artistic collective Gang Of Witches launches on January 10th a podcast that resembles it. Understand: eco-feminist, intensely sororalistic and revolutionary. One of its presenters tells us a few words about it. To your helmets.”

Extract from the article from Clément Arbrun for TERRAFEMINA
8th of january 2020

Download the press review – FR [pdf – 3Mo]