LE CORPS FÉMININ ET SON LANGAGE DANS L'ART PALÉOLITHIQUE

Summary. 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.