Figurines Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

İnsanlık tarihinin başlangıç noktasının tam olarak bilinmemesine
rağmen ortaya konulan insan eseri ürünler ile yaşanmış kültürler bizlere
bazı ipuçları vermektedir. Yaşam alanları, yemek kültürleri, inanışları ve
giyim kültürleri gibi birtakım bilgilerin araştırmalar sonucunda ortaya
çıkarılan eserler aracılığıyla öğrenilmesi mümkündür. Bu konuda
özellikle mağara veya kaya resimleri, ana tanrıça figürinleri önemli
referans kaynakları arasında yer almaktadır. Dünyanın çeşitli
bölgelerinde ele geçmiş sayısız eser ile günden güne açığa çıkan yeni
bulgular tarihi referansların daha bilinçli bir biçimde sorgulanarak
dönemle ilgili belirsizliklerin ortadan kalmasında önemli bir adım teşkil
etmektedir. Geçmişe uzanan kültürel yolculukta medeniyetlerin giyim ve
kuşam biçimlerine mağara ve kaya resimleri ile ele geçirilen figürinler
üzerinden tanıklık edilen birtakım araştırmalar, zorlu yaşam koşullarına
karşın insanoğlunun doğaya karşı verdiği mücadeleyle yaşamda kalma
savaşının somut göstergelerine ışık tutmaktadır. Temelde çıplak derisini
örtmek için geliştirdiği yöntemlerle yaşamının ve soyunun devam
etmesine olanak sağlayan ilkel dönem insanları, bu öğretilerini zihinsel
yetenekleri sayesinde geleneksel sistemlerle birleştirip gelecek kuşaklara
aktarmasını başarmıştır. Çalışmada İşlevsel ve günlük kullanımının
dışında çeşitli ritüellerin de bir parçası olarak sembolik bir değerle
donanan giysilerin Paleolitik ve Neolitik dönem buluntu örnekleri
üzerinden incelenerek ortaya konulması amaçlanmıştır. Buluntuları
oluşturan temel materyaller arasında ana tanrıça figürinleri, gömülerden
elde edilen giysi ve donatı parçaları ile mağara duvar resimleri yer
almaktadır.
STRUCTURED ABSTRACT
Humanity, who probably provided their need of dressing in
Paleolithic and Mezolithic ages with the animal leathers that they hunted,
soon started to use both the raw materials of the dresses they wore and
the technology that allows them to process that materials. Especially
changing climatic conditions must have directed humans to wear more
suitable dresses. After the formation of primitive village conditions and
changeover to manufacturing, humans started to tame the animals that
they hunted before. Particularly after taming the sheeps, some weaving
must have been made with the wools of these animals and the need of
dressing must have started to be resolved in this way.
In the studies carried out on the examples obtained from the
published materials regarding the Neolithic Age, beginning from the
Palaeolithic Age, the first stages of the clothing culture, a process that
runs through history from the ice age to today, were studied on. The
studies generally revealed the findings about the clothing style of mother
goddess figures and sculpture of both eras. At the same time, examples
of weaving found on funerary chambers along with the cutters, piercers,
and bızs (a tool used for piercing) made of bones, horns or stones found in the caves from Palaeolithic Age and similar findings of the Neolithic
Age strongly support our knowledge about the clothing culture of these
two eras. It is possible to state that this process first began for the
purpose of being protected from the cold and then turned out into a
psychological action with the coverage of the reproductive organs. In
some examples mother goddesses were found to be naked, where some
others were half clothed either on the upper or lower body, and some
others had varying styles of head-dresses. Their symbolic indications
have not changed, though they varied typologically.
The history of clothing which began by benefiting from the fur of
wild animals also sets an example of the first battles fought by the
humans against nature. Both improving their ability to hunt wild animals
day by day and managing to stand out before difficult weather conditions
are among the first attainments of humanity.
This symbol of fertility is more glorified with humans adopting the
agricultural life after the cave life. As the symbol of fertility and
reproduction, the woman has always maintained this characteristic,
which turned out to be sacral. She became the main theme of ritual
ceremonies, which led to differences in ceremony clothes. These
differences may be extended to tattoos made on many parts of the body,
different materials worn on the body or on the clothes, and head wrapping
styles along with the qualification and quantification of the clothes.
Men remained in the background in these terms. Therefore, no
information was found about these two eras suggesting that males are
sacred. However, the daily activities of men such as hunting were drawn
on the walls of the caves and houses. In some depictions where the
individuals in a clan were drawn together, women appear to be different
from men with their clothes. As this is the situation, it would be better to
tell about the clothing culture based on women, rather than men.
Looking at the found pieces, it might be said that the images and
figures of mother goddess were generally made steatopic with exaggerated
body measurements, as the symbol of fertility. The girdles wrapped on
the wrists and hips of mother goddesses, headwear on their heads, hair
braids, etc. are the indicators of the importance of fertility and
reproduction for the society.
Another remarkable thing in the Palaeolithic Age is the depiction of
mixed creatures as humans and animals, which are considered to be
shamanic clothes worn in ritual ceremonies. Within this context, the
depictions on the walls of the cave Les Trois Freres in France are quite
interesting. These pictures showing creatures that wore headwear in the
form of a deer and bull head, with human bodies and feet of a different
living thing drive us to suspicion about the convention of clothing in the
ritual ceremonies of the era. Likewise, another depiction in the Lascaux
Cave in France which shows a human with a face like the head of a bird
is also considered to be drawn with a similar purpose. The pictures show
that not all the members of the clan wore in this way. When the animals
known to be sacred in that era, especially benefited as food by the
humans, were being drawn on the walls of the caves, they were depicted
in a hunting scene. The animal cult is as valued as the mother goddess
cult. In the examples found in Latmos from the Palaeolithic Era, it was
seen that the women’s clothes had a remarkable style. Women’s clothes
with the part down the waist covered with an apron-like dress also had
geometric shaped weaving designs. They were also depicted in a different
way than men with steatopic features.
The hunter man found in Çatalhöyük is one of the clearest
depictions of the Neolithic era. The scene depicts the hunter in a hide of
a wild animal like a leopard that covers below his waist. The revolution
of agriculture of the Neolithic era stands for the development line of
societies and is a milestone for humanity. Therefore, a number of
innovation and variation came into human’s life with the Neolithic era,
such as food, shelter, obtaining new products out of variable raw
materials, burying the dead, and daily life. With the beginning of
agriculture, foodstuffs such as wheat were grown and the carnivorous
society turned into an herbivorous society. However, it is possible to say
that this change was slower in clothing, as the most effective solution to
be protected from cold was still the hides of animals. Animal hides have
continued and continue to be an essential element of clothing, as needs
shape the production.
As the source of food and protection from cold, animals are a ring
of the chain that takes humanity to tomorrow and are irreplaceable.
Reproduction and fertility were identified with women and embodied with
depictions of mother goddess. When both concepts are taken together,
their importance for human being is understood well.
Human beings learned how to tame animals, as they wanted to
benefit from their flesh, milk, and skin further. They made life easier
thanks to their ability to use their brains more effectively than the other
beings. This process goes on today, as well. The purpose of keeping pace
with the ever-changing technology is in fact an indicator of human’s effort
to gain access to elements that make life easier. Any society that keeps
pace with the process faster is considered as a developed society, whereas
a slower society is considered as an underdeveloped society. Clothing
culture was carried from the Palaeolithic era to this day thanks to
technological innovations through this graphic of changes. The shift of
conventional weaving techniques to the hands of machines throughout
time is another accomplishment of the societies that have kept pace with
the process faster. However, any society that has not quitted its customs
would not be considered as underdeveloped in terms of clothing.