ABSTRACT
Anthropomorphic figurines have often borne the weight of theorising about gender in prehistory and uncritical or doctrinal identifications of Mother Goddesses have discredited much of this work (see, for example, Ucko 1962; 1968; 1996; Conkey ampentity Tringham 1995; Hayden 1985; Meskell 1995). However, it is clear that representations of the human form do have the potential to offer insights into the construction of gender in past societies. In this paper the figurines known from Neolithic and Copper Age peninsular Italy and Sicily are analysed in terms of distribution, chronology, typology and context of deposition and a preliminary discussion is offered of what they may tell us about gender symbolism and construction in the societies that made them.
