Women at the Centre - University of Ottawa

Further thoughts
• Also relevant is the work of archaeologist O. Soffer and
her colleagues (2000;2007) who have marshaled
convincing data for the key role of women in a variety of
early cultural developments in the Paleolithic. Quite
separate, but very relevant, is psychoanalyst B.
Ettinger’s work (2006) development of a paradigm for
“matrixial subjectivity” which she contrasts to “phallic”
subjectivity theorized by Freud and later by Lacan. This
paradigm grounds psychic processes in connection,
gestation, birthing, and mothering. I argue that this way
of thinking is reflected in the early female figurines,
suggesting that the evolution of thought was matrixial
before it became patriarchal.