CHAPTER 3 - THE INVISIBLE ASPECT OF FIGURINES
THE MEANING OF FIGURINE ART
Ι. I. APPROACHES BASED ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA
ΙΙ. II. APPROACHES BASED ON THE REPETITIVE PROCESS
THE THEORY OF REPETITION
Figurines being parts of behavioural systems must be studied first in relation to other figurines and then in the social and personal frame of their modellers and their users.
Being responsible for the Neolithic Project of the Academy of Athens, I had the opportunity to deal with Neolithic figurine art for a long time and to make comparative studies in older finds as well as in rich material from private collections in Thessaly, Greece, which I started recently to publish for the first time. This material includes a number of over two thousand five hundred figurines.
The whole reassessment of the scientific method of approaching Neolithic figurines analyzed in the present book chapter is the result of my attempt to find common elements and differences of figurines unearthed up to now- at least in human figurine material- in order to proceed to their interpretation which would not need their accurate dating, and find spots or even the broader area they were found in. My aim has been the isolation of their typological attributes which reveal systems of thought and behaviour. So, based on their general form and on the degree of repetition of their specific characteristics, I propose an alternative methodological / interpretational approach to the subject.
