Pearson, Ann

English

Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)

Reclaiming the Sheela-na-gigs Goddess Imagery in Medieval Sculptures of lreland by Ann Pearson serious study of female erotic imagery has been neglected as compared to corresponding investigations of the male Cet article confirme que l'imagerie Sheekz-na-gzgfiitpartie priapic figure. Murray describes the Baubo figure as seated dirne longue tradition lians I'iconographie vulvaire qui est on the ground, with legs spread to display the pudenda connuehtraverslemondcetassurequeknrlte&ladPPssecelte which are exaggerated or clearly indicated. The Baubo- a PtP I'inspiration & ces bas-reliefj. Phyrne version of these sculptures has the figures squat- Like women, the sheeh have sujgeredfiom the limitations that certain labeh have placed on them. Irish art historians, prima+ male, insist that the sheeh are a variant of medievalgrotesques designed to warn against the sins of the fish. The small, sexually-specific stone carvings of female fig- ures called sheela-na-gigs found on churches and Norman towers or castles in Ireland and Britain are an historical mystery that has been puzzled over and researched from seemingly every angle. Like women, the sheeh have both resisted being categorized and have suffered from the limitations that certain labels have placed on them. Irish art historians, primarily male, insist that the sheeh are a variant of the continental medieval grotesques designed to warn against the sins of the flesh. However, they fail to account for the fact that the sheeh are the only variety of erotic grotesque found extensively in Ireland and England. The name sheekz-m-gig is not explanatory. It has vari- ously been understood to refer to an immodest woman, to the female breasts, or to the pose of some figures, "on her hunkers," i.e. squatting. It is simply the folk nomenclature provided by villagers to eighteenth- and nineteenth-cen- tury antiquarians who "rediscovered" the sculptures and wrote about them in the many historical journals of the period (Andersen). It was only when women started to write about the sheeh, however, that goddess referents began to be noted. The first to suggest this was the famous Egyptologist, Margaret Murray. She recognized the vulvic display of the sheekz-na-gigas similar to the pose ofsmall ancient goddess statues called "Baubos."l In 1934, Murray advanced her theories in an extensive article in which she comments that ting, with knees bent, "frog-like." ~ h e ~ o s i t i o n  fthe arms varies but some repeat the sheela gesture of resting on the thighs as if to "emphasize the pudenda" (Murray 95). Murray's article discusses a number of sheekz sculptures from both England (at Kilpeck, Romsey, Oxford, Whittlesford, and Essex), and Ireland (at Blackhall and Ballylarkin), as fitting the Egyptian model. She claims that Baubo "belonged to that group of goddesses, such as the Bona Dea, from whose rites men were rigorously ex- cluded" (99). She was for women only and was, "as essen- tially divine as Isis or Ishtar" (99). As with the sheeh, Baubo figures appear in number, suddenly, in a specific historical period seemingly with no precursors, although Murray has suggested that the pubic triangles on more an- cient goddess statues might be considered such precursors. Baubo was the older Egyptian version ofthe Greekstory about Iambe who performed a lewd dance revealing her genitals to make Demeter laugh and rouse her from the despair into which she had sunkover the loss of Persephone to the u n d e ~ o r l d . ~  Murray was convinced that the appeal ofboth the Baubos and thesheela-na-gigswas to the sexual, pleasurable side ofwomen's nature. In conclusion, Murray questions the speculations made by male archaeologists about possible women's rites in connection with the Baubo goddesses. Her "suspicions" reflect contemporary feminist critique of patriarchal scholarship. Edith Guest from Ireland made an entirely different kind of contribution to the sheela debate. She updated and expanded the list of Irish sheela-na-gigs for the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland indicating 65 listings as authentic and five as questionable (Guest 1936). She was the first to categorize all the variations in the figures as standing or squatting, with one or both hands indicating or touching the genital area, with one hand raised to the head, etc. Most importantly, she dated the sheeh as being from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, with an emphasis on the eleventh to the thirteenth. 20 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESlLES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME Like Murray, Guest does not believe that these late No  doubt the use of the phalloi as protective dates3 for the sheeh prohibited "the early origin and devices stems from the life-giving function of the practice of the relative cult nor the probability of earlier phallus, from which follows the idea that phalloi symbols" (1937, 180). She gives several examples ofwhat could be used symbolically to combat the forces of she calls pagan practices associated with certain sheelas. death and destruction.. . . They were called Evil Eye Stones when they were used to The important thing to note, however, is that the female emblem, the vulva, is very rare indeed in this role, perhaps because it plays a receptive, passive part Classical writers desmmbed Celtic women as powerfhl in comparison with the male organ. (1 46) warriors who a&o excehd at  bearing and rjaring- chiIdren. Their dud achievements are a reflection of the abilities of the Celtic war goddesses who served as rob models for their earthly sisters. ward off evil or they were venerated, as is seen by the rubbings on the thighs, stomach, and forehead ofthe Jheekz at the Castlemagner well in County Cork. Certain sheeh were still referred to as witches in the later half of the nineteenth century (Guest 1936). Anthony Weir, an acknowledged contemporary au- thority on the Irish sheekz-nu-&, published a book in 1986 in collaboration with Jim Jerman, in which-speak- ing as art historians-they contend that "the sheekz-nu-gigs and allied exhibitionists are arguably iconographic images whose purpose is to give visual support to the Church's moral teachings," against thesin ofluxuria (10). Even ifwe accept their claim that the appearance ofsheekz sculptures is coincidental with Norman influence brought to Ireland by the Benedictine Cluniac monasteries of the tenth to fourteenth centuries, the native population would still have been free to interpret the figures according to local legends with which they were more familiar. Weir and Jerman do admit that whatever the first intention behind the imagery, some sheeh were clearly used in a talismanic or protective role against evil. They trace examples of genital imagery used for apotropaic purposes to Roman influence in Britain, with phalloi carved in three sites along Hadrian's Wall. At least two of these sites include the vulva shown on the obverse side of the stone. Their total acceptance of gender stereotypes is evident in the following explanation: If the phallus was powerful, why not the vulva? If there were other than female exhibitionist figures from the Romanesque themes that travelled to Ireland, where is the evidence for them? T o  date, only a few phallic images, as compared to at least 75 sheeh, have been found. The noted Celtic scholar, Anne Ross, is a strong advo- cate of the belief that sheekz-na-gig iconography is consist- ent with Irish Celtic goddess traditions. Ross reminds us of the opinion of classical writers who described Celtic women as powerful warriors who also excelled at bearing and rearing children. Ross sees their dual achievements as a reflection of the abilities of the Celtic war goddesses who sewed as role models for their earthly sisters. Many tales are told about the ability of these goddesses to shape-shift from "ugly old hags" into beautiful women in their interaction with mortals. Frequently the acceptance of a sexual advance from the hag was a test of character for the man who would be king. He who embraced the repellent hag without flinching was rewarded not only with a beautiful bed partner but with the kingship which could only be acquired through mating with the goddess. Ross notes an ancient Irish tale, "The Destruction ofDa Derga's Hostel," which speaks ofa sheela-like figure in the "Cailleach" or hag form: . .. and a woman, big mouthed, huge, ugly, hideous, was behind him. Though her snout were flung on a branch, the branch would support it. Her pudenda reached down to her knees. (Cross and Slover qtd. in Ross 147) The hag can appear as benevolent or malevolent, echo- ing the basic duality of Celtic thought. "Many of their Jeremy Bennison VOLUME 17, NUMBER 3 21 [Celtic] artistic forms are meant to be seen in two different ways; and also to possess a duality of significance- naturalistic and symbolic" (Cross and Slover qtd. in Ross 146). It is clear from Ross' text that the Celtic duality does not mean eitherlor but that all is doubled; both aspects exist in whatever the manifestation. The ugly hag is the beautiful young woman and vice versa. Miriam Robbins Dexter says the great Queen Medb (or Maeve), who figures prominently in the Ulster cycle, functions as "a transfunctional goddess-turned-heroine" (91). Like the goddess Macha, Medb is a multiple char- acter appearing under many different names, but she retains the same personality in her different personi- fication~. Medb's sexual appetite could only be satisfied by the legendary virility of Fergus, son of Great Horse. It is said he needed seven women to satisfy him "unless he was sleeping with the Goddess, Medb" (Ross 142). Though married, Medb remained autonomous. This ability of a female to retain her power rather than being subservient to her husband is a good example of the persistence of pre-Indo-European influence on a figure heavily entangled in patriarchal Indo-European Celtic traditions (Dexter). Dexter provides further evidence of the potency of the female sexual display in Irish sagas. She refers us to a scene in the Tain Bo Cuailngewhere the boy-hero Cu Chulainn is about to attack his own countrymen. King Conchobor stops him by sending . . . a company of women out toward the boy, that is, three times fifty women, that is, ten women and seven times twenty, utterly naked, all at the same time, and the leader of the women before them, Scandlach, to expose their nakedness and their boldness to him. (qtd. in Dexter 160) The work ofanthropologist Shirley Ardener provides us with information about the use of vaginal display in other cultures. She is particularly interested in how female shame is replaced with honour and how sexual display and vulgarity is used in that transformation. She illustrates what she means by using the West African Bakweri tribal concept of titi ikoli as an example: Titi is a childish word for vulva, while ikoli, on its own, means thousand. The combination includes the following associations: a woman's underparts and insults to these; and women's secrets and the reveal- ing of these. (Ardener 1987, 1 15) If a Bakweri woman is insulted in front of others, all the women of the village converge on the offender. They dance around him, making rude gestures, and sing songs about titi ikoli being a beautiful thing (Ardener 1973). Ardener gives other examples from West African tribal - peoples, where women as a group use a form of naked display and obscene words or gestures to defend their honour. The insult is "to the corporate sexual identity of women, of which the symbol is the vaginal area" (1987, 1 18). The women's power comes from the "trickster-like" CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME Sheela-na-gig, Kilsarkin, Co. Kerry. Figure shows signs of "rubbing." Photo: Ann Pearson magic of breaking the convention, revealing what is usu- And, as the Irish Times article so well illustrates, ally hidden. "Reversing 'his' negative to their positive sheelas can even be relegated to the "quaint." To  be values, they proclaim their pride and make their hidden effective, then, the feminist use of the sheela-na-gig secrets a dominant and public emblem" (Ardener 1987, entails a reversal of much more than a negative 118). evaluation of the female body and sexuality. It also Contemporary western feminists and artists have also demands a revision of prevailing oppositions of the attempted to resurrect vaginal imagery. Germaine Greer primitive and the modern, past and present, the noted that "the vagina is obliterated from the image of Christian and the pagan. (40) femininity in the same way that signs of independence and vigour in the rest of the body are suppressed" (15). With this statement, Mullins sums up why the sheekz- However, no one was more successful in attempting to nu-gigs have fascinated contemporary feminists who have reclaim vaginal imagery than Judy Chicago. Her famous become aware of their existence. The complexity of the art installation, The Dinner Party, celebrated vaginal im- image and viewer response to it "demands revisions" of agery on almost every china plate created to honour many of our suppositions about the world. What better women throughout the ages. legacy from the Celtic goddess tradition than to continue Molly Mullins has examined interpretations of the to challenge our fundamental concepts and beliefs. sheeh to demonstrate how they change in keeping with historical or political interests. She proposes that the Ann Pearson is a photographer and a doctoral student in scholarly interpretation of the sheeh as fertility figures in Religiow Studies at Ottawa University. She teaches in the the 1930s is not unconnected with "the familialism then Humanities, Philosophy, and Religion Department ofJohn being inscribed in the social policies ofthe Irish state" (36). Abbott CEGEP in Montreal. She has made extensive h.ips to Though applauding the efforts of contemporary artists to Ireland and England documenting overt and covert goddess redeem vaginal imagery, Mullins thinks that the irrever- iconography in Medieualsculpture. ence and vulgarity of the sheela display are more what is needed in the present Irish political context than any new ' ~ u r r a ~  speculated that the Greek word Baubo could be reverential imagery. She says that the popular images of derived from the name of the Egyptian goddess Bebt, Irish women, past and present, "found on greeting cards, known in the eighth dynasty (95). in school texts, multimedia tourist attractions and the 2 ~ u c h  later Vivian Mercier was to include the sheekz-na- discourse of everyday life" (40), is so folkloric and false that gig sculptures in his exploration of the connections be- a "lewd lady" is a necessary, uncomfortable, iconoclastic tween the ribald, the grotesque, and laughter in his book, image: The Irish Comedic Tradition. VOLUME 17, NUMBER 3 3Some antiquarians thought the sculptures to be of Celtic or ancient origin. References Anderson, Jorgen. The Witch on the Wall. Medieval Erotic Sculpture in the British Isks. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1977. Ardener, Shirley. "Sexual Insult and Female Militancy." Man: Journal ofRoyalAnthropologrgrcalInstitute 8 (1 973): 422-440. Ardener, Shirley. "A Note on Gender Iconography: the Vagina." The Cultural Construction ofSrmrality. Ed. Pat Caplan. London: Tavistock Publications, 1987. 113- 142. Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Whencethe Go&ss:A Sourcebook. New York: Pergamon Press, 1990. Greer, Germaine. The Femak Eunuch. London: McGraw Hill, 1970 Guest, Edith. "IrishSheela-na-gigs in 1935." Journalofthe Royal Society ofAntiquaries ofIreland ~ R S A I )  Series 7, VI (1936): 107-129. Guest, Edith. "Some Notes on the Dating of Sheela-na- gigs." Journal of the Royal Society ofAntiquaries ofIreland (~RuI)  Series 7, V11 (1937): 176-180. Mercier, Vivian. The Irish Comedic Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962. Mullins, Molly. "Representations of History, Irish Ferni- nism, and the Politics of Difference." Feminist Studies 17.1 (Spring 1991): 29-50. Murray, Margaret. "Female Fertility Figures." Journal of the RoyalAnthropological Institute @I) 64 (1 934): 93- 100. Ross, Anne. "The Divine Hag of the Pagan Celts." The Witch Figure. Ed. Venetia Newall. London: Routledge, 1973. Weir, Anthony, and Jim Jerman. Images of lust:  Sexual Caruings on Medieval Churches. London: Batsford Ltd., 1986. LUCY BRENNAN Terpsichore ". . . the poem is a place of experience and not a place of convictions . . ." -Eavan Boland She holds uncertainties in outstretched hands. I gather her gifts by the armful. Now there can be singing and wild loving, longing can rouse and catch fire at a glance. With her I have laughter, and light that expands, draw all into my blood and do not die. The world is mine and I exult in the drive, the lift, my mind shaking free of its bands. She places clouds in my sights, to enhance the winds and the rains for me and draws me to mysteries of woods and seas. I walk and run with her, in the rhythm of a dance. She doesn't calm my fear of going dumb: "That's energy!" she calls, and then is gone. Lucy Brennan has been published in various journals in Canada and in Ireland, including Poetry Canada Review, Poetry Ireland Review, The Irish University Review, and The Antigonish Review. Her compact disk, entitled The Tellings of Mad Sweeney, is due to be released at the end of March. She was born in Dublin, Ireland. This collection of essays, edited by Ann B. Shteir, Director of the Graduate Pro- gramme in Women's Studies at York University, investigates issues in curriculum development, various models for programme development, and professional devel- opment for students, as well as questions about disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, Visions and Realities and action-oriented research. This volume is an essential resource for those inter- ested in the development and fostering of women's studies and feminism within the academy, as well as for those involved in curriculum and policy formulation and education. Order your copy now! A must for any women's studies library. $1 1.95 + $0.84 GST = $1 2.79 Postage (percopy) inCanada:$2.25; in theU.S.: $2.50; overseas$9.00. All orders must be prepaid. Please make cheque or money order payable to: Inanna Publications and Education Inc., CWS/cf, 212 Founders College, YorkUniversity, 4700Keele Street, North York, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada. Tel: (416) 736-5356. Fax: (416) 736- 5765. Email: cwscf@yorku.ca. Internet: http://www.yorku.ca/org/cwscf/ home.htm1 I I 24 CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESILES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME 

Reclaiming the Sheela-na-gigs: Goddess Imagery in Medieval Sculptures in Ireland

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Reclaiming the Sheela-na-gigs: Goddess Imagery in Medieval Sculptures in Ireland

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Canadian Woman Studies / les cahiers de la femme (E-Journal, York University)