Somatic Shape, Artifact Terminology, and the Racialization of Anthropomorphic Figurines

Anthropomorphic figurines from a variety of ancient cultures are described in academic and public-facing discourse as being ‘steatopygous’. Such figurines are interpreted as displaying ‘steatopygia’, an accumulation of fatty tissue in the hips, thighs, and/or buttocks. This terminology, first introduced in British travel writing to describe the bodies of peoples, and particularly women, from southern Africa, became embedded with racist, misogynistic, and fatphobic connotations. ‘Steatopygia’ and its related word forms entered archaeological discourse in 1896 with Petrie and Quibell’s report on their excavations at the sites of Naqada and Ballas in Upper Egypt. This article examines how Petrie and Quibell deployed the language of ‘steatopygia’ to characterize the Predynastic figurines from their excavations in support of their racializing theories about the early history of Upper Egypt. Petrie and Quibell’s treatment of the anthropomorphic figurines from Naqada and Ballas offers new insight into Petrie’s previously noted role in entrenching racially focused lines of interpretation into the fields of ancient archaeology and art history. After 1896, ‘steatopygia’ became a standard taxonomic category in the study of prehistoric, Predynastic, and Neolithic figurines from across the wider Mediterranean region. This article examines how Petrie and other scholars, including Evans, constructed these racialized and gendered interpretations, which pathologize Black, female, and fat bodies, leading to modern scholarship that perpetuates outdated and harmful ideas while disregarding the objects’ individual archaeological and cultural contexts. After showing how this language has obstructed more productive lines of research, the paper offers ways of approaching this terminology and the future study of ancient figurines.