Institute For Ice Age Studies

For our purposes, the general constituents of a châine opératoire for female figurines might include the following, keeping in mind as previously stated that archaeologists usually address the components in reverse order

1. Cultural assumptions about women
2. Beliefs about the relationship between materials, representational acts, representational constructs and social/supernatural efficacy
3. Choice and acquisition of raw material
4. Choice of subject matter
5. Organization of production, (social, temporal and spatial)
6. Combination of gestures and tools into techniques for figurine production that are coherent with the encompassing, regional technical system and that enable
7. Representation of desired signifiers of social identity, age, reproductive status, supernatural associations, etc.
8. Use of the female representations in (socially, esthetically and cosmologically) meaningful acts.
9. Disposition of the figurines based on ideas about their residual power and efficacy.