Sheela Na Gig - Origin

Origin

There is disagreement about the source of the figures. One perspective, by James Jerman and Anthony Weir, is that the sheela na gigs were first carved in France and Spain in the 11th century; the motif eventually reached Britain and then Ireland in the 12th century. Jerman and Weir's work was a continuation of the research started by Andersen, who wrote The Witch on the Wall, the first serious book on sheela na gigs in 1977. Eamonn Kelly, Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, draws attention to the distribution of sheela na gigs in Ireland to support Weir and Jerman's theory; almost all of the surviving in situ sheela na gigs are found in areas of Anglo-Norman conquest (12th century), while the areas which remained "native Irish" boast only a few sheela na gigs. Weir and Jerman also argue that their location on churches, and their ugliness by mediæval standards, suggests that they were used to represent female lust as hideous and sinfully corrupting.

Another theory, espoused by Joanne McMahon and Jack Roberts is that the carvings are remnants of a pre-Christian fertility or mother goddess religion. They point to what they claim are differences in materials and styles of some sheela na gigs from their surrounding structures, and that some are turned on their side, to support the idea that they were incorporated from previous structures into early Christian buildings. There are differences between typical continental exhibitionist figures and Irish sheela na gigs, including the scarcity of male figures in Ireland and the UK, while the continental carvings are more likely to involve male figures, and the more contortionist postures of continental figures.