Prehistoric figurines from the Neolithic period (6500−3500 B.C.E.) of Southeastern and Central Europe were once widely interpreted as evidence of matriarchal societies of early farmers. Widely disseminated by Marija Gimbutas (1921−1994) was the argument that placed figurines at the center of reconstructions of prehistoric mother-goddess cults, religions, and ceremonies. Recent advances in archaeological fieldwork, material analysis, and multidisciplinary interpretation have revealed the fragility of the assumptions that supported that earlier interpretation. The recovery of male figurines, as well as of individual figurines with male and female attributes, suggests that prehistoric sexualities, in Neolithic Europe at least, were more broadly defined. The observation that most figurines possess neither male nor female attributes suggests that these objects were part of larger discourses about identity not limited to modern, Euro-American definitions of sexuality or personhood. The pattern of find-spots on Neolithic sites reveals that they were everyday objects without extraordinary meaning or function. It is now recognized that figurines played a powerful part, probably at a subconscious level, in the gradual emergence of historic and modern senses of identity, which became anchored on the body and its shape and appearance.