Of great interest this series that you carry on, @ladyrebecca. Consider the animistic stage of the evolution of the human psyche is extremely relevant. I remember that the Spanish philosopher Maria Zambrano, in her book The Man and the Divine, reflecting on the relationship with mystery in primitive man points out that perhaps the first relationship with nature was one of delirium and terror at the unknown and the forces that overcame it. And the bear, as well as the illustras, is a representation of it, but in other regions the wild felines (tiger, leopard, jaguar) or the snakes, for example.
With regard to these fears, I think Jean-Jacques Annaud's films The War of Fire, The Bear and The Wolf are excellent.
When I saw "Venus de Willendorf" and "The Thinker", I was thinking about how modern painting and sculpture was nourished by primitive art (e.g. Picasso, Gauguin, Botero, etc.). By the way, I suppose you will devote more space later to talk about female divine representation (the so-called "mother goddesses").
Thanks for your good post, @ladyrebecca.