Following the iron brush

came across this news report today-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090513/sc_livescience/obsessionwithnakedwomendatesback35000years

Well, Doug, that actually dosnt surprise me at all. I assume this facination for women dates back to the point in evolution when nature invented testicles. The funny thing is these iconic fetishes depicting almost the whole female body -with an emphasis on sexual characteristics of course. But girls seemed to be much more focused : 28,000 years old and 'highly polished'

....and almost of the same age and still cool...she bop

hmm...of course your views could reveal your own gender bias How do we know the female form wasn't made by a woman....perhaps as a advertisement for a prospective mate ...she has enhanced the "benefits and features" she offers...just like modern advertisers would do

As the article mentions, instead of a head on the figure, there's a hole for a cord attachment to wear around the head. It occured to me that in wearing the piece in this way, the wearer's head 'completes' the sculpture. Is it to far to think that the wearer would acquire the benefits of fertility?

-Doug

Good point, Ford. I think it was perhaps a mixture of all these motivations. A similar cult has survived on your continent : Bountiful Brides
here is again something older: Pornography in Clay
and Textiles, Basketery, Gender and Status in the Upper Paleolithic

"The fixation wasn't just for naked women, though. Early carvings of phalluses* appeared in Europe at about the same time. "

"Little 'Venus' "
&
* Little Penis

...yeah, boys will be boys

There was again a new old artefact - Stone Age Carving: Ancient Dildo? - excavated in Sweden.

I bet this science writer, Clara Moskowitz, is a very fun lady. I would like to talk to her.

All you have to do is watch monkeys for a few hrs., and you can get an idea of what early humans did most of the time.

I always thought these Venus carvings were early religious trappings. You want to get pregnant, you go to the shaman and get the fertility doll waved over you a few times, or put it around your neck before sex.

Or maybe it was early birth control. The woman would put this carving around her neck, her man would see what she would be looking like in a few months, and go tag the milkmaid instead. Allowing the lady to keep her nice figure, and not have any more mouths to feed.