Anthropology
Related: About this forumStrippers and the objectification of women
Last edited Mon Feb 24, 2014, 12:46 PM - Edit history (1)
OK so much for strippers now
The OBJECTification of women
Venus Figurines
Figure 1: Images of figurines and their geographic origins. Images are shown in the same (random) order and numbered, as they were for the questionnaire study. (1) Willendorfs Venus (Rhine/Danube), (2) Lespugue Venus (Pyrenees/Aquitaine), (3) Laussel Venus (Pyrenees/Aquitaine), (4) Dolní Věstonice Venus (Rhine/Danube), (5) Gagarino no. 4 Venus (Russia), (6) Moravany Venus (Rhine/Danube), (7) Kostenki 1. Statuette no. 3 (Russia), (8) Grimaldi nVenus (Italy), (9) Chiozza di Scandiano Venus (Italy), (10) Petrkovice Venus (Rhine/Danube), (11) Modern sculpture (N. America), (12) Eleesivitchi Venus (Russia); (13) Savignano Venus (Italy), (14) The so-called Brassempouy Venus (Pyrenees/Aquitaine), (15) Hohle Fels Venus (SW Germany).
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/janthro/2011/569120/
http://www.donsmaps.com/venus.html
The Cave Art Debate
The discovery of a 40,000-year old figurine reignites debate among archaeologists about the originsand true purposeof art
The oldest sculpture of a human being is so small it could be hidden in your fist. Carved out of mammoth ivory, the 40,000-year-old figurine clearly represents a woman, with ballooning breasts and elaborately carved genitalia. The head, arms and legs are merely suggested. You couldnt get more female than this, says Nicholas Conard, the Ohio-born archaeologist whose University of Tübingen team found the sculpture at the bottom of a vaulted cave in southwestern Germany in the fall of 2008. Head and legs dont matter. This is about sex, reproduction.
The discovery of the Venus of Hohle Felsnamed by Conard for the cave where it was foundmade news around the world. Headlines called the busty statuette prehistoric porn. But the Venus renews a serious scholarly debate that has flared now and then since Stone Age figurinesincluding a waterfowl, lions and mammothswere first discovered early last century at Hohle Fels and nearby caves. Were these literal representations of the surrounding world? Or artworks created to express emotions or abstract ideas?
Some experts viewed such pieces as hunting magicrepresentations of sought-after game animals and, therefore, survival tools, not works of art. The problem is, many of the figurines discovered so farpredators such as lions and bearsdont correspond to what prehistoric people ate. (Their diet consisted largely of reindeer, bison and horse meat, according to bones that archaeologists have found.) Others perceive some prehistoric figurinesincluding a half-lion, half-man not as imaginative works but literal depictions of hallucinations experienced by tribal shamans.
The Venus has prompted new thinking, encouraging some scholars to focus on what the figure tells us about prehistoric perceptions of beauty and obesity. Anthropologists at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, recently published a study arguing that corpulent figurines symbolized the hope for a well-nourished community.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-cave-art-debate-100617099/#ixzz2uFsOzVpH
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And finally a really good documentary by Historian Bettany Hughes. visits a world where goddesses ruled the heavens and earth, and reveals why our ancestors thought of the divine as female. Travelling across the Mediterranean and the Near East, Bettany goes to remote places, where she encounters fearsome goddesses who controlled life and death. And she ends up in modern-day India, where the goddess is still a powerful force for thousands of Hindus. Immersing herself in the excitement of the Durga Puja festival, Bettany experiences goddess worship first-hand, and finds out what the goddess means to her devotees.
She even goes to Gobeki Tepe and shows a woman figure I had not seen before.
libodem
(19,288 posts)Long before the Patriarchy, the Mother Goddess, was revered as the Deity, and early societies were Matriarchal.
The time is ripe for a revival of Feminine energy.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Anyway I wanted to take a different turn on this GD debate with a little history,art and science. I have always been fascinated by neolithic culture.
The Documentary is very recent and shows one of these figurines in Turkey that if you see the backside its rather deathly showing her bones whereas the front is atypical of the venus figure.
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)As usual they leave the US behind in not underestimating the intelligence of their viewer
Autumn
(45,120 posts)first part. I'm happy to be rec #5
Exultant Democracy
(6,594 posts)from teenage boys on the internet.
rrneck
(17,671 posts)Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)Sarah Ibarruri
(21,043 posts)It's a great balance for the planet.
ismnotwasm
(42,008 posts)I however, am now headed to the hardware store to play a little prank...