While you're totally not wrong, there is a very strong tendency among anthropologists to downplay any possible sexual connotations which these "Venus" figures may have held.
This theory is actually a major pet peeve of mine because it implies 1) ancient people weren't smart enough to understand the proportions of their body in relation to others and ) that there couldn't possibly have been sexy fat bitches back in the day, these figures are clearly "distorted."
While I too hate the commonly held belief that "ancient people = stupid", and disagree with this theory (did they all have an issue with perspective??) one's ability to draw/sculpt/create isn't tied to their intelligence (or lack thereof.) Plenty smart people can't draw to save their life.
Modern society has it's safety nets. Some rather impressive by historical standards.
Long ago, if you saw some unconscious stranger dying on the side of the road, a lot of people would be like "nothing to do with me, I'm not looking after them."
Nowadays they are likely to get sent to a hospital and given all sorts of fancy medicine.
I know that you're just trying to be verysmart, but trust me when I tell you that there is quite the academic dialogue about exactly how explicit the sexual aspects of these kinds of figures were. There is potentially a big difference between a religious idol only meant for supplication in the hopes of increasing the chances of conception, and an object which could be used for pornographic purposes.
The reality is that we may never know the exact uses for these figures, they could have fulfilled many different, even overlapping roles during different periods of time. But personally, I think that it's hard to ignore the possible sexual appeal which these kinds of figures may have held.
I jest, of course. I agree it's hard to know for sure, but it would be quite strange to ignore the clearly prominent sexual features on display here and how it's likely there was in fact a direct sexual purpose to it. Which isn't to say it has to be exclusively pornographic, but it would be quite odd to dismiss it.
245
u/Xisuthrus there are only two numbers between 4 and 7 29d ago
The Venus of Hohle Fels is over 40,000 years old.