Reply To: What do the pictures mean?

[Raven Shaw]

I agree with your idea that the early carvings of female figures may have been pornography. All of the most womany features are exaggerated, like in modern anime porn, or girls who get implants to appear more attractive in liveaction porn. I do find something confusing though. In the article about the Turkish civilization that buried their dead under their plaster homes, there was a white stone carving of a woman. The article described her as possibly representative of a wealthy older woman who was esteemed, ‘older’ because her round figure indicated that she no longer had to do physical labor. Was the Venus of Willendorf an old lady? Or did the culture who carved it have a standard of beauty that held being round in high regard – possibly because your husband was a good hunter?