I know this may sound facetious but I am curious. Pornography has obviously been around for many many years. Hefner, Guccione, Flynt and others revolutionized pornography but in no way did they invent it. So I am curious: is there any evidence on the walls of caves that our early ancestors drew pornographic images on the walls (in addition to their tales of the hunt)?
Search for “paleolithic Venus figurines” in Google Images. Some of these small sculptures are 30,000 years old.
… But perhaps there’s some gray area between pornography and religious talismans. :eek:
I don’t know about paintings on cave walls, but prehistoric humans certainly carved figurines with huge boobs, buttocks, phalluses, and the like, such as the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Hohle Fels. They have been touted as fertility symbols and such, but …
Of course, it is a myth that humans were ever much given to living in caves. The idea arose because many of the earliest modern discoveries of prehistoric human remains and artifacts (including paintings) were made in caves, and the stuff was found in caves because caves preserve such things relatively well, on the rare occasions that they actually get into caves. Early humans actually lived out in the open (eventually learning how to make such things as tents and huts) and probably most of their artwork was created out in the open too. Most of it has not survived, although stone carvings like ones mentioned survive better than paintings on whatever (animal skins, maybe, or trees) do.
here’s a nice book excerpt on possible Paleolithic erotica.
It is not so much that there is a gray area as that there is a great deal of overlap (then and still now) between the erotic, especially the extremes of eroticism, and the experiences of the numinous and sacred. Both give people the sense of getting in touch with something very important, powerful, wonderful and terrifying (and even horrible) that is beyond themselves and their mundane life. Most modern religions (certainly those in the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic tradition) have made great efforts to purge themselves of any hint of sexuality, but it is a moot point as to whether they can really succeed (or whether it would be a good thing if they could). Paleolithic religions may not have even tried to separate the sacred and the erotic.
If archeologists of a few tens of thousands of years in our future find evidence of our present day porn, they may well ascribe a religious significance to it … and they might not be entirely wrong to do so.
It’s always cracked me up that certain objects found at ancient sites are usually referred to as “fertility goddesses” and “fertility symbols” … of course we do not know that these were early versions of the internet but assuming they were religious always seemed a bit presumptuous, even if they were involved in some uplifting experiences and moments of rapture.
Heck, just google “pornographic cave drawings” for a lot of news articles about such discoveries. I would be very surprised if cave drawings DIDN’T include depictions of genitalia and sex acts. Whether it’s “pornography” or not is another question - by calling it that, we’re implying that the artist was violating some taboo by making such drawings - did the concept of “pornography” even exist for the artist in question? I’m not at all sure that would be the case.
A trip through the southwest USA to the Pueblos would answer your question. While they weren’t “cavemen”, petroglyphs and pictographs created by Pueblo Indians often show phalluses and the like. I never saw any that depicted the sex act, however.
There’s a rock art panel out side Zion N.P. that clearly depicts a blow job. Take a look at what’s going on left of center in this panel.
Lots of people have suggested that those venus figures were actually porn. I happen to agree with them, although I doubt if the people who drew them would distinguish between “porn” or “art” or even “religious symbols”. It was all stuff that resonated with them and moved them./
There are also many examples of what seem to be vulvae:
Well, the ones who had caves available probably did live in them, since caves make very nice shelter, if you can get them. There just aren’t nearly enough caves to go around.
Some of the earliest cave art in Europe appears to be images of vulvas. The article also gives several examples of images of figures with giant phalluses.
Some of the earliest rock art in Australia is also sexual.
Before the “original sin” mentality took over religion and preached that sex was dirty and bad, it’s entirely possible that the predominate view was that sex was something mystical and amazing, positively tantric in helping one get closer to the mysteries of the universe, etc.
“Sex without love is an empty experience.”
“Yes, but as empty experiences go, it’s one of the best!”
-Woody Allen, Bananas
For a stone age man (and possibly woman) who had to make their own entertainment out of nothing, sex certainly stood out as the most amazingly experience of the day, week, or month, if ED did not get in the way. Once they figured out that it also produced babies (not that thread again) it simply added to the mystical nature of it.
I suspect it was only when society and population got big enough that the negative consequences of sex became more serious then more rules were required. In hunter-gatherer societies the whole tribe (all dozen or two individuals) shared the luck. Children belonged to the tribe and were raised by the tribe. Everyone knew everyone else’s business and a guy who pissed off too many others found himself on the short end of retribution quite quickly.
By the time agriculture rolls around, the average villager cannot share with all his neighbours and has less interest in toiling sun up to sun down to feed the lazy bastard next door who’s poppin’ out kids by the dozen with 2 or 3 wives. With large populations, rape and adultery become more of a problem since they are easier to hide. Who takes care of kids if the daughter ends up pregnant before she’s married? Fights over women have the potential to degenerate into tribal feuds or worse, all out war and Bosphoric sieges that last over 10 years; uncontrolled sex is a blight on the landscape, etc. etc.
So the quasi-religious celebration of the flesh in tribal times gives way to a more controlled system in “civilized” times. But those Venus figurines could easily be a religious celebration of the mystical experience when one yelled out the name of God…
When archeologists don’t know the function of some object they find, they usually suggest it’s a religious or ritualistic object. I heard a story once about a woman touring a museum and seeing such an object, immediately recognized it as a drop spindle. She even had one with her (they haven’t really changed much over the millennia) so she could demonstrate to the museum staff how they were used.
They should check them for traces of semen. It’s quite possible they were kept in the men’s tent as, shall we say, a bukkake goddess.
Not stone age, but bronze ditto. A 3000-4000 years old rock carving: http://www.varldensbilder.se/bilder/par.jpg
This is all very interesting information; it appears that Fred & Barney and Alley OOP knew how to make a good situation for themselves.
Those links don’t work for me. When I click on any of them, it just takes me to the main Yahoo! images page.
Not really. Very few caves are suitable for human habitation (few have flat, dry floors, for one thing, or convenient entrances), and, in any case, paleolithic humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers who, of necessity, rarely stayed in one place for very long. People may have have occasionally taken temporary shelter from bad weather in caves (probably about as often as they do now), and may have used them for storage sometimes, as well as for art, burials etc., but they very rarely, if ever, made homes in them. “Cave men” are essentially a myth.
We had a thread on just this subject a while back.
And lest you think that it was just the gents doing the worshipping.
Interesting. Those are the same images that the India Times printed to go along with their story about rock art from Australia that I linked to. These drawings are evidently from Sweden.
The actual erotic Australian images are these.
