# Is prostitution the worlds older profession? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 4, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504 "2005-08-04T01:17:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/21 "2005-08-04T14:41:32Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I’ve heard it said that “only the priesthood is older than prostitution.” If you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Way back in the day, when people were hunters or farmers, they were probably doing it to support themselves - not really a profession. On the other hand, we’ve had religion for a hell of a long time, and tribes had shamans and high priests and other figures recognized by the public as religious leaders. Therefore I’d say that priesthood may well be older than prostitution. We’ve had shamans/priests longer. We had to have someone in place who felt superior enough to look down their noses at women. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/22 "2005-08-04T14:56:35Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > I’d say that prostitute would have occured fairly early on, but I can;t see any reaosn why they would predate scribes, judges, administrators, messengers/scribes and numeorus other “professions”. Perhaps **bakers** are the oldest profession … … as guessed by Frank Burns, in that one episode of _M_A_S_H\*. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/23 "2005-08-04T14:59:41Z")
Farmers say farming is the oldest profession. When I jokingly asked one about prostitution, he said “who do you think hired the prostitutes.” ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/24 "2005-08-04T17:37:28Z")
> [@Thin Lizzy](#): > > I agree it was probably hunting or making arrowheads or something. Back in those days cavemen would not pay for sex, they would just drag her by her hair into the cave. I would imagine that professional flint-knappers were the first people who didn’t have to go out hunting and gathering. Some of the points and other flint tools of the late Stone Age are very finely worked and were presumably made by those who did it for a living, i.e., by those whose ability at knapping flint was so respected and valued that they stayed back at camp doing that rather than going with the rest of the group on the hunt. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/25 "2005-08-04T17:48:42Z")
According to the [NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/magazine/05FREAK.html?ei=5090&en=af2d9755a2c32ba8&ex=1275624000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print), the concept of prostitution arises immediately after the concept of money (if you’re a monkey) > [@](#): > > During the chaos in the monkey cage, Chen saw something out of the corner of his eye that he would later try to play down but in his heart of hearts he knew to be true. What he witnessed was probably the first observed exchange of money for sex in the history of monkeykind. (Further proof that the monkeys truly understood money: the monkey who was paid for sex immediately traded the token in for a grape.) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/26 "2005-08-04T17:51:25Z")
> [@Argent Towers](#): > > I’ve heard it said that “only the priesthood is older than prostitution.” If you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Way back in the day, when people were hunters or farmers, they were probably doing it to support themselves - not really a profession. On the other hand, we’ve had religion for a hell of a long time, and tribes had shamans and high priests and other figures recognized by the public as religious leaders. Therefore I’d say that priesthood may well be older than prostitution. Anthropologists would tend to agree with you. Hunting and gathering, flint knapping, weaving, and so on were activities practiced by everyone in the community. Some individuals may have had greater aptitude than the others at any given activity, but he wouldn’t have performed it to the exclusion of everyone else. Shamanism, on the other hand, was practiced by only a few members of the communty and was pretty much their exclusive province. Shamanism might be called “the first specialization.” ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/27 "2005-08-04T18:01:39Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Forgive my ignorance. Eve lied? Told Adam she was a virgin. ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/28 "2005-08-04T18:25:04Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > Priesthood sounds like it may very well be, but then again I have no clue, maybe if someone knew how the term originated we can track it from there? The prostitutes were the preisthood, since they represented **fertility**. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/29 "2005-08-04T20:14:06Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Forgive my ignorance. Eve lied? I guess you’re correct as the text reads, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Blameshifting in my book is the same as bearing false witness, which is the same as lying. Fast forward several milennia and we have “The bitch set me up.” Eve and Marion Barry have that in common. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/30 "2005-08-05T00:23:59Z")
It’s like the old joke about the lawyer, the surgeon, and the architect arguing about the world’s oldest profession. The surgeon says that God created Eve from Adam’s rib. Clearly, this was surgery, so medicine has to be the first profession. The architect argues that God created order from chaos, which is obviously architecture. The lawyer smiles and says, “so who do you think created the chaos?” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/31 "2005-08-05T00:31:01Z")
**InvisibleWombat** : When a programmer tells the joke, a computer scientist delivers the punchline. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/32 "2005-08-05T00:35:18Z")
The beauty of that joke, **Derleth** , is that it can be applied to many different professions. It works well with politicians, too. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/33 "2005-08-05T01:32:36Z")
> [@rfgdxm](#): > > Nor would there be much in the early archaeological record about religious beliefs. One of the best-preserved aspects of the archeological record is graves. In essentially all but the most primitive of ancient societies, these contain items that denote burial rituals, which are quite widely taken as evidence of religious belief. The elaborateness of these nearly always increase with time and the size and sophistication of the society. One source for an in-depth discussion of this is _Patterns in Prehistory_ by Robert J. Wenke ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/34 "2005-08-05T01:38:25Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > One of the best-preserved aspects of the archeological record is graves. In essentially all but the most primitive of ancient societies, these contain items that denote burial rituals, which are quite widely taken as evidence of religious belief. The elaborateness of these nearly always increase with time and the size and sophistication of the society. There is also the fact that certain things, cave paintings and Venus figures, appear in Hunter/Gatherer societies. That alone may not seem like any sort of proof, but in HG society everyone was involved in either the H or the G. Most cave paintings and the Venus figures are related to fertility and by that association seem to be apeals for a good hunt or harvest. It is hard to ascribe anything but ‘religious’ ideals to them. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504/35 "2005-08-09T13:53:24Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > I guess you’re correct as the text reads, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” > Blameshifting in my book is the same as bearing false witness, which is the same as lying. Fast forward several milennia and we have “The bitch set me up.” Eve and Marion Barry have that in common. I think it is also important to remember that the earlier verse reads, “She also gave some[the fruit] to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” I remember as a kid thinking, “How dare that Eve sin and then go find Adam and convince him to sin too!” According to the story, he was there already. Sounds like she merely at first. They were both guilty. Of course if we go to blame shifting, Adam said, “The woman YOU put with me - she gave me some fruit…” Eve blames the serpent. Adam blames God. Who is the worse blame shifter? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-prostitution-the-worlds-older-profession/315504.md?page=1)