Venus if you will...

Pictured above is the Venus of Willendorf.  This statue dating back about 25,000 years, was found in 1908 near Austria.  

Things to note about this figure:

• Clearly female, the features would be considered obese by today's standards
• This image has no face.  Instead a basket or braid pattern circles the head of the figure
• There is much dispute about the purpose or intent behind the statue itself
• This statue has no feet and was most likely created without them

The Paleolithic era is broken into two large pieces; Paleolithic and Neo-Paleolithic.  From the Latin for Stone - Age/part/era, the people of this oldest of time were simple compared to the technologies we use today.  There were some similarities, however, between our Paleolithic ancestors and modern man.  

Sex, for instance, is an action and an instinct that is as old as man himself.  The idea of procreation, reproduction, and survival of a lineage is an inherent force that drives humanity to proliferate.    

It is easy to apply the standards of modern society on a piece of art such as the Venus of Willendorf and make immediate assumptions that the figure is sexual in nature.  Modern man is used to seeing nakedness only at birth or during sex.  The Paleolithic people may have had less moral convictions concerning coverage of clothing.  

There is the possibility that the statue was spiritual in nature.  Some believe that the figure represents some iteration of the divine feminine.  Very little evidence of prehistoric belief systems exist today.  It is tempting to assume that the Venus of Willendorf is mystical, but it may be only a projection.  Without the proper evidence of worship or some other indication of intent or sustained devotion, it is impossible to know for certain what she continues to represent.

Another thought is less metaphysical and more emotional.  It is possible that this statues and others like it were created to send hunters away with a beautiful representation of themselves or their version of a perfect woman.  In this respect it could be Paleolithic pornography!

Today the Venus lives in the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria.

In Search of Proof of Egaltarianism

I learned a word already and it's only been two weeks of University in the Autumn term.

Egalitarianism

e·gal·i·tar·i·an·ism

ēˌɡaləˈterēəˌnizəm/

noun

the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

In our World History class we have began to discuss the theories that the Paleolithic people may or may not have been Egalitarian societies, and what the proof may or may not be to support either side of this theory.

In support of the argument that humans may have been inherently equal at the advent of the sociological development of Homo-Sapiens, is the idea that without dogma or man-made philosophies, man and woman would have existed and cohabited in an equal way with shared chores, tasks, and responsibilites.

Because there is little evidence of society other than primitive art and artifacts, it becomes almost impossible to understand what the actual ideas were for humans and who was revered and in what capacity.

Fortunately, as science and technology progress, we are able to discover more about humanity through research and archaeology.

This article caught my eye recently:

https://m.phys.org/news/2017-09-genetic-proof-women-viking-warriors.html

First genetic proof that women were Viking warriors

September 8, 2017 by David Naylor

In the article, it illustrates that, although not Paleolithic perse, using DNA research a viking tomb from the 10th century in Sweden reveals that the viking buried carried two X chromosomes and no Y chromosome, thus making it a female.

This idea that a woman could be a viking and revered as such is in support of the idea that Paleolithic humans may have began and remained Egalitarian.

Although one could argue that because this research stems from a non-paleolithic era, one could conclude that it is unlikely that a society would have begun as matriarchal and patriarchal and modified itself to become egalitarian.  It is a reach to assume, but this exciting evidence provides a glimpse into the past when men and women were not so inequally divided by gender.

Who do you think you are?

My mother is very diligent about ancestry, DNA, family history - so I am a little spoiled in knowing most of my origins or at least what parts of who go where in a family tree.

Mother is British, dad is American but digging deeper than that, and beginning to think of the Paleolithic humans, I want to know more about where I come from and what percentages of which parts of where comprise who I am.

I ordered a DNA test!  From the results of mother's test I already know from where our matriarchal DNA originates, but I want to know more!

I want to know who I am molecularly.  I want to see myself as a framework of math and numbers and see if there's an explanation for the instincts I have.