tjj wrote:
I can't get my head round 'hunter-gatherer' clans being into pornography somehow.
Why not?

There's multiple examples of cave paintings from prehistory that depict explicit images of female and male genitalia.

The general definition of pornography: images that are designed to arouse.

I don't think it's a stretch (no pun intended) that males off on hunting trips for days on end would create images of sex. Have you ever met a teenager who wasn't into sex? It's a biological imperative.

Sexual imagery in the modern age has a stigma of being anti-feminist. Obviously, some is misogynistic, but most is merely fetishistic. And as we know, fetishes are a common element in animist societies.

That just about sums it up Dave.

There's multiple examples of cave paintings from prehistory that depict explicit images of female and male genitalia.
Ah, yes, but why depict explicit images of female and male genitalia?

I'm completely with you, so far Dave, in what you say but there are so many unanswered questions here. First off, and putting aside the question of any pornographic/sexual connotation ('procreation' might be more relevant anyway) let's look at the object itself. It emphasises (starkly but not unusually) the female reproductive and nurturing organs. You'll find that statement made in most cultures sometime or other and throughout mankind's history - it ain't nothing new.

What is interesting is that this little lady has a ring from which to suspend her. Now, that suggests mobility (and it might equally have been worn by either a [mobile] man or a mobile woman). M'be it was an amulet carried from one place to another by a shaman or shaman-ness. M'be it was worn (as modern men and women wear symbols of their religion today) as a statement of their beliefs. Who knows. Let's try sticking to what we have though. And here we seem to have something that was worn and (consequently) perhaps moved around, as well as something that is demonstrating an interest in human fertility and (perhaps) procreation. Actually, you can see that sort of statement played out in most towns here in England most weekends.

I suspect not a great deal has changed in the underlying statement of 'Hey, look at me' since mankind first became aware of itself.