NSFW: Archeology edition

/ Alex Good

Sex doll. The early days.

When I was in first year of university I took a course that I don’t remember very much from except something about “cultural universals.” This refers to things that people do in every human society, at all stages in their development. Apparently there aren’t many of these. I think one was the avoidance of human waste (feces).

Pulling a train in old Pompeii.

I’ve always thought pornography might be another. Porn gets a lot of attention in the media because it’s a (politically) sexy topic that people can’t seem to get enough of reading about. Does it corrupt youth? Does it program men and women with unrealistic fantasies about what people should look like and behave? Is it addictive? Does it lead to sexual violence, or does it sedate a population of incels who might otherwise act out violent fantasies? Is it inherently misogynist, or empowering for women? Should we even call it porn or, if we feel it’s distinguished enough, do we have to refer to it as “erotic art”?

Laying pipe.

These points have all been argued endlessly, and the debate will likely continue. What strikes me though is the point that porn in some form has always been with us. The Venus of Willendorf, for example, may be a fertility idol, but it’s also porn. What’s more, while it hasn’t always indulged the variety of today’s smorgasbord of fetish, even in ancient times porn was plenty explicit and stepped well outside the boundaries of sexual activity solely directed toward procreation. Our distant ancestors might not have had alien tentacle sex, but they did have Pan copulating with a goat. What’s more, this historical ubiquity held true from the suburbs of Pompeii (buried in 79 CE) to the valleys of the Moche (a South American civilization that flourished ca. 100-800 CE). It’s even popped into religious sites, from the mithuna figures in ancient Hindu temples to the sheela na gigs in twelfth-century Britain. Porn is a cultural universal.

The gang’s all here.

You’re welcome.

More than a cuppa.

I’m not saying this makes porn, or any particular variety of porn, good or bad. I’m just saying it’s always been, and something like it will always be, with us.

Dirty old goat.

14 thoughts on “NSFW: Archeology edition”

  1. My understanding was that erotica has always pushed forward communication, since it’s a form of that. Whether illustrations, books, the net, whatever, that’s usually something which drives people to find it…are these images trademarked as part of the Alex Good Library of Filth?

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  3. I came for the Venuses but I stayed for the questions.

    You bring up some interesting thoughts here. I guess I wonder, too: what is the line separating erotica and porno? And moreover, where there are spiritual elements to ancient erotica, the Big Venuses, Sheelas have been supposed to show an ancient womb cult, etc, and can relate to Kama Sutra, Tantra… can an effective gauge between shock jockeying, left hand pathing or whatever, be established?

    https://spergbox.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/category-venus/

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    • It *is* a complicated question. Usually the word “porn” is used to connote something down-market from art and sleazier, but I just don’t think that’s a distinction that holds up very well in all cases. You’re right that some of the older examples have a sacred aspect, but others are more transgressive (kinky) and fun. Then you get a guy like Robert Crumb. Where do his thick ladies and Big Venuses fit in? I mean, he does seem to worship them, in his own way.

      I don’t get offended by porn (by adults, for adults) so I like to think I look at the subject somewhat objectively in terms of the history of culture and changing tastes. Because like I say, something like it has always been with us since the beginnings, and will be with us till the end of our run.

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