Among the many mysteries in Paleolithic art are the chubby little femalefigures first named by French researchers as “Venus” figures. Their purpose/uses are unknown but among the questions is the obesity or chubbiness displayed by so many of them. These figures, primarily figurines although they include a painted figure and a bas-relief, have been found from Italy through France and Germany to Russia. So why are the figures predominately portly with a few shown as extremely obese?
Now a new study has tackled that question with a clever approach. They measured figurines and cave art and calculated in the distance from the glacial front at the time of their creation. “Figurines of woman with obesity or who are pregnant (“Venus figurines”) from Upper Paleolithic Europe rank among the earliest art and endured from 38,000 to 14,000 BP (before present), one of the most arduous climatic periods in human history. We propose that the Venus representation relates to human adaptation to climate change. During this period, humans faced advancing glaciers and falling temperatures that led to nutritional stress, regional extinctions, and a reduction in the population. We analyzed Paleolithic figurines of women with obesity to test whether the more obese figurines are from sites during the height of the glacial advance and closer to the glacial fronts. Figurines are less obese as distance from the glaciers increases. Because survival required sufficient nutrition for child-bearing women, we hypothesize that the overnourished woman became an ideal symbol of survival and beauty during episodes of starvation and climate change in Paleolithic Europe.” (Johnson et al. 2020)
The results of this analysis seem to confirm a theory published in 2014 in the journal Endocrinology. “We propose here that the ability to thermoregulate in extreme heat or cold afforded powerful survival advantages and therefore commanded much higher selection coefficients than those for thrifty genes, which purportedly provided merely a slight fecundity advantage. Moreover, to reproduce you must survive. Survival advantages must therefore supersede fertility advantages. Genes that were essential to survival, particularly in newborn or young children, such as those that control thermoregulation would be of greater importance than thrifty genes because they would allow an individual to survive to reach reproductive age.” (Sellayah et al. 2014)
In other words, the closer to the glacier front the more obese the female portrayals in cave art and figurines. This would seem to provide a survival advantage in two ways. One, the extra adipose tissue could be drawn on for nutrition at times of nutritional stress, and two, extra body fat provides extra insulation against the cold. Additionally, with these reserves a woman would be more reliably fertile and so would insure a next generation for the clan, and just might pass this trait to obesity on genetically to her offspring. This suggests that such a woman would be highly regarded within the group and looked up to by others.
The attitude of a group toward the “ideal” figure is heavily influenced by the examples of persons in the upper echelons of society.
“An important cultural question is, ‘what is a ‘good’ - desirable, beautiful, impressive - body?’ The answers are legion; here I examine why bigger bodies represent survival skill, and how this power symbolism is embodied by behaviors that guide larger persons toward the top of the social hierarchy. Bigness is a complex concept comprising tallness, boniness, muscularity and fattiness. Data show that most people worldwide want to be big - both tall and fat. Those who achieve the ideal are disproportionately among the society’s most socially powerful.” (Cassidy 1991)
"Venus" of Dolni Vestonice, Czech Republic. Ceramic, ca. 29,000 - 25,000 BCE, one of the oldest known ceramic articles. Internet photo, Wikipedia, Public Domain.
The concept of large bodoy mass being considered desirable is not foreign to history. In the reports of western explorers of the 17 and 18th centuries we read of the Polynesian ideal of beauty involving considerable body mass and gives us a tangible example of the concept in action. Writing about the native Hawaiian race in 1917 MacCaughey stated: “Many of the chiefs and women of their families have been remarkable, not only for their height, but also for their weight. Four hundred pounds was formerly not unusual for one of this favored class, and three hundred pounds was the prevalent weight among the nobility. This corpulence was much more common among the women than the men.” (MacCaughey 1917:169)
As far as the question of the likelihood of reproduction, it is well known that being underweight for a woman severely effects her fertility. “If you’re underweight and have too little body fat, you may have too little progesterone and higher than normal levels of the stress hormone cortisol, either of which could impair ovulation and implantation. ‘If you underweight, your body sensed this as stress and shuts off the reproductive system to focus on things that are essential to survival.’” (Colin 2020)
"Venus of Polichenelle", carved green steatite, 61mm high, ca. 27,000 BP, Grimaldi, Italy. Internet photo, Wikipedia, Public Domain.
While it is true that being obese can also affect a woman’s hormones and interfere with reproduction, all in all it seems that being somewhat overweight must have been seen in the Paleolithic society as more attractive, and more likely to bear children. While this new study (Johnson et al. 2020) can not help settle whether these “Venus” figurines are objects of devotion or pornography, it does help us understand the social background that led to their creation.
NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Cassidy, C. M., 1991, The Good Body: When Big is Better, Medical Anthropology 13(3),Sept. 1991, pp.181-213
Colin, Stacey, 2020 How Body Weight and Body Mass Index (BMI) Affect A Woman’s Fertility and Ability to Conceive, February 24, 2020, https://www.everdayhealth.com/fertility/body-weight-bmi/
Johnson, Richard J., Miguel A. Lanaspa, John W. Fox, 2020, Upper Paleolithic Figurines Showing Women with Obesity May Represent Survival Symbols of Climatic Change, December 1, 2020, Obesity, Journal of the Obesity Society, https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.23028
MacCaughey, Vaughan, 1917 The Physique of the Ancient Hawaiians, Scientific Monthly, August 1917, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 166-174, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/22645
Sellayah, Dyan, Felino R Cagampang, Roger D. Cox, 2014, On the Evolutionary Origins of Obesity: A New Hypothesis, May 1, 2014, Endocrinology, Vol. 155, Issue 5, p. 1573-1588
Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venue_figurine
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