Audience Q&A

In this episode, I answer a few questions from a reader. Enjoy the show notes, which are helpful when discussing particular works of art.

1. Who made Venus Figurines, men or women?

Venus figurines of the Mal’ta, near lake Baikal, Russia. Dated 23 kya.

• Historical view (18th century): Men created these figurines as erotic objects.

• Feminist reinterpretations (1970s): Proposed as mother goddess symbols created by women.

• Shift in representation: 95% of human figures in art (40,000–10,000 years ago) depicted women.

• Discussion on why modern art and even pornography typically feature more diverse representations, contrasting ancient trends.

2. Why Would Men Steal Ritual Rites from Women?

• Common historical pattern: Patriarchal societies absorbed or eliminated matriarchal secret societies.

• Global myths: Examples include Taiwan myth (men’s rebellion against women).

• Historical matriarchal elements persisted in traditions, e.g., witches, ancient beer recipes, Hopi women's snake antivenom.

• Bachofen’s theory on predictable matriarchal-to-patriarchal transitions.

• Did the Snake Cult Spread Patriarchally or Matriarchally?

  • Matriarchal origin myth (Djangawal Sisters, Northern Australia).

  • Patriarchal transformations documented in myths, e.g., shortening women's genitals

  • Baime the Sky Father in Eastern Australia

Below see the Great Goddess in North Australia, drawn at the time and place Proto-Australian was first spoken. According to some myths she arrived on a canoe and established law, language, and the initiations associated with Dreamtime myths.

Compare this depiction to Baiame in Eastern Australia, where a sky father is worshipped. He is drawn in the same pose and x-ray style.

Traditional 19th Century recording of the Baiame cave painting

Okay, one more. If you click the link to x-ray style art wiki uses this as the image par excellence:

This is a male Dreamtime figure, once again from the North. The similarities to Baiame are well established. However, in the East, the Sky Father dominates; there is no Great Goddess. Perhaps the snake cult was already male-dominated by the time it spread there. Or perhaps it spread as a matriarchy but the coup was more complete in some areas.

3. How does that square with the central role of women at Eleusis?

• Eve demoted from goddess but still called the "Mother of All Living," in a patriarchal polemic. In the mundane sphere, matrilineal descent for membership as a Jew.

• Bachofen’s analysis of early Greek legal documents and cemeteries.

4. Did Snake Venom Catalyze Mammalian Evolution?

• Paper: "Monkeying Around with Venom" demonstrates evolutionary adaptation to snake venom, notably in humans and great apes. PBS Eons has a great explainer on YouTube.

• Venom primarily led to physiological (paralysis resistance) adaptations rather than cognitive ones.

• Other animals are not on the cusp of recursion.

5. Is "I" a meme which serves as input/output of a separate, general recursive function or the function itself? If the former, when and how did it evolve?

• "I" likely a subset, not the first instance, of recursive thought.

• Snake cult possibly spread "I" concept globally around 15,000 years ago.

• Evidence from myths coincides with symbolic thought and self-awareness emerging around 10,000 years ago (Genesis, Dreamtime, Nuwa & Fuxi myths).

6. Personal Impact of Memetics on Spirituality

• - Initially agnostic/atheist, theory remains compatible with materialism.

• - Shifted toward idealism influenced by revisiting the New Testament, especially John’s Gospel.