One thing you may not know about the peoples of the pre-Columbian Andean region: they were fond of making pottery with exaggerated penises. These were often pipes or water vessels and forced the user to place his or her mouth on the gigantic penis. Images can be found here, here, here and here.
I like these because they remind students that sexual humor (making pottery that forces someone to drink out of a penis, for instance) is not even close to being a modern invention. I’m sure there are lots of other interpretations–that this actually shows an obsession with the penis than indicates a patriarchal culture, that it was part of a cult of warrior potency, and so on–but I bet there was also a level of joking going on too.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 3
Sociological Images » japanese penis festival — May 21, 2008
[...] « Incan penis pottery [...]
Village Idiot — May 22, 2008
These might just be stones that lacked the details that many, many others possessed from that region until the missionaries destroyed most of them. The rest (not pictured above) are clearly not penises, but depict the most important aspect of their spiritual lives, something the missionaries would have wanted to destroy even more fervently than phallic symbols. After all, the indigenous peoples called their little friends "flesh of the gods," which competed with the missionaries' own little monotheistic miracle crackers.
Decide for yourselves:
http://www.dhushara.com/book/wass/wasson3.htm
http://www.travellersgarden.com/productinfo.php?category=8&subcategory=0&productmain=822
Cecil — September 27, 2008
In an exhibit of Pre-Columbian art at one of Cornell's museums there was a figure of a man masturbating, since it was believed that male masturbation would bring you closer to God (the orgasm?).