From Vectors of Mind - images at original.

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?#

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*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.

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

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.

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*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:

*[Image: Visual content from original post]*

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?#

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.

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