Audience Q&A

Originally published by Vectors of Mind.

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? #

• 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.

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.