Nude Woman from Willendorf Statue: A Parallel to Baubo

 

Nude Woman from Willendorf 
Paleolithic Age

Immediately, this statue of a nude woman reminded me of the Greek Mythical Goddess Baubo. This is the greyscale photo below.

Baubo from Greece

The Nude Woman is from the Paleolithic age. It is small, only around 4 inches. I believe this is because it was made and given to adolescent, coming of age women. Perhaps even used as a first menstrual gift. I think it embodied the sensual concepts of womanhood, health, and successful procreation.

The artist created a conceptual representation of the female form by deliberately exaggerating the anatomical features. They depicted the subject based on the "idea" of the feminine rather than how "she" appears realistically. I think this is for a couple reasons. One: a tribe mentality. In contrast to later years, there weren't any aristocrats, governing groups, or wealthy people who wanted images in their likeness yet. That is one reason why there is no emphasis on a face. It's meant for the whole of the tribal women. No one thought they were that important or noble on their own to have something physical made in their likeness- something that would be around long after they had passed. Everything during the Paleolithic age had survival of the tribe at its core essence. Thus, the continuing of humanity. 

My second thought I had was, "This is before the domestication of women and repressed female sexuality." (How we have it all wrong now...but I digress). Maybe females were upset when their boobs started to grow and hormones started raging. This statue may have been passed from woman to woman down the linage of the tribe. Like an initiation into womanhood gift. There's one thing for certain, this object had a direct connection to childbirth and survival. The Paleolithic Age's survival depended on successful reproduction.

I brought up Baubo earlier, and I just want to explain who she is and draw a potential parallel. Baubo's eyes are her nipples and her vulva is her mouth. She's known for playful obscenity and making Demeter laugh when she was in a deep grief. It's like the pure belly laugh from a woman who is obscene and hilarious. I'm sure we've all felt this before when we're with our closest female companions. Laughing about the most ridiculous, borderline embarrassing things. Things out of earshot of other company and especially safely guarded away from any males. Baubo was the Goddess of this sacred, unhinged joking and laughter. Baubo represents the healing, humorous aspect of a woman's life that remains pure and untouched by what society thinks, because it's reserved for private female companionship.

Although Baubo came way after the Nude Woman, maybe the tribe made it as something humorous to laugh about together. We always talk about how we inherited our fear response from early humans. We picture them constantly afraid, dumping cortisol and adrenaline to stay alive. Running from sabertooth tigers. But what's more important to consider is how did we make ourselves laugh back then? I'm sure without all the cultural restraints and learned-shame we have today, the Paleolithic humans laughed at everything and were always finding ways to make each other laugh, even if it was obscene. Especially if it was obscene. Maybe there was a woman in the village who had big boobs and wanted sex all the time and the artist created this and said, "That's you" with a straight face in front of the whole tribe. Then she and everyone roared with laughter for months to come. Maybe this statue was a good pick-me-up joke even when they're hiding in a cave trying to evade a predator. Perhaps while crouching behind the men who were keeping look-out, the women would make gestures of big boobs and point to the woman referencing their inside joke. The men would motion for them to keep it down, and the women would be squeaking and snorting trying not to laugh. This is the version of the Nude Woman I can emotionally relate to most.