The Discovery of Sex j 2525 25
The Magdalenian Transition in Iconography:
A Sexual Revolution?
During the Aurignacian and the Gravettian periods, cave paintings and portable art objects
focused mainly on animals, especially large ones that formed an important element in the
diet. Humans were rarely represented, and when they were it was usually women rather
than men. Although some of the Venus figurines appear to be pregnant, and vulva symbols
are widespread, there are very few comparable male images or phallic symbols dating to this
early period. Nor have any depictions of either copulation or childbirth surfaced from the
Aurignacian and the Gravettian periods. From this we can infer that although reproduc-
tion was an important artistic element, it was regarded primarily as a female function.
Beginning with the Magdalenian period, there is a significant increase in the frequency
of male iconography, as well as the first plausible depictions of copulation and childbirth.
Angulo Cuesta and Garcia Diez have cited this artistic shift during the Magdalenian as
evidence for a sexual revolution in which eroticism, as opposed to mere reproduction, was
emphasized:The earliest images related almost exclusively to reproduction, whereas others express
a more actual view of sexual relations and sexuality, tied not only to reproduction but
also to enjoyment, pleasure and sexual attraction.^34The authors point to the increase in male iconography and possible representations of
copulation, bestiality, and masturbation during the Magdalenian as signs that sexual atti-
tudes and practices had become more like those modern society:From the Magdalenian period (16,000– 10,000 bc) onward, the artistic evidence pro-
vides expressive and narrative images of sex as reproduction, pleasure and probably
play. They undoubtedly reflect a varied sex life. Sensual love and sexual appetite are
innate to humanity. It could be said that their sexual practices were, at least since this
time, similar to our own.^35If the sexual repertoire of people did indeed expand during the Magdalenian, why at
this particular time? Humans had tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of years prior to the
Magdalenian to explore their sexuality. The notion that a range of previously unknown sex-
ual practices was adopted as late as the Magdalenian seems rather improbable. Another pos-
sibility is that the practices themselves didn’t change, but that social attitudes and artistic
styles changed, allowing artists to represent sexuality more freely and playfully. Yet the ear-
lier images of female nudity, pregnancy, and vulva symbols dating to the Aurignacian and
the Gravettian don’t seem particularly modest. Presumably, puritanical attitudes toward sex
developed much later in human history.
Alternatively, the Magdalenian expansion of sexual iconography to include more phallic
and copulation images might have been prompted by a new awareness of the essential, as
opposed to the facilitative, role of sexual intercourse in procreation. As outlined at the begin-
ning of the chapter, physiological, developmental, and behavioral factors could have delayed
the discovery, given that there is precedent for a lack of understanding about the male role
in procreation among recent hunter- gatherer societies. Perhaps by the Magdalenian period