TRAVELS (and more) WITH CECILIA BRAINARD: Mother Goddess Figures: Food for Thought

Friday, September 9, 2011

Mother Goddess Figures: Food for Thought

I'm taking a class that's looking at ancient statues of Mother Goddesses. I found a picture of the statue of the Venus of Willendorf (with the curly hair) whom we discussed. She was carved during the Paleolithic time, 24,000-22,000 BCE.

The Goddess of Fertility with the lions by her side (Neolithic, 6,000-5,500 BCE), and the other Mother Goddess figure were not discussed in class, but are mother goddess figures as well. (I took the pictures of the Goddess of Fertility and the other Mother Goddess figure in the Museum in Ankara when we visited a few years ago.)

The small figurines of Mother Goddesses are food for thought. Why did ancient sculptors exaggerate the sexual characteristics of these statues?

It's a provocative question, especially when you consider that modern society now places value on extreme thinness.

Why the extremes in beauty ideals - corpulence in ancient times vs the super-thin look now?

I leave these questions for you to answer, dear Readers.

Visit the following site for more information on the subject matter:

http://www.mesacc.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthro2003/legacy/goddess/mothergoddess.html

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard's official website is ceciliabrainarddotcom. She is the award-winning author and editor of 22 books, including When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, Selected Stories, Vigan and Other Stories, and more. She edited Growing Up Filipino 1, 2, & 3, Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and other books.. Her work has been translated into Finnish and Turkish; and many of her stories and articles have been widely anthologized. Cecilia has received many awards, including a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award for her work dealing with Asian American youths, as well as a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District, and the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has lectured and performed at UCLA, USC, University of Connecticut, University of the Philippines, PEN, Shakespeare & Company in Paris, and many others. She has served in the Board of literary arts groups such as PEN, PAWWA (Pacific Asian American Writers West), among others.