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